Patty Fairfield-review

When I am bored out of my wits in the office-there are many such occasions-I try to read book. The Project Gutenberg is a wonderful place to browse through. They have, for example, almost the entire collection of Angela Brazil. She wrote schoolgirl books which were as bad as Elinor Brent-Dyer's books. Enid Blyton's Malory Towers and St. Claire's were way superior to the tripe that these two turned out.
However, Project Gutenberg collection is huge and difficult to browse in entirety. There is a wonderful blog called Redeeming Qualities that I read to get pointers about which books might be worth reading. It is thanks to this blog that I  have read the delightful Patricia Brent-Spinster and Melting of Molly and other lovely books-books that make you laugh and feel wonderful and sunshiny (Not the blazing heat of May but the gentle sunshine of February).
Today while I was waiting for my student to edit her paper I decided to read Patty Fairfield books by Carolyn Wells. There are 17 books in this series and I started with the first one- Patty Fairfield. As plots go there is none.  Patty is a 14 year old girl who lives with her father in Virginia. She has 4 aunts living up North and her father sends her to visit each one of them for a 3 month period. At the end of the year her father plans to sell his business and move back North. Patty visits each of the aunt in turn and learns about proportion in life. The first aunt is all about money and does not care about anything. The second aunt is all about literary life while the third aunt is all harum-scarum so that nothing gets done properly. The fourth aunt is, however, all about correct proportions and so Patty learns at the end of the year that in life one should have a sense of proportion. The book is sort of like Goldilocks and three bears. It was a fun read, something that drove the boredom away.  My student has not still edited the paper so maybe I will dip into the other books in the series.
One thing that stood out when I read the book and then thought about all the other girls books I have read written at the turn of last century was the emphasis that these books placed on the idea of womanhood. The girls were sent to school and there was emphasis on sports but the idea was that the girl should grow up to be healthy and well-versed in all the household activities. Even if she earned her living like Anne of Green Gables does, at the end of it she has to get married and have a family and take care of them.  So the school in a sense is the training ground for the girl to acquire all these traits. In fact it is a theme that recurs even in Enid Blyton. Miss Grayling, the headmistress of Malory Towers, tells this to the girls on the day they join the school.
It is very fascinating to read it in today's time. I wonder what I would have done.

Showing respect

I had planned to write about LPG subsidy but then I saw the horrific headline about a boy's hand was chopped off because he did not show respect and changed my mind. So today I want to address this aspect of showing respect.
The incident I am talking about happened in Tamilnadu where the panchayat head's husband felt insulted that the boy did not stand up when he walked past and as a punishment chopped off the boy's hands. The boy is just 17 years old.
I have never understood this aspect of showing respect. I get very irritated when students try to touch my feet. I always stop them. I thought we should show respect only to God. At least that is what my parents taught us.  Oh, we were asked to do our namasakarams to the elders but they really had to be old. I do not remember, as a child, ever doing namaskaram to any of my mamas and mamis. My parents did it but they did not ask us and we did not do it. We do not even do namaskaram to my parents!
The thing is that one cannot demand respect. Respect has to be gained. This is a point we often miss out. Instead showing respect is all about ego and hierarchy. I am older than you and therefore you should touch my feet, never mind you might be cursing me in your heart and behind my back. And if you do not show me "respect" I will be so hurt that I will harm in the worst possible way. Or as the Hindi proverb says it Nani Yaad dila denge. There you go!
This showing respect aspect, I believe, has stopped us from questioning the elders. In the scientific community I see it all the time. We will not question the senior scientists however wrong they might be. I won't critique them. Instead I will bow down meekly so that their ego is massaged and they feel they are respected. I will do this because I know the punishment is going to be harsh. My grants will be stopped, my promotion will be stopped, my career will be braked.
Then we grumble and moan that science is lagging behind. How can it progress when we don't allow our students to question. My data might be correct but my interpretation might be wrong. Shouldn't some one point that out? Why should I feel especially hurt if it is someone junior than me? Maybe he/she has seen something that I have missed out. The bottom line is that we can only progress if we question.
This is whole thing about showing respect and not questioning is so antithetical to what the Upanishads propound. I bring up Upanishads deliberately because that is another thing we are so fond of- Every written word is so scared that it cannot questioned and our traditions are so great! 
The entire Upanishads is in the form of question and answer. So tell me why we can't be free to question? Why do we have to constantly show respect to elders?

Palak Dal

Yesterday I cut the first spinach crop. I planted it in June and went to Chennai for a break. When I came back all the saplings had dried up. Nanku Ram said that the heat had been too much for it and we will now have to wait for the rains before attempting anything more on this front. But when the first rain came the plants too sprang back into life. A fact we discovered while weeding that area. Here they are after the rains:

And my first batch harvested and washed:

Nanku  Ram told me to put it in the dal. So I made palak dal today using toovar dal. I got the recipe from Hare Rama Hare Krsna cook book. It called for tomatoes but I eliminated it.  I just did a tadka with cumin seeds and sambar powder. Finally I added some lemon juice. The recipe does not call for sambar powder but I told you I improvise depending on my mood.
Meantime, we uprooted the bhindi plants after harvesting the last crop. I thought I would never say it but I do not want to see bhindi for some time.

