House hunting

Woof! I have spent almost 3 relentless days on apartment hunting now. I have been living in LA for an year now but will have to move to Philly for work soon. It has been a tough time convincing tenants that someone in their right mind might even think about moving from LA to Philly at all. But well, you go where work takes you, right! 

I have three options to choose from. The first ones are independent studios or 1 bedroom flats. These places are roomy, have independent bathrooms and offer privacy. However, they come with little or no furnishing. In addition, I will have to pay for the electricity bills and in some cases the heating bills from my pocket. In Philly that can come out to be a hefty amount! 

The second option is choosing a room for rent in a big victorian house with 3-4 bedrooms and share the common space with other tenants. The rent is lesser by a 100-150 bucks both because it is a shared place and because the utilities are divided amongst the tenants. In most cases these rooms are not furnished either. And yes, the bathroom is shared by 2 people.

The final option is that of staying at a fully furnished place in a victorian styled house with the landlord. Mostly the rooms are located on a separate floor and offer some privacy. Usually the number of tenants are limited to two. The rent is midway between the first and the second option. 

I havn't talked to a lot of people about these options, but I am sure that I will be suggested to try the first or the second ones. Call me a wuss, but option no. 3 sounds much more appealing to me. I will be new to the town, new to the east coast. I argue that the third option offers the right amount of company (one other tenant) and the right amount of comfort ( a fully furnished place) for a little higher price. Yes, it does impose a lot of constraints and I may not feel so comfortable later on. But its so convienient! So I am working towards a middle path. I will sign the lease for 6 months. If things do not turn out for the better, I will move out and try one of the other two options. How does that sound ?!

The taxing maturity

One of the greatest defining moments of a new professional life is getting to know the tax structure. By the time I got a hang of it in India, I was packing bags to head to the US. Now as I plan to begin another stretch of professional life, I try to understand the tax structure here.

There is no CTC here, which in India is often used to dupe fresh, innocent graduates into a low paying job. In the US people talk in terms of the base salary. Except for a few deductions, the base salary divided by 12 is what you can expect in your monthly pay cheque. The deductions are as follows- 

a) Federal tax

b) State tax

c) Medicare 

d) SSN

All of the above are calculated as a percentage of the base salary. However, just like India, you can avail of some tax incentives. For example, if you decide to save some money for after your retirement, you can invest in the 401K plan. The taxes are then calculated on the base pay less the amount that you invest in the 401K plan. On a side note, unlike India, the money alloted to the 401K plan is usually invested in mutual funds. For example, the company that I work for will hire a mutual fund operator such as Liberty, Vangaurd or some other which will then lay out a variety of  mutual funds in which I can choose to invest my 401K money. Whether that money grows or not is subject to the performance of the mutual funds I choose. If I withdraw money that I had earmarked as money invested in the 401K, the fund operator will charge a penalty. In India, the pension fund is something very similar. The money is taken out automatically from the salary and is invested in a fund. This fund however, is a fixed interest rate bond and hence does not have a risk associated with it. In this case, premature withdrawl of money is penalized by the government. There are other ways in which the the taxable income can be reduced which I am on my way to learning. I will share the information as it comes along.

Fat slobs

I made a long journey from LA to San Jose yesterday. A bus journey. The mode of transport is worth mentioning since only the poor travel in the bus in California. That includes fat slobs, dirty black rappers and students. The journey usually takes 7 hours. Its better during the day since you get to see the changing landscape as the bus inches through the barren stretches of LA to greener agricultural feilds and then back to the barreness of San Jose. However, I did not get a chance to enjoy all that. I was, alas, travelling in the night. 

Sitting with my head popped against the window, I let my eyes wander towards my fellow passengers. Sitting right next to me was a big white slob of fat, so fat that her belly and her boobs tried to match each other in their expanse. Across the aisle was another specimen of digested burgers and fries - black instead of white. I also noticed a variety of heads in the seats ahead of me but they are not important to the discussion. So as I sit and watch these two fat ladies, I try to make sense of the emotions within me towards them. Based on the way I describe their free flowing bodies, I figured that disgust was the most prominent of all the emotions that I felt. However, thinking it through, I questioned myself whether it was the only emotion I felt. Did I not feel pity too? Pity for the poor, hapless dumb people in this country, and the ones that were travelling with me in the bus. After all, it takes a fair amount of intelligence and self control to cook right, to eat right and stay healthy. Do I really think, with all the cheap,greasy and easy food around, people with the intelligence equal to that of a door-knob would choose anything but that to eat? Are the people who dont even know the state KFC comes from capable of making such 'high-level' decisions? I dont think so. So am I justified in being disgusted by them? I guess not. 

