Such humbling numbers

My previous post stands totally corrected. I accepted offer from University of Wisconsin-Madison finally.I fluctuate a lot between extremes. Anyways this post is not on rambling about my decision.

Of course I do not have anything to do at work and I am reading a book by Muhammad Yunnus, "Banker to the Poor". In the sixth chapter of the book, he is talking about how motivated his bank managers and how they chose the job at the Grameen bank as opposed to other high paying private bank jobs. In order to substantiate the commitment and dedication of his workers, he gives an example of what a typical working day was like for his bank workers in 1995 which I have reproduced below:

Name: Akhtar Hossain
Age:27
Monthly Salary: 2,200 taka($66)including housing, commuting and medical allowances
Bonus: One month's salary paid on each of the two Eid holidays

6:00 am, Akhtar wakes up, washes, prays and eats breakfast.
7:00 am, Akhtar fetches his bicycle,other documents,and carrying bag from the branch and pedals to a center.
7:30 am, Forty borrowers await Akhtar at the center. He collects repayments from them.
9:30 am, Akhtar pedals of to another center for his second meeting. He visits 400 such centers over the week and is responsible for collecting repayments for general, seasonal or house loans.
11 am, Akhtar visits borrowers at home and offers advice. This is a critical step to keep track of borrowers' needs and problems.
Noon, Akhtar is back at the office. He fills out all reporting forms and fills out ledger.
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm, Akhtar takes a lunch break with his fellow workers.
2:00 pm, Funds collected in the morning are disbursed as new loans in the evening.
3:00 pm, Once the loan disbursements are finished,Akhtar and his fellow office mates record the new loan information in the ledgers.
4:30 pm,Akhtar takes a tea break and chats with his friends
5:00-6:30 pm,Akhtar visits a center that is experiencing problems with loans or organizes an educational outreach program for children.
7 pm, Akhtar returns to the office, finishes some paperwork and retires for the day.



I melted when I realized that a typical worker would work for 12 hours/day for six days at a week for a monthly salary of sixty six dollars. Such humbling numbers.

I love biology. I think that some of the most ingenious engineered mechanisms exist within a human body at cellular levels. The complexity and beauty of it has left me mesemerized and awed every time I have thought about it.
While at a dinner conversation, when someone mentioned gene regulation, I tried to dig in my rusted brain about specifics of gene regulation. I tried to visually imprint the mechanism in brain but sadly my memory failed me. There are times when I get extremely excited about science and I want to retake old courses and take some new ones to learn and appreciate all such ingenious mechanisms. I like diversity of ideas/topics/challenges/learning.
I know that my interest will not be sustained in any one project for a long time. I like discussing or learning about different ideas/project. I can not pinpoint myself on a specific problem like say determining sub-sub-unit of a part of a protein which is expressed in an extremely rare event.After a sleepless yesterday night and several others before, I have decided to go to University of Pennsylvania (this is backup as of now) for my PhD. There are two important deciding factors:
1) Infectiously energetic young professor at UPenn who is looking at a project which requires a student to work on several aspects of a project during the 5-year period. So, this assures me that I will not get bored or lose my interest. And UPenn has great materials research facilities. I will not get to work on cells but if I decide to go to UPenn, I will take many biology courses to make up for it. That said, Wisconsin Madison has excellent professors and has an excellent Chem-E dept.Just that none of the professors are offering what I think I want to work on.
2) I am a city person and felt at home in Philadelphia in comparison to Madison. In my imagination of Madison, it is going to be beautiful with two lakes, four seasons etc. but going by a gut feeling,I did not feel at home in Madison.

I am glad I can express myself more clearly.Listening to Pianoman currently and feel at peace for a change.

Casablanca- Frank Sinatra

Aha! Old is gold. I discovered 'Frank Sinatra' when I watched Casablanca y'day. I loved every bit of this movie. Every dialogue seemed so meaningful that I felt like listening to every bit again and again. I got hooked to the song "As time goes by..". This song has such beautiful lyrics:

.....
You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh.
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by....

This song led me to other songs of Frank Sinatra like 'That's life', 'My Way' etc. I am so glad I discovered FS. Feel blissful today. lol

I really don't understand why I can not sleep beyond 7:30 am on holidays and while at work, I need to have two doses of coffee to stay awake!

What have I been upto lately- Visited two univesities past month - University of Wisconsin Madison and University of Pennsylvania as a prospective PhD student. Over the flight layovers and delays, I have been able to complete reading four books in a month which is an achievement for me.

Diamond and Dust by Anita Desai: A collection of short stories on life transitioning between US and India. Love Jhumpa Lahiri's writing style more.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: Thought this was an amazing read but a diffcult one. I had to pore through this book for a couple of months before I finished reading this one. Made me introspect a lot about my expectations out of life.

Waiting by Ha Jin: I enjoy reading books on different countries. This one is a fiction based out of life in the communist China. A very mature interesting story on post-marital life. The main character in this plot waits eighteen years to get a divorce and marry his girlfriend only to find out that his second marriage was not working out. Would recommend it to people who cringe about being single.

Space between us by Thrity umrigar: An extremely moving story told out of any household in India. Based on the bonding between the house maid and the house wife against the background of problems in India.