Age limit for study?

I am sure most of you who did your undergraduation and (post) graduation in India would know about CSIR. For those of you who do not know about it, CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) is an organization that funds and heads many research programs throughout India. They usually conduct an exam for PhD entrance and if you manage to get a good score, you can start your research in a lab of your choice (or probably assigned to you, not sure). This exam is similar to GRE, but more scientific and they don't really bother you with verbals! It is definitely a very competitive exam and is opined to be difficult to pass. Passing is difficult not because the questions are too specific and tricky, but just that though you have nothing to do with evolution and botany, they have this weird rule which expects you to answer questions from these and very many subjects unrelated to you, like Geography!



Having given a brief introduction to what this organization is about and their roles and responsibilities, let me get to my point. By passing a CSIR exam, you get into various schemes as told here. One of those is getting a JRF and then 'maturing' further in an SRF and finishing your finishing your PhD in about 5-6 years (at the end of 5 years of painstaking research and sometimes having loads of professor-given insults to your credits, you would have earned just about Rs.10,000 per month but let's not get into it). My brain totally fails to understand why CSIR poses an age restriction for those people who write their JRF exams. Or should I say an age limit of 70 years makes more sense than 28 years. A SRF has an age limit of 32 years!! What is the logic behind not letting people do a PhD after 28 or 32 years? Their website (above link) reads - Their idea is "Identifying budding talent having aptitude and aspirations". Sadly they think as one gets older he/she lose their capacity to do a PhD. That is being totally insane!



One of my friends lost an oppurtunity to do her doctoral degree only because she was 29. People choose to do a PhD later in life for reasons CSIR unfortunately does not seem to understand - One good reason for girls would be family pressures and for guys, would