Category: life sciences

Kai Kodutha Deivam (The God who helped)

On By PriyaIn God, life sciences, Personal, school4 Comments

Something amazing happened today… Although things went bad in the lab today, help came to me at the right time. I still can’t believe it.

It was 8pm and I was still in my lab. My autoclave all went wrong so everything got delayed, but I wasn’t panicking. I was cool.

After my autoclave was done, I had to immediately do inoculation. But before that, I had to check the machine in which I’m going to put the flasks in. I checked and I found that most of the racks were already in use, although I booked the machine. I was irritated at that point of time.

But there was still some space. Just when I thought, okay thank God, there is some space to put my flasks in, then came another problem. I couldn’t find the racks that fit my 1L flasks. Well, I did find them, but I didn’t know how t fix them. There were so many samples in the machine already!

I was almost about to give up and thought I would do the inoculation tomorrow. I stood there and thought for a while what to do. There were only a few people in that floor and I didn’t know anyone there. Sigh..

Just when I was about to give up, a man came in and asked me if I was using the hood, in which I left my stuff. I said yes, I will be done soon. He was about to leave, but then I was desperate so I called him and asked if he could help me fix the racks.

Well, it is not really a tough job to fix the racks, but the thing is I’ve never done it before. The guy helped me fix the racks. For him, he had to finish his work soon and go home. I was in his way, and helping me would help him in a way. But still, you have no idea how glad I was to have someone help me just when I needed help!!!

This is not the first time this happened to me. This has happened a lot of times to me. Whenever I needed help, it came to me at the right time, usually in some form; person or object.

Wait, there’s more…

So after finishing everything, I left home, thinking how lucky I was to get some help at the right time. I mean for you, the readers, this might seem like a small thing, but I was in the situation, so I know how much it means to me. So when I got back home, the first thing I did was tell my mum and dad about this. They were watching Vannathirai channel. And you know what was the title of the movie that they aired today??

KAI KODUTHA DEIVAM!!!

I was so shocked! Pleasantly surprised more like! Now, what are the odds that this movie was to be aired today, just when I had gone through something similar? Gosh, I was so shocked!

Kanna! You are simply wonderful! You are always there for me, looking after me, taking care of me, being there when I am happy and sad! I haven’t prayed to You for some time, and yet You never fail to help me when in need! I only have to exclaim, “Krishna! What is this? Why am I put to test like this all the time?” And that’s it! You come there, in some form, to help me! I see You in all the people around me! You are always there in my Dad, in my Mum, in my Friends, in everyone! It’s just that people don’t see You always. I always see You only in all! But I need Your Grace to see You in Me. Help me Krishna! Like you helped Arjuna see it! And that is all I ask!

Drosophila!!

On By PriyaIn life sciences, vegetarianismLeave a comment

The drosophila genetics lab was really informative and exciting, highlighting on a lot of information on clinical research methodology. I have put here some pictures of the drosophila flies. The one with a lot of flies is the one with the wildtype genome. The other is a mutant, which has curly vestigal wings. I got to see mutant flies with wrinkled wings, dumpy wings and so on. The male and female flies were also clearly spotted. The male is usually small and has only three black stripes at the tips. Whereas the female is larger and has more than three black stripes. Pretty interesting characteristics! And the flies are not dead here, they were only paralyzed. I hope the process was reversible! Gosh, so poor things… They look so cute under the microscope. But the hairy body looks so gross!

My attempt at becoming a vegetarian is turning out to be successful! So far, its only been less than a week, but I’m already feeling its not so difficult afterall. I now feel really happy at being a vegetarian and showing my love towards animals, I don’t feel guilty anymore. I guess it only works when you really feel for it. I love animals but I’m not showing this in action, in my everyday life. I’m being a contradiction onto myself if I am a non-vegetarian.
But at the same time, I should ensure that I don’t feel a complex and look down on people eating meat. This is bad, and I feel most of the vegetarians are like this. There will be a time in some people’s lives when they realise and become aware of the cruelty they indirectly inflict on animals, just for the sake of those few seconds of taste.

The Big B

On By PriyaIn education, IMCB, life sciences4 Comments

It feels like it has been ages since I’ve updated this blog. It’s time for me to fill up loads of application forms and scholarship forms. It’s not hard to make any decisions ’cause I know where to go. I’ve applied for three scholarships so far: CAAS, Firefly and NUS Undergraduate Scholarship. I’m not so confident with the latter because it’s highly competitive and there are so many of them better than me academically and aesthetically. So, I’m trying my chances with them. I’ve applied for two of the local universities: NUS and NTU. To the faculty of science of course.

I know I’m taking a risk by choosing the field of Life Sciences. This is because there is a big biomedical debate going on in Singapore. Moreover, local graduates and PhD pursuers and holders are few compared to foreigners. Most of the local A*STAR scholars do not stay in Singapore at all. They fly off to UK or US looking out for better opportunities and better paying jobs as researchers, not having the idea of returning home. Whatmore, the government might stop funding the Biopolis research agencies and that will be the end of the research era in Singapore. While it is now being called the Biomedical Hub of Southeast Asia, I have little doubt whether the name will continue to stay.

However, I believe I’m making the right choice, by sticking towards my interests. I definitely wouldn’t want to take a measly pay of three or four thousand after my PhD. But research has become my interest. In which field is a question that would have to wait. Anything might happen in these four years’ of study.

This is a picture taken while my colleagues and I went to Swenson’s to have dinner. Fara, the one on the left wearing pink shirt, had just got her PhD. So this is a treat from her for all of us in the WH lab.

PS: Thought I was going to write about the big ‘B’? Haha:)