Process of cooling down!

Hmm! I am getting addicted to naughty Stewie and the Zen faced Brian. Check this out, yeah! Brian is right, alcohol is not a solution for depression or anger there are many other ways, so what did I do to feel better this weekend?

Spoke to 10 of my friends from Bangalore (who needs counselors when you have loving friends to listen to you) and 6 of my family members, especially with my little niece, nephew and cousins in Madurai. (Thanks to skype)

Treated myself with big and elaborate Indian lunch and dinner (thanks to this amazing 'menu today ' blog with many different south Indian recipes). I have never cooked so many dishes for myself so far, I will gain few pounds for sure…but who cares. When I have tips and tricks to lose 23 kgs, I can mange with this few pounds.

well..here is one tip for weight loss..Drink lot of tea and water(upto 3 litrs) especially oolong, some teas are recommended in Zen meditation, they have calming effect it seems. Tieguanyin, works well for me. It also shown to increase the metabolism and hence I need it during my obsessive eating.

And then two hours of meditation with my Paris meditation group. Believe me, long-term mediators can calm you down with their calm aura and eyes.

Ok..let me get back to my article writing, deadline is very close by!

A river receives everything…

Thanks to the anonymous comment on “one step?”, I was thinking a lot about it, once upon a time in Bangalore, my circle of friends at work was with ‘very different type’ people, but why now the differences are scaring me? I feel, I created myself a “image of self” with all my insecurities and negativities and building walls to protect this ‘self’, after scaring some of my friends with my negativity and annoying questions, I returned back to my favorite philosopher,JK of an answer, I am started reading him after a looong time, This is the part I liked the most in my recent reading…

A river receives everything…yet it cleanses itself
To sit on the bank of a river and let the waters flow by, to watch the gentle ripples and hear the lapping of the ripples on the bank; to see the wind on the water making patterns; to see the swallows touching the water, the water catching insects; and in the distance, across the water, on the other bank, human voices or a boy playing the flute, of a still evening, quietens all the noise about one. Somehow, the waters seem to purify one, cleanse the dust of yesterday’s memories and give that quality to the mind of its own pureness, as the water in itself is pure. A river receives everything—the sewer, the corpses, the filth of the cities it passes, and yet it cleanses itself within a few miles. It receives everything and remains itself, neither caring nor knowing the pure from impure. It’s only the ponds, the little puddles that are soon contaminated, for they are not living, flowing, as the wide, sweet-smelling flowing rivers. Our minds are small puddles, soon made impure. It’s the little pond, called mind, that judges, weighs, analyzes, and yet remains the little pool of responsibility.

-JK

I feel like this dirty little pond, which needs lots of cleaning, but before that I need some energy, may be an hug from “unconditional love” Dad! I miss you!

in the cycle of life...

Its June 21st , the music festival and yesterday evening I did exactly the same stuff as the previous year , but this year the day was filled with stress. yesterday ! I vacated my beautiful room and left my nice work desk with the view of sky (which contributed to some of my blog pictures last year) , I was asked to move out with a short notice. Now temporarily, I am in a small room, although I freaked out when I saw the my boss’s email, end of the day, I was happy that I moved next to Enric’s office (the one person in my lab who spreads some positive energy with ever smiling face and with his positive attitude) . After work, walked around Paris with friends, almost for three hours hearing some heavy music (sounds) and having some ‘light’ chat ..Hmm! That was enough to get rid of some stress and to gain some patience to wait till October, when I will get my new work desk and a whole new team of people! (Hope the new people can get some positive energy for the lab which me and most of lab mates lack now.)

one step?

What happens when very different types of people get together for finishing a common task? Bit of fun and friction, lots of hard work and one step closer to the goal….

My Name is....

Hai! I am Uma…Uma? What does it mean? It’s a name of an Indian goddess Parvathi; she is goddess of “courage/bravery” and she is considered to be the mother and ultimate source of energy for the universe! Uma Thurman was named after this goddess, (her father was an archaeologist, worked in Asia I guess) that’s the story I was telling all these days to the people, who ask me to explain my name! But guess, what I read about my name today!

Oh! My God! When people call me by name, that’s what they mean? Ok..Let’s forget this! We didn’t see this site nor did we read this! I will stick on to my old stories...

My First...