I still am though

 

Olympics

I have never been too enthusiastic about the Olympics. After all, there is a limit to the appreciation I can show to people winning medals in sports that I have not even seen being performed on Indian soil. My reaction to our abysmal performance for the ones that we do compete in are usually disgust. I then follow it with a series of complaints blaming the poor state of sports infrastructure, the lack of government interest and the poor physique of Indians in general.

However, in a recent discussion with someone, I came across an illuminating counter-argument stating : "We don't perform well in sports since it is not in our culture to pay too much importance to it." It is a commonly heard argument and earlier I used to dismiss it lightly on the grounds that it was too generalized. However, maybe it makes some sense after all. India is different than a lot of countries. Since it is a civilization thousands of years old, it is likely that through the generations, we have carried with us the set of guidelines by which people lived lives even then. According to the old social structure, the four major classifications of people - kshatriya, vaishya, brahmin and shudra - had four different lifestyles. Physical exercise probably featured in the lifestyles of only the Kshatriyas - the warrior class - with no other class devoting their time to it. However, even though similarly, the pursuit of education featured highly in the Brahmin class, it pervaded into all the other classes too. With time these class boundries have blurred. Though it is still more comfortable to stick to the class you originally belong to, the lifestyles and the habits of other classes are free to be adopted. Now imagine that we carefully pluck out the features of each of such lifestyles like leaves from a plant and put them all in a big pot. In the end, what we will find in this massive pot are several aspects of life which may or may not be common to all the classes. I hope to find a lot of 'listening to music', 'travelling', 'good food' and 'nice clothes' in it. After all those are desires which are common to all. Similarly, I hope to find a lot 'pursuit of education' in it. However, what I expect to find a dearth of is 'exercise'. Since it featured only in the lifestyle of one of the class, the number of leaves will be limited. So now if someone decides to leave all his class sterotypes, and grabs a handful of leaves from the pot hoping to find the best of all that is on offer, how likely is it that he has a leaf named 'exercise' there. Very unlikely! The irony is that if his fistful contains the leaves of 'education' and 'the pursuit of money', he might not even notice anything missing. Those two leaves in themselves are enough to keep him occupied for most part of his adult life, like they do for numerous others. And since so many of are occupied in either of these two pursuits, we excel in them. If we look at the present state of India, it is no hyperbole to state that we are one of the most educated and intelligent set of people in the world. We enjoy the returns of what we invested in. Yes, we may not lead the medal tally in olympics and lie behind non-entities like azerbaijan and mongolia, but when it comes to the ability to study, apply, earn and live a life of comfort, we are second to none.

Cataloging and naming

I cataloged my collection of music yesterday. It is a task that I wanted to do since a long time but never got round to doing. There are several levels of organization needed to have an efficient collection of songs. The first level is: Naming. Like anyone else, I get songs from many sources - audio cds, limewire, youtube and friends (NOTE: If you are the kind of guy who spends sleepless nights over losses that the audio industry incurs from pirated songs, this blog is not for you). Each source seems to have their own naming convention. On one hand, the songs from audio cds start with numbers and on the other hand the songs from youtube have no name at all. However neither of them compare to the songs I get from the net. They come in all sorts of names and styles. Their names can start with the name of the singer or end with it. Sometimes, they mention the album's name, sometimes they do not. Then there are those which proudly bear the name of the website which brazenly distributes it. And not to forget the ones which just have double digits as their identity. Sort of like the 'James Bond' of songs.

More levels later

Hmmm .... the obvious facts in print

So I am sitting discussing my future plans with my roommate and I realize that the only direction left is to run after money!

Ive tried my hand at further studies since I thought it was like the path towards salvation. It offers you a chance to work your ass off and get paid little in return. A life somewhere between that of a businessman and a hermit. But I forgot one important bit while charting this path for myself. The fact is that a PhD is not everyone's cup of tea after all. There are only two kinds of people that do a PhD. The first are the lovers. Lovers of science, lovers of arts or lovers of whichever field they see fit. These lovers want to spend as much of their time as possible with their love. They want to explore it, feel it, live with it and in the extreme case, even die alongside it. They are the ones who never feel the dilemma of choice at all. They are passionate creatures with only one desire.

