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From D/O to W/O.

And she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night. The sudden anxiousness and terror was in the air surrounding her. Not very late that ...

Friday 22 November 2013

MODELLING OF STOMACH AS BIOREACTOR - Choose Focus Analyze



This is one of the best things I did during my first two years. In my 2nd year, I had to do a course "Transport Processes and Unit Operations" under Dr. G. K. Suraish Kumar. The course name and structure seemed to be quite boring to me initially. But, the professor changed to view of the course entirely by this exercise "Choose-Focus-Analyze". He says that this develops the creativity, rational choice, focus, analysis and others in students taking this course. Well, it is very true. In this, we had to choose a biological system of interest and analyze it using Transport Phenomena concepts. All of us worked so hard for it, read many research articles and banged our heads for innovative ideas. And most of them came up with really amazing applications. This sure changed the way we appreciate the course material. This is the video demo of the model we choose. Professors like this sure make your life simpler and lovable.

Friday 23 August 2013

Trip to Pondicherry!!

The whole idea started in our 4th semester itself. After our incredible trip to Mahabalipuram, many of us had plans for our 4th semester but apparently none of them worked. Our plan to pondicherry was finally executed this semester. Though the turnout number was less, we finally geared up to PONDY! We started our journey at 4am in a MINI VAN. The place is around 160 km from Chennai. 
Away from the hustle and bustle of big cities, Pondicherry is a quiet and peaceful town.The intrinsic beauty of Pondy is conspicuous in the oldest part of the town which flanks the seachore boulevard. 




Colonial buildings, line along a grid of straight clean streets and house the French institutions, and private homes. The famous "Sri Aurobindo Ashram" is located in the same area. The visitor is greeted by the ornate garden with splashy flowers and fruits. 



We then visited "Arulmigu Manakula Vinayagar Temple" which is located next to aurobindo ashram. It is dedicated to Lord Ganesha and is a very interesting Modern Temple one must see. It has an amazing collection of Ganesha idols of different kinds from all over the world. The silver and gold chariots were beautifully crafted. The temple premises had many shops where we could get souvenirs. 



The peaceful ashram and Temple visit made us energetic. Gearing up to have more fun, we reached "Paradise Beach". It is a beautiful island and the visit started with a wonderful boat ride, clean water, beautiful and serene beach. The beach palm trees and huts makes it more interesting. We played in the shallow and beautiful beach for around 2 hours. It was EPIC! Insane FUN! Unlike other beaches in India, this has changing rooms and showers. A place to throw away all your sorrows and enjoy with your friends and family. Truly a 'Paradise'.  




We had lunch in 'Cafe Xtasi'. Believe me, we put a lot of fight to eat there, but were disappointed with the food :( We also visited "Auroville", an experimental township in Villuppuram district.

Though we didn't have much time to explore it, we visited "Guest house" and checked out the dazzling "Matrimandir", a golden metallic sphere in the centre of the town (from distant) :P. Matrimandir is equipped with a solar panel. After sunset, the sunrays on the globe is replaced by a beam of solar powered lights. 
On the whole, it is a place which captivates all kinds of tourists. Place to visit to take the pace of life down a few notches!

Saturday 3 August 2013

Coz it is FRIENDSHIP DAY!


Friend.. Different people have different quotes, sayings and meanings about this word. Friends are like stars. We can’t see them all the time but we know that they are always there with us.. The distance is not measured by miles but by the heart!


This begins in our schooling.. school friends!? continues with college.. college friends!? work.. friends!? friends everywhere!. Friendship day bands.. those outings.. stupid arguments.. long talks.. mischievous actss.. all these memories stay with us as we grow older. We are all busy with our own lifes, but.. today, all of a sudden 'that awesome feeling' to be with friends.. talking to old friends.. wishes surprises. hmm.. really excited!! We tease each other, knockdown and irritate each other, still we are always together. We are stupid, weird, we laugh at randomest things (all the inside jokes), we know each other's ugly sides.. we sometimes are soo crazy that people might feel we are high! :P We are similar people always together with different paths.. But when the going gets tough, we are always there for each other, to make sure that our precious star is always happy!.

Ultimately, "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves"..

Found this image on facebook today. Isn't this true? :P


Happy Friendship Day all!

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Project Presentation at CDFD

I was recently asked to give a presentation, work report of my IAS Fellowship at CDFD. The signs of the presentation started off raising my excitement and tension to peaks followed by cramming many research papers and textbooks. I do have a lot of experience giving presentations, but never gave a proper project presentation, but, the thought of presenting in front of Research Scientists and PhD's stressed me out. I took help from my PhD guide and was finally ready for presentation before 5 days.

1st slide of my presentation

I spent my day before the presentation day (24th June) watching movies and my favorite tv show F.R.I.E.N.D.S just trying to cool down but still the situation was terrible! All my friends were jam-packed reading papers and googling. They were surprised to see me peacing out. In the night at around 9pm I called Soumya, my PhD guide, asking her what else to do and she asked me to sleep :P
So, ultimately nothing did I do on sunday. Monday morning was so terrible. I ran to lab and uploaded my presentation. Then at 11am, it was my turn to present.

Huff, it went really well. My prof was very happy with my pertinent answers. It was an awesome experience. Frankly speaking, I actually understood more about my project while preparing for presentation. Presenting in the field of research and that too in front of high-fi people. Feel!
Hmm.. Fascinating! :D

Monday 27 May 2013

Success!