Toilets for all

I do not listen to speeches on Independence Day or Republic Day. They are too boring too nonsensical. But today I decided to listen to Mr. Modi. There has been lot of curiosity around him. What kind of speech would he make? Will he announce policy decisions? Will he speak in Hindi or English? Will it be extempore?
There were two points I liked. One was on women safety. He was right in asking whether  the parents ever dare to put the same kind of fetters around the son that they so blithely put around their daughters. They ask the daughter where she is going, what she is doing but do they ever dare to ask their son the same questions.
The other issue is about the toilets.  I really feel sorry for the women who do not have access to toilets. I had to face it only once in my life. I had gone for a site visit to villages around Kushinagar. The people who took me said that we will stay there overnight. Then, little diffidently, they said that it would be difficult for me because the toilets will not be up to my standard. It was only later that night I realized that there were no toilets. It was a big house. There were daughters in the house. There was a minimal toilet which no one used in the night. Actually, it was used only for emergency. I was not an emergency and I had to do what others did. It was an experience that I hope I never have to repeat.
As we went around Kushinagar that evening, I saw women going towards the field as soon as darkness fell. That was their private time when they could be sure that no man would see them 'go'. Worse, most women do not drink water through the day to avoid going to toilet. The end result, is as the PM said, they have so many diseases. Primary amongst them is the kidney stone for which they have no cure.  The only way to get rid of kidney stones is to drink water which they cannot.
The worst time for them is when they have their periods. Further, one of the major cause of girls dropping out of school is because of lack of toilets.
So I applaud the PM when he says that he wants to see toilets built in every school and he invites the corporates to participate in this process through their CSR funds.
But I want to tell the PM that building toilets is not sufficient. What you need is to also educate the people on two matters: one is on how to use it and second, that it is not unclean to clean the toilet ourselves.
I know many NGOs who work on education sector, including Asha for Education, cannot fund building toilets. But can they take up the other two tasks?

Flowers from my garden

Need I say more?

Let us throw the bath and the bath water and the baby out

Apparently the honorable MPs raised the issue of four year undergraduate program in the Parliament. Smriti Irani has responded by saying that UGC has issued notice to IISc regarding its four year undergraduate program. I read about it in Abi's blog Nanopolitan. I suppose we should have anticipated this but... After all we are great believer's in one size fits all.  The IISc program is quite different from DU FYUP though the problem remains what do these students do after 4 years of B.S program. I guess most of them will end up going abroad.
The DU FYUP ended up being the confused program ever envisaged and executed. The VC and I suppose the then HRD minister were unsure what they wanted. If they wanted the American system then the students would have the freedom to choose their major and minor subjects after two years of college. Instead in FYUP, you had to declare the major and minor subject right at the start which implies there is no freedom.  The second point that led to its demise was its failure to take the stake holders along. Truthfully I feel sorry for the VC for in a system as vast as the DU it is difficult to get everyone on board. Frankly, most of the University/college teachers work under horrendous conditions and there is no motivation. Even if they had been passionate about teaching few years down the road they lose that. Many of them of course have no passion to begin with. Under this circumstances they are happy to plod along as ever. When faced with FYUP which was being thrust down on them they objected. And the present government obliged.
However, to throw all the four year programs out without even analyzing and asking whether we need to rejig our education system is plain stupid.
We, of course, do not teach undergrads but our post-grads are usually DU products. When FYUP was introduced, our anxiety was about our catchment area. Who will come to our M.Sc and Ph.D. programs.  I had a chance to ask Prof Lakhotia about the FYUP when he came for the 40 years celebration to the School of Life Sciences.  I remember he said that he had been on the committee that had recommended the shift from 3 year to 4 year program. They had introduced all safeguards including recommending 1 year M.S program. Of course in the haste to implement the FYUP, all this was forgotten and what we got was the mess.
And now the extension of it is-- let us throw all the 4 years programs out.
What was UGC doing when it first gave the approval?

As an aside: For the first time, I did not want to teach this year. I have no motivation left after fighting for promotion and other things.