The other kind of people are the world-fearing ones. They are the ones who know, by a personal experience or a personal lack of belief that they do not have what it takes to step into the real world. They are the ones that either tried and were shot down or those who did not try at all. And not surprisingly, there is no shortage of people like them. Confidence is a rare asset it seems.

Hence, if you are not in either of these two categories, the chances of survival in this harsh academic climate are slim. Of course we all have the option to conform to one of these two types. But as it might be obvious, both are types that someone cannot adopt just by practice. These two kinds of people are born that way and it is hard to 'become' that way.

Hockey - really ?

The country is stuck. It will be so appropriate to call cricket our national sport. So appropriate! It is a sport played by all sections and all regions. It is game liked by young and old. A game that incites so much passion that hearts fail in sorrow and shock at games lost. Isnt that what a national game should be all about? Who crowned hockey as the national sport anyway? Why did we choose it in the first place? Does half of the nation even know of the sport? Maybe they have heard of the name but have they any idea of the way it is played ? Forget kids! Do you know about something known as the Astro Turf? Do you know of any players that played for our country other than Dhyanchand ?

I am sure that there will be many who do know this sport and those who fondly follow the matches. However, if it is a sport not appreciated by the masses, then its designation as a 'national sport' is worth reconsidering. I can speculate that we chose Hockey since it was probably one of the only sports that we were good at that time. Further, it was a sport that did not require too much of expensive equipment like the other contender sports such as Cricket. But the story has changed. With the new rules in place, hockey requires much more investment than many other sports. The normal ground has been replaced by a much more expensive 'Astroturf'. The equipment, the apparel and the gear used by competitive teams is much more specialized and effective. The level of specialized training required is an added expense. Under these conditions, we cannot argue in favor of it in monetary terms. Even in terms of our reputation, we dont have any standing in this sport worldwide. We are a persistent breed of people and I am sure we will improve with time, but by the time we actually rise to that level we will have to face the ignominy of dismal performances in our 'national sport'.

The joy of typing

There is definitely a sense of pleasure in typing the proper way. Till about last month, I used to be the kind of person who looks at the keyboard while typing hoping that the words will come out right in the end.

The laptop is our generation of paper and not knowing how to type is synonymous to having a bad handwriting. I used to think that there isn't much difference in typing while looking at the keyboard as opposed to while looking at the computer screen. But now that I have deliberately pushed myself to do the latter, I find that there is a world of difference. To be able to see what you intend to state makes your thought process much more logical. It helps to develop a flow in your writing. I used to argue that typists who look at the screen often make a lot of mistakes and the 'backspace' key tends to become the most important key on the keyboard. Wouldn't this back and forth motion of the letters hinder the thought process more ? After all, when you look at the keyboard and not at the screen, the error rate does go down!But to my pleasure, I have discovered that it is not the case. The back and forth motion, irritating as it may be, doesn't harm the flow as much as typing without looking. I guess it reflects human nature. We will prefer to be aware of our actions, make mistakes, correct them and move ahead compared to keeping our heads down, stay unaware of the consequences of our actions and hope for the best.

Jesus and the path to salvation

This week was a relatively free and peaceful one. And to enjoy it, I was sitting in one of the many spacious courtyards in UCLA, planning my work in the weeks to come. Five minutes into my deliberations, I was accosted by two young asian kids. Not intending to be rude, I peacefully answered their preliminary questions about my name, my department etc. Now, in my mind, I was almost sure that the hidden motive behind this interaction is a donation. However, this meeting had other intentions.

These kids were 'messengers of god'. At least that is what they called themselves. They asked me whether I had heard the gospel. Being a hindu, and having never gone to a church, I said no. I immediately saw their eyes light up from the prospect of 'educating' me about Jesus and his teachings. They spent some time explaining to me about his birth, his teachings and the 'gift' that he offers humanity. Do you know what that gift is? Well the concept is like so : Every person, whether he intends to or not, commits sins (sins being defined by the bible). Lets assume that the these sins are similar in nature in most religions. After all, deeds like hurting another animal, using curse words, jealousy, adultery etc. are not appreciated by any religion. Now, if you have committed these sins, then you will go to hell. Period! So how do you make up for the sins that you have committed ? Will working for humanity and doing good deeds sort of make up for the sins that you commit? Nope! Thats the catch! Apparently, working for the good of humanity, helping other animals, philanthropy etc. dont do any good at all. Your 'sin' account is a fixed deposit which you cant access. Isnt that scary ! If not for you, it was pretty scary for those young kids. The only way to get rid of the sins is to start believing in Jesus. Yes, thats right! No need for any philanthropy. Do the sins that you want to do, fuck your neighbor's wife if you feel like it, kill animals for no apparent reason; and in the end, just ask forgiveness from Jesus. Neat, isn't it !