I found this very appealing and wanted to share it.
There can be many ways to reach your goal. But unless and until you are determined to work hard, you can never achieve it.





                             This is one of my favourite quotes:   
                                                                    "Arise!
                                                                      Awake!
                                                                      And
                                                                      Stop Not
                                                                      Till
                                                                      The
                                                                      Goal
                                                                      Is
                                                                      Reached!"  - Swami Vivekananda.

Halloween Day!

TRICK OR TREAT :D


Halloween, also known as All Hallow's Eve, is a yearly celebration in many countries on October 31. It is the day before 'All Saint's Day' and is a Christianised feast originally influenced by western European harvest festivals and the day initiating the triduum of Hallowmas.



We celebrated Halloween night in our hostel during my second year. Till then I had absolutely no idea about halloween, so I badly wanted to take part and know about it. But I never expected me to become halloween :P . There was a notice about halloween costume competition and then me and my friend decided to take part. Our friends were very supportive and wanted to be the costume designers and do makeup ( actually to destroy my face :/ )

We then started to think about clothing and makeup and came up with spooky ideas. Used a chart to prepare a witch hat! ;) O my god! I was very ghostly :| .We had to scare people with our expressions and moves. And yeah we did that :P it was fun! :D


There were many other halloween games that night in which I could not take part because of the costume. Finally me(The Scary Witch) and my friend (Zombie Bride) won 1st prize for 'Halloween Trick or Treat'. 

Great job Friends! Had a nice experience... "My first Halloween party" :D

Wednesday 22 May 2013

MAHABS TOUR!

A Beautiful Memory!

It is said that 'There is nothing better than surrounded by good friends'.
But, until you don't understand each other you can't make good friends. Most of the people do not give time to think about people on the other side. 
Well, I am very lucky about it. I am in a batch ( BT Dept, second years) which is very cheerful, loving, loyal, brilliant, and the list goes on.......

                                             Second year Biotechnology students(My class mates) of IITM are pretty well known for their intelligence, unity, their enthusiasm in co curricular and extra curricular activites and department spirit!

In our third semester, bored of being in chennai we planned to go out on a tour. Then we started looking for places near by and finally decided to go to MAHABALIPURAM as we had just one day free.
We booked a bus and around 35 of us went to Mahabs that day.

The journey was very fun. We had 'ANTHYAKSHARI' and dance competitions during our bus journey. 
We had two teams "THE SOUTHIES" vs "THE NORTHIES" with a blend of hindi, telugu, tamil and kannada music and songs, it was incredible! 


 We checked out every possible place, climbed rocks,mountains yeah, we did get injured :P But being with such awesome people and in an awesome location will never let you feel sad for those injuries.

We took small breaks in the middle and relaxed for a while.
 We were the guide and we the tourist! It was our day! :D
Travelling through the places, we learned a lot about our history, recap everything we studied in our childhood. 

We did face times when we didn't have even a single clue about the history of few monuments. So what? Comeon dude, we are students, we had our own stories :P

My Indian Arts prof taught us about 'Mahabalipuram' and 'Pancha Rathas' the day before our tour.

I was very glad to check out those places and share those things with my fellow mates.


We also met 'The Parrot-Fortune teller'. :P

In the evening, we all went to the beach and played 'footer' and other games. Later, we had infinite fun in water.


Me and my friend almost tortured our other friends :P We were carried by water in and out, and my classmates had to run into the sea to catch hold of us. There were 5 people surrounding both of us 'guarding' ;)



Ultimately it was "our day" and bonds between us got even stronger. It was an 'exhilarating' journey!

This is such a  Happy Pic!

It was the very first time that the whole department came forward to hang out together.
I am happy that I acquire the "amazing" friends! These people are "terrific".

Tuesday 21 May 2013

SUMMER BREAK!

New plans, new hopes :D

I am very delighted to know that I have been selected for the prestigious IAS Fellowship-2013 and will be interning at Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad for two months (20thmay  – 21st july).


CDFD, HYDERABAD
           IAS Fellowship is one of the reputed summer research fellowship programs in India. The three national science academies offer several two month Summer fellowships to enable students/teachers to work with scientists associated with three academies.    
           
            The selection criteria for this fellowship is based on write-up, cgpa and a recommendation letter from a prof. Though my writeup was about Bacterial Genetics, my work is going to be about Plant Pathology. (Yeah, I know it’s very sad)

I will be working under Dr.Madhusudan Reddy in DNA Finger printing lab, whose research work is on "Genomics and Profiling Applications". My project is related to plant pathology.

I generally detest any academic stuff related to plants. But, I had absolutely nothing to do about it :/ except for showing some enthusiasm towards the subject and learning more about it. This was my job prior to joining in the lab :P now I can work peacefully :)
The best part is that I get to know about Forensic work :D Yaay! B)
This is the team i will be working with!
 DNA FINGERPRINTING LAB


I was desperately waiting for this day to step into the lab and take a look at the cultures of "Colletotrichum Capsici"


I am alloted a single room in a triple bedroom flat along with other Msc students. I became friends with all PhD's in my lab. These people are so fun! They always remind me of my friends whom I am already missing. But it's amazing here.


Hoping that my stay here would enhance my knowledge and introduce me to new horizons of Science and Technology.


Happy Summer :)