I am a 'Cook'er too :)

Hmmm....yummy....tasty....!!!!! This was the response I got when I made vegetable rice last night.

I usually am, or rather, was the kind of person who dint even know where the kitchen was in the house. The only real time kitchen experience I had till earlier was making maggi or a steaming cup of hot coffee. I could only cook as well as an aadivaasi. But recently I discovered the joy ofcooking. It feels great to see people enjoying the food u cook.

Once upon a time, long long ago, in my 9th or 10th grade, when I was still usnsure about which career path to take, I thought may be I should become a chef. So I tried making this stuff namely Mexican rice, but what ultimately it became was african rice. It was burnt black, and sadly the dustbin had to eat it. Several more dishes after that also ended up in disastrous shapes and colours. And there ended my idea of cooking to earn a living. After that episode, neither I nor anybody in my family entertained the idea of me entering the kitchen premises. In emergency cases, dad used to cook, and mind you, he is a great chef.

Sometime earlier, my mom had fallen ill, and being the eldest daughter,and according to a general opinion of all aunts and uncles in the family, being of an agreeable age to get married ( well., I dont quite agree though),I was shown the entry to the kitchen. Reluctantly, I opened the fridge, and the first veggie my eyes fell on was capsicum. So I googled for some capsicum recipie which my mom never tried, and came up with one. It took me nearly an hour and a half to finally finish cooking. And to my surpriseit tasted good. I gave some to my didi, and she came running to find out the recipie.

And from that day on my cooking expeditions started, made at least one dish everyday for a week since then. And thankfully all of them turned out to be good. So now my parents happily claim that at least I wont starve my future husband and kids :P

Bookshelf

Musings

After months of joblessness and wasting time, I finally relented to the idea of blogging. So here I am, a blogger now.

A post graduate in Bioinformatics (may sound Greek and latin to some and may also sound kinda high funda), and I am still jobless. Its still a wonder why colleges start courses like this without knowing how the job market is, but anyways why would they bother? Are'nt they getting what they want? Sky rocketing fees! And equally foolish are people like me for joining courses like these. I still have an unbearable grudge against that prof who advised me to do this course called biotechnology after my 12th, I remember his words clearly..."Dekho beta, ye jo biotech industry hai, its an upcoming field. It has a very bright future. So listen to me, and take this up". And here I am, a graduate Biotechnologist and a post gradutae bioinformatician. Had I at that time listened to my inner vioces and the clairvoyant vibrations, I would have been a commerce graduate, and hopefully an MBA degree holder by now, and earning away big bucks in an MNC. Shattered dreams!!!!!

Another big mistake of my life, taking up bioinfo in PG. Had the US universities said that they would accept students after 12+3, I would have been in US by now, and probably working too.

Most of the Biotech biggies ( which, as a matter of fact are very few in num) proclaim that there is going to be a bery bright future for the industry, It is going to be the next biggest revolution after IT. The point worth pondering over here is that if there is no "present" for the industry, how would the future of the industry fall into place? So all the tall promises made by the industry boils down to this, too many people and no jobs. It is estimated that there are around 15 lakh biotech graduates, and only about 10000 worthwhile jobs! Amazing ratio, isnt it? And then, there is this thing about hiring only experienced people. But when the industry doesnt give oppurtunity to freshers, how are we supposed to be "experienced"? And then they should not go around blaming brain drain. If there is brain drain, it is there for a reason. The Govt is so lousy that its investment in science is measely (courtesy-smitha nair). No wonder we are paupers, and wont we remain so for the years to come? I pray not.

If this is the status of the biotech industry, then bioinformatics is way behind in the league. There are very minimal oppurtunities in india.

Anyway, let me not ruin my first blog with too many musings. But apart from reading novels and watching FRIENDS the whole day, I do not have anything else to do. So the sleeping "screw biotech" and the "biotech nirudyogi" person in me has awoken to this whole idea of letting people know what life after PG in bio really is like. Kkoi hame present dikhao, future nahi.

P.S: If there is anyone willing to give me a job in bio, Please ignore the above said beautiful things. AND GIVE ME A JOB!!!!