Yeah! Long silence! This is the reason! Adobe photoshop..Microsoft Power point ..Microsoft word..pdf..ppt..doc files...These stupid guys are just driving me nuts..…just one month to go for the summer vacation….deadline for two article submission ..Hmm! Phd is really not easy..may be I should have believed my friends and family…research may be not my cup of coffee…my confidence level is almost hanging close to zero…..got a small encouragement. my first research article (after joining phd) got published this month. Yeah! Its Anton’s paper, if you carefully search my name among the 27 authors in the below abstract, you will find my name in the 10^th position….

After naming my blog as "Diatomist" I should write something about diatoms right? so here it is...

Journal of Phycology Volume 43 Issue 3 Page 585Issue 3 - 604 - June 2007 Anton Montsant, Andrew E. Allen, Sacha Coesel, Alessandra De Martino, Angela Falciatore, Manuela Mangogna, Magali Siaut, Marc Heijde, Kamel Jabbari, Uma Maheswari, Edda Rayko, Assaf Vardi,Kirk E. Apt, John A. Berges, Anthony Chiovitti, Aubrey K. Davis, Kimberlee Thamatrakoln, Masood Z. Hadi, Todd W. Lane, J. Casey Lippmeier, Diego Martinez, Micaela S. Parker, Gregory J. Pazour, Mak A. Saito, Dan S. Rokhsar, E. Virginia Armbrust, Chris Bowler (2007) Title: Identification and comparative genomic analysis of signaling and regulatory components in the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana Diatoms are unicellular brown algae that likely arose from the endocytobiosis of a red alga into a single-celled heterotroph and that constitute an algal class of major importance in phytoplankton communities around the globe. The first whole-genome sequence from a diatom species, Thalassiosira pseudonana Hasle et Heimdal, was recently reported, and features that are central to diatom physiology and ecology, such as silicon and nitrogen metabolism, iron uptake, and carbon concentration mechanisms, were described. Following this initial study, the basic cellular systems controlling cell signaling, gene expression, cytoskeletal structures, and response to stress have been cataloged in an attempt to obtain a global view of the molecular foundations that sustain such an ecologically successful group of organisms. Comparative analysis with several microbial, plant, and metazoan complete genome sequences allowed the identification of putative membrane receptors, signaling proteins, and other components of central interest to diatom ecophysiology and evolution. Thalassiosira pseudonana likely perceives light through a novel phytochrome and several cryptochrome photoreceptors; it may lack the conserved RHO small-GTPase subfamily of cell-polarity regulators, despite undergoing polarized cell-wall synthesis; and it possesses an unusually large number of heat-shock transcription factors, which may indicate the central importance of transcriptional responses to environmental stress. The availability of the complete gene repertoire will permit a detailed biochemical and genetic analysis of how diatoms prosper in aquatic environments and will contribute to the understanding of eukaryotic evolution.

When Animals Attack—and Defend

After seeing some funny civilized fights in Park..its the time for the 'real' one... Incredible struggle for existence and the survival of the ‘weakest’? check out the article in Time

Parc Montsouris...

I locked myself in my apartment for last few days, I told Chris that I will not come to the lab till I finish the first draft of my research article. Now it seems that I will never go back to the lab, I spent last few days like a housewife, cooking, eating, watching a random movie, afternoon nap and evening shopping and stroll in the near by park and few lines of writing…I started liking this life style…! Just sitting in the park, with bird’s background music, wild flowers....Hmm! it’s wonderful! (of course I was correcting my article too..) Have a glimpse of my evening in my favorite park, with my bike, article and very strange people...

Few days back...

Last week the plan was to keep away from blogging and concentrate only on my research article writing, I successfully kept myself away from blogging and did some writing along with some pleasant distractions.

Alcidio, my first friend to buy his own beautiful apartment, that too in Paris, that’s definitely an occasion to party, well… we drank lot of champagne!

Micha, my first friend to work as an associate curator in the Paris’s best modern art museum and last week his team arranged for short movie screening on the theme “war and cinema”, artists from Israel and Lebanon were there to show how they captured the emotions of war. After seeing that, I felt how ignorant we are, we see war ‘as just a piece of information’ through news canals or as mellow drama in feature films. But the reality and its impact on the younger generations is much far from our imagination. After seeing the artist’s presentation, talk and discussion, I felt that the seeds of war are within each one of us and in some places circumstances make it grow wild.