P.S. - Even in this day and age, only god knows how people can be so illogical and naive. Not having a direction in life is one thing but following someone or some belief without any true basis..... thats just plain Stupid!

The batch of 2006 - Biotech

I talked to an old batchmate yesterday. I am currently sitting in LA clearing courses for yet another pointless degree and he is living in Delhi, preparing for what could potentially be his last shot at the civil services exam.

Our conversation began typically by catching up on the general stuff- the time difference, the weather and the locations. We then led it one of my favorite discussions - where are our batchmates nowadays?! Just like any batch of any department in IIT, we have spread far and wide and it is always a pleasure to take into account the location and state of each of them. I am tempted to list them out one by one but maybe not. However, its interesting to observe that putting all of together, we span a very wide range of careers indeed. On one extreme are those who loved the feild and decided to pursue it even further- Shikhar and Saksham. On the other extreme are those who didnt like it all and chose to break free - Abhinav, Akshun and Aashima. Then there are those who justify their association to the department and hang on by thin threads - Rachna, Rohit, Baser, Khanna and Chandu. The other varieties include the management gurus- Sandy, Teddy and Vicksy. Then there are those who prefer drilling oil on a rig to doing experiments in the lab, such as Harry. And of course, the big miscellaneous category, the ones who are treating life as one big laboratory, working away on experiments to test themselves and test life in general - Aathira, LMJ and me.

I know that I didnt cover all 26 of us but the point is that people take on different roads which head in different directions. For those who know each other, get in touch and update yourselves on each other's whereabouts.

Blue Monkey

I visited a night club yesterday known as the Blue Monkey. It was one of the many night clubs I have been fortunate to visit in recent months. However, this one promised to be a special treat since it was advertised to be a 'bollywood night'. Women were expected to be dressed 'smart and sexy' and the guys were expected to cough up 12 dollars and be 'dressed' . 

In characteristic fashion, we planned to reach there by 9 and finally reached there at 10 pm. A pleasant surprise was that the two friends Aarti was bringing along turned out be females too. That brought the tally to 3 guys and 5 girls showing up at the trendy and happening bar - Blue Monkey. At least that is what we hoped it would be. But alas, what we found was an almost empty and small corridor of a bar with little to offer as a dance floor.

One of the things an entry fee does to you is to start making you look at the brighter things in life. So what if its a small bar! So what if it has a pathetic DJ playing slow hip hop! Let us try and enjoy! So with this motivation, a spirited few of us decided to offer enthusiasm to what seemed like a budding DJ. And it worked! Not only were we soon in the groove, the tempo of the music also went up several notches too to keep pace. The rest of the evening unfolded itself as a cramped, sweaty yet thoroughly enjoyable dance fiesta. A combination of hollywood and bollywood music swayed us to its beats till 2am when we finally decided to call it quits.

Biosimilars - is this the problem ?

Why is it difficult to bring biosimilars into the market ?

Biosimilars are the generic versions of biotech drugs. In case of pharmaceuticals, a patent expiration follows a spate of smaller pharma companies flooding the market with cheaper versions of the same drug. This is easily acheived due to two reasons:

a) Any pharma manufacturing company has a long time at its disposal to investigate the exact composition of a drug while it is in patent and hence can reverse engineer it down to the minutest component.

b) Particulalrly in the US, a drug patent application should necessarily be accompanied with the 'best method' of formulation. This document also becomes public for any pharma company to see.

Because of both these reasons, the generic formulations generated in the market are near-exact versions of the original drug which can be safely prescribed to a patient. But its not the same for Biosimilars! The processes used for production of a biotech drug are very different from a pharmaceutical. The process relies primarily on microorganisms which when stimulated in controlled environments, produce the desired drug. But since microorganisms are involved, even the slightest change in the bacterial strain may lead to a appreciably altered product. Hence, even if a generic manufacturer has an exact idea of the drug components, it is near to impossible to produce an exact replica of a biotech drug. Yes, the basic protein may be the same, but the glycosylation profile may be different to mention just one of the many possibilities. And as soon as a change is introduced, the drug can start behaving very differently in the body. Hence, the logic behind allowing pharma generics does not hold true for biosimilars which the main reason behind finding approval for biosimilars.