Why I use Facebook

Today it suddenly occurred to me why I use and would continue to use Facebook. A common question that comes up in discussion about the new wave of social networking, "who cares about what you are doing right now". Isn't it presumptuous to think that your FB friends have time to learn and think about your latest headache, or if you sneezed 5 times this morning!! In other words, it may kind of seem like bragging sometime when we post some sily good news, rather lack of modesty. The question of limits of privacy has also been raised. .

I've also wondered about the question FB poses "What's on your mind?" Absolutely Nothing!! Why should I tell you, Isn't thoughts are supposed to be the ultimate private property in modern civilization?

But now I realize what it does - maintain a passive connection and communication with people. Before FB it always took either a letter, phone call or e-mail to exchange news and our status in life. people wrote long letters developing this as a literary art form. But, eventually the time between replies for letters, e-mails increases. Finally dropping down to no communication. FB does not let that happen. It took efforts to keep in touch with old friends and acquaintances. FB has reduced that effort. Although last time I had seen/spoke to some of my friends (Moumita/Sudipto) was several years ago, I know the name of their children and I've seen their picture. So Before FB I'd have probably not called or thought of dropping by to their places in case I was in town. But now because of FB I don't feel so distant. I wouldn't feel awkward of calling them if I'm in town and probably think of drooping by if given a chance!!

Favorite Quote

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

- Albert Einstein

Doing Science.. (Contd..)

Just read an extraordinary piece by Dug Green (Editorial Board Member Cell) and could not help but share some really great comments he made in the article (link attached at the end of this).

Most of the time our experiments do not work. "There is an important reason for this failure of perfectly logical ideas to translate into results, .... Life is not logical, because living things are not designed. Any biological system is a cobbled-together, makeshift affair that once upon a time happened to work better than some other contraption, so that it was reproduced and subsequently built upon. All biology in this view of life is an historical accident. And it is for this reason (among others, as we will see) that our experiments so often fail. Life does not yield to logic. I couldn't agree more.

Where do the great ideas come form? "You are going to hate the answer: Read. A lot. Read everything you find interesting, inside and outside your field, and then read everything else. By read I do not mean look at the abstract (although that is a start) or download the PDF (ditto). ...Creativity, as near as we can tell (I've read about this), emerges from a combinatorial process in which bits of information are rearranged and extrapolated at a subconscious level think of it as a conceptual smoothie sloshing around in your brain. Then, when you happen to think about something you have noticed in the lab, wondered about in the literature, or worried about late at night (you do this, right?), there emerges an aha that might explain something that has never been explained before. (How do you know it hasn't been explained before? Because you did the reading!) This only works if there is a lot of information oozing around in the blended brain smoothie. And by the way, reading is pretty relaxing, so think of it as stress relief (if reading stresses you out, it might be a good time to reconsider your career choice)."

Fitness of people to continue science as career. "Many graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and even some faculty got into this business without fully realizing how hard it is, and at some point, you may decide that continuing in this mad pursuit just isn't for you. You need to know that this is fine. Hopefully, you began this path because you like science, and if you dislike being a scientist, it need not follow that you no longer like science. There are a great many ways to use the skills you have acquired, both practical and intellectual, in pursuing other careers. I encourage you to explore those other options at the earliest opportunity. But if you are going to be a scientist anyway, then decide to do it. In the words of a small, green philosopher, Do or do not. There is no try." I discussed this before here.

Excerpts from an article by Douglas R. Green, in Molecular Cell, Volume 40, Issue 2, 176-178, 22 October 2010.

My Dad

Today is the first Father's day I'm spending without wishing my father, Mr. Rabindra Narayan Sarkar, a "Happy Father's Day". I lost him last November. We all knew this was coming; a chronic COPD had been decaying his lungs slowly. But when the call came it felt surreal. In spite of living continents apart, I was lucky enough to be able to be at his bedside, and let him know that I was there. It had always been difficult for him to accept the idea that he might not see me when the time came. At the end of my last several trips to India he reminded me that he might not see us again. But despite his worries, I was able to meet him several times in last few years, talked to him from time to time and wished him happy father’s day once a year. So this morning when Raka, my daughter wished me “happy father’s day”, it dawned on me that I won’t be calling home this morning. Instead this will be my tribute.

My father, Rabindra Narayan Sarkar or Rabi (should be pronounced as Robi – the sun) was quite an ordinary man. Born 1938, in a village in West Bengal, India grew up and spent his whole life in Salkia – a suburb of Calcutta. Having lost his mother at seven, he and my uncle, who was five at that time, were primarily raised by their father in a joint family with their uncle and aunt of very modest means. He was a good student, finished college with a bachelor degree in biological sciences and went to become a homeopath doctor. Although he was not able to finish his degree due to financial hardships, he informally practiced homeopathy among family and neighbors, and was quite popular at that. Following his marriage to my mom at his early thirties, he essentially spent the rest of his life running our family business, attending to the needs of our extended joint family and raising me. Never travelled anywhere outside WB, not really had a lot of hobbies except occasional singing, till we got a TV. He really enjoyed watching TV sitcoms and could not finish the day till he solved the Bengali crossword puzzle in the newspaper. For last several years our family subscribed to two daily newspapers to keep his passion for crossword puzzle going. He was quite sharp and intelligent; I remember my amazement at his remarkable ability to quickly perform arithmetic calculations. He was always a very nice man, never had any misgivings with anybody, always respected for his good manners, and never even had a single fight with my mom. I was reminded of this remarkable nature of him during his funeral where so many people came and told me how he had touched their life at some point.

My greatest debt to my father has been that he had never forced me to do anything. Except for forcing me to study every evening during my primary and middle school days, he never prompted me to go on a particular career path. His words had always been ‘do whatever you think is right’. It was him with support from my uncle and my cousin brother I was able to escape responsibilities of our family business and pursued my interest in science and went away to do PhD. He missed me terribly, but it made him very proud – asked me about my new publications every time I talked to him. It seemed silly at times, but now I know why he kept asking for it. He fought the emptiness of my glairing absence with some news of my accomplishments. So that he did not feel abandoned, I’m doing something big which is worthwhile of his sacrifices. Otherwise he had to conclude that his only son is being selfish, which he could not tolerate from his beloved son.

“Happy Father’s day Bapi, I’ll be eternally grateful to you for the rest of my life.”

-Bapi.