The UPSC row and all that

My student is searching for a place to stay as he has to vacate the hostel after submitting his thesis. I asked him today how is the search coming along. The easiest place, where the students flock, is Munirka. He said he will not be shifting there. He and couple of his batchmates went to search for a place in Munika as they all  need one. The landlord's agent asked my student where he was from. My student said that he was from Manipur. The agent told him that the landlord is not looking to give the room to people from his part of country. His batchmates were ready to pick up the gauntlet (our students are ever ready to fight for equality and justice and I am proud of that) when my student pulled them away. There was no point he told them. He would not shift into a place where he was clearly unwelcome.  Hopefully, he has found a place in Ber Sarai. I hope so.
I am highlighting the episode to talk about how parochial and insular we are. I know that it existed because in the US I have experienced it. There would be an Indian association, and then a Tamil association, a Kerala association,  Marathi association and ad infinitum. But when you experience the racism at such close quarters it is frightening.
Which brings me to the UPSC row. The protesting students want CSAT scrapped because it heavily favour students who know English. I do not understand why we cannot come up with an aptitude test in all languages but that apart it is the government's response that is appalling. English language test, they said will not count for marks. I  am not very clear what will happen to the students from the North East. But my grouse is that most of the protesters are from the Hindi heartland who are very clear that they are not going to  learn any other language. The three language formula actually says  that we all have to learn three languages. It is a good principle but it has been jettisoned in this concept of MY LANGUAGE.
The problem today that we are facing is that we are highly prejudiced, highly racist and do not want to get out of our comfort zone be it in terms of language, religion, or food. I have had students who claim they cannot go to the South because they eat only rice. Go Figure!

Antibiotic resistance in India

Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up cough syrup and few lozenges for my throat. The pharmacist, incidentally the pharmacy is attached to a hospital in Vasant Kunj, gave me Cofdex manufactured by Cipla. Back home I took a dose as recommended and I must say it was good syrup. Within few hours the pain in my throat had eased.  It was at this point I examined the bottle and found Schedule H warning printed on the bottle. Essentially, the pharmacist cannot sell this cough syrup without prescription. I had no prescription.
In my lab we routinely use antibiotics like ampicillin and ciprofloxicin. We are supposed to purchase these antibiotics from sources like Sigma which sell them for laboratory use only. You cannot consume it. However, they are expensive and tedious to obtain. When I first started my lab I did try to get it from a chemical company but later found out that both can be purchased from our pharmacist. My jaw dropped because in the US antibiotics are sold only under prescription. I was told here at the pharmacist in the campus one can obtain antibiotics without prescription. They are cheap and available at all times. We get it from him.
There was a hue and cry when the first report of NDM-1 strain emerged. The government predictably wanted to deny the existence of such resistant bacteria in India. Two days the Center for Science and Environment has pointed out rampant usage of antibiotics in poultry industry. The newspapers pointed out that we can become resistant by consuming these chickens while CSE called for regulation.
However, it is all a case of missing the woods for the trees. As long as antibiotics and other prescription drugs are sold over the counter and there is no appropriate punishment for the violators, we can shout ourselves hoarse from the rooftops but nothing will happen. The abuse will continue.   The problems is also compounded by the doctors who prescribe antibiotics for viral fever and the people who expect antibiotics for every ailment. Further, there are people who will not complete the prescribed course. All this is a healthy ground for emergence of antibiotic resistance.
The onus is now on the Health Minister. Will he implement tough laws to deal with this menace and ban the sale of prescription drugs over the counter?

Lemon Yogurt Cake

If it is Saturday it is lab meeting.  Now that the heat has abated I try to make a cake for my students to munch during the meeting. It is something I learnt in Charlie's lab. Lab meeting always had goodies to munch and coffee to drink. The atmosphere was free and everyone asked questions. I am trying to inculcate it in my students. At present they are too much in the grip of Sir-Ma'am culture- a culture I believe stops us from asking questions. So when students join my lab, the first thing I ask them is to stop calling their seniors in the lab as Sirs and Ma'ams. I was greatly helped in this endeavor by Mac, Lal, and Dominic- my first three students. They had the charm and the ability to put the new students at their ease such that soon the new students would forget that Mac/Lal/Dom were their seniors. I hope that the culture persists now that Dominic has submitted his thesis and is the last of the trio to leave the lab.
This Saturday I made Lemon Yogurt Cake. I found the recipe at Have Cake Will Travel blog when I was trawling through to find a easy cake recipe. I liked it because it had no butter (there was no butter in my fridge), no eggs (half of  my students do not eat eggs), and no fancy ingredients. It just used 1 cup of yogurt, 1 cup of sugar (I used a mix of brown and white sugar), 1/ 2 cup of oil,  and flour, baking powder, and lemon zest.  It also called for vanilla essence. Ever since I found vanilla pods I have replaced the essence with ground pods.  It also called for lemon essence which none of the shops had.So I added 1 tsp of lemon juice to give the cake a lemony flavor.  The cake, after it had baked, was chilled in the refrigerator. This morning I made the lemon frosting to give it a festive look. 

You will notice that one corner has been already cut. That is my share of the cake. It was truly yummy. I hope the students think too.
As my father loves yogurt, this is the cake I am going to specially bake for him.