My morning chats

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 , , 3 Comments


After 8 years of being incredibly busy, I recently quit my job and had lots of time in my hand and no clue how to handle it responsibly.

My typical mornings starts with a cup of sugarless coffee and newspaper in my hand. Exactly 30 minutes later, my cousin Sowmi would join me for a chat.  To introduce Sowmi to you, he is a synthetic organic chemist, who did his Ph.d in Synthetic Organic chemistry from IIT Mumbai.  Why am I giving you such an elaborate intro for Sowmi?  Coz from the same family hailed "me" whose nightmare is Chemistry and if someone asks me what an atom is, I would say an atom is a bomb. So, for me Sowmi is God's incarnation, who understood what actually molecules, atoms, compounds and elements are and still has his brain intact.

I still don't understand why copper can't be called CO instead of CU and Iron IR instead of FE;  I used to be confused between the difference of 2H and H2(the two is subscript). My teacher explained 2H is two molecules of Hydrogen and H2 indicates two Hydrogen atoms (still not sure).  I stood confused before a huge green board, and the teacher who was less than 5 feet, loomed before me like Goliath.  She ?guided me to balance an equation.

1. Balance an element that has one reactant and product
2. Once you balance an element, proceed to the next and next until all elements are balanced.
3. Balance the chemical formulas by placing the coefficients in front.
4. Don't add subscripts, as that would change the formula itself.

*Blink* just like when Spike hits Tom's head with a club, and Tom's eye balls, like a fortune wheel circles fast and rest....I understood it's better to leave the equations the way they are and not to mess with them.  It was then I decided to opt for English as my major in college, which later turned out to be a nightmare for my lecturers.  That's another story.

Now back to where I left, listing my conversations with my geek bro.

Day - 1 :

Sowmi:  "Reverend Jim Jones, was a self proclaimed prophet.  He had 1000s of loyal followers, who donated their entire life savings to him to join his commune.  When the authorities smelled illegal activities, investigation began and to avoid facing the charges, Jim Jones committed suicide and convinced all his followers to ingest cyanide and commit suicide.  This led to mass suicide of 909 members out of which 200 were Children."

He didn't stop there, he started to talk about Cyanide and also this conversation led to the death of Napolean Bonaparte by arsenic poisioning and the properities of arsenic.  I cut short and asked the details of Jim jones and mass suicide and I came to know that it happened in the year 1978, when I was 7.  I was in class 3, Mukundh was my best friend. Mukund happened to be our school correspondent's son and because I was the best friend of Mukund's, I was every girl's envy. While I remembered all these details, it's unbelievable that either I forgot or not aware of the Mass suicide that happened at Jonestown.  I was shocked and spent close to 3 hours reading about this mass suicide in net.

By googling:

Here's protoganist/antagonist of our play: Noted for his charismatic leadership, he had fake healing episodes during his sermons and his followers include high political figures.



Remember it's not a natural disaster, self inflicted disaster:



Notes left by the followers of the cult:



Day 2:

Sowmi:  I had worked for pharma, cosmetics, flavour, fragrance industries and though the platform was different, I am a chemist and I have to invent a flavour, fragrance or a drug once in two weeks and was able to invent it.  Pretty interesting job and it doesn't end there, there were several tests that were conducted before it came to market. There was a unit, whose prime target is to breed thousands and thousands of rats. 
Viji aside: (Imagine this, people were paid to breed rat... their job is to make rat eat, grow, mate, give birth.)
Viji aloud: But, the animal welfare; don't they object to this cruelty to animals?
Sowmi: We administer these tests on animals for human welfare and it has to be conducted. It doesn't end with Rat, it's also conducted on Rabbits later Monkeys. 
Viji: The animals were left to die?
Sowmi: Yes, ofcourse.  When I worked for a pharma industry, I used to work on drugs that used to treat Diabetes.  We make Rats diabetic and inject newly developed chemical to see the sugar level.  If the sugar level drops down in the rat, it is the candidate for next level. After the tests the rat is destroyed eitherways.
Viji: Now, I know what "lab rat" means.

Day 3:

Sowmi: Women are known for their ambient vision.
Viji: Ambient? appadina?
Sowmi: Peripheral vision.  If you sit inside a dark room alone,  if there is a lizard that crawls on the wall behind you, don't you turn and look at the direction of the lizard?
Viji: Yes. (I nodded, now, I am interested.. Liz and Cockroaches interests me; I had spent 10 to 15 minutes in toilet gazing at Cockroaches.  I am fine as long as they don't fly.  You know, Cockroaches turn white in colour, when they molt).  What you are trying to say is women have the peripheral vision, while men don't?
Sowmi:  Both of them have.  But, women have wider and better peripheral vision.  For example, in a roomful of people, if someone stare at a woman, she will feel it and train her eyes in the direction of the person who stares at her.  They can spot an approaching danger or notice changes in the people behaviour and appearances, while men have a narrow range of vision.  

Day 4 and 5 didn't happen, as I fell sick and my ambient vision overworked and I ended up hallucinating and worked overtime for the hospital I used to work 15 years back and for the organisation I worked until a week back.  It was nightmarish, doing both the jobs at the same time.

If you want to blame someone for this post or planning to sue me, I am not responsible.  Please sue the TN government for cutting electricity for two hours everyday.  Why the hell, I should be the only person to suffer?

Viji

Some say he’s half man half fish, others say he’s more of a seventy/thirty split. Either way he’s a fishy bastard. Google

3 Candles:

this is the post i managed to read, but was not able to comment..


Take Care.. take a break and start back again.. its like you have been busy all throughout your life.. suddenly this lull, will b a moment of joy and frustration

Viji said...

"Managed".... I still wonder how you managed, with that firewall at off. Thanks for your comment.. No frustration, plain sinful enjoyment :)

now hush.. dont(hee hee).. when these have a way to block.. we have a own way..

the thing, i couldnt comment..also speaking the truth.. i hardly go to blogs. the only 2 blogs that i go is urs and this little baby's http://mylittlenavya.blogspot.in/

seeing her makes me happy... nothing else.. i used to see her pictures daily

wisdom comes with experience

At one, I learnt crawling was fun. At forty one, I still feel crawling is fun #blamemykneesnotme