Myriad Musings

After dilly-dallying as a research associate in IITM for more than 2 years, I finally took the plunge and signed up for the PhD program in the area of Bio-Medical Engineering. I feel totally out of control right now. I have 2 graduate level courses, research for my phd area, an audit course in circuit analysis and finally helping out with my old project in the biotech department. This in addition to taking care of my almost 7 year old, cooking, cleaning (only when I feel like ;), Guitar lessons and working out if possible! I had to do a complete body check up before joining the PhD program. I discovered to my utter horror, I have marginally high cholesterol (201), low HDL (40) and high LDL (136 against a limit of 120)! My sisters HDL is low too. So we are on the bandwagon of healthy cooking and regular workout now. Neither has actually started, but the intentions are very much there. As a first I will present a multi-bean salad inspired by Smitten Kitchen . My version: Soak ...

It is a year since my last post. Life has changed dramatically in the last year. My mother gave up her battle with cancer and passed away in July 2008. One of the last serious books she read was Robert Pausch's The Last Lecture. She died 4 days before him. She may not have had as grand a life as Dr Pausch, but she was no less admirable. Her life revolved around my dad and the three of us sisters. She always held on to only our best behaviours. She did not hold on to the irritations, anger, resentments caused by our worst behaviour. We are not very sociable and tend to limit our interactions to just the 3 of us, our spouses and our parents.  She was our gateway.  She was also our buffer against the nuttiness of our extended families. We tended to treat her like another sister; Unlike most of her generation, we never gave her unconditional obedience or deference. I hope she didn't mind that.  But, in retrospect, that is what made her such a integral part of our lives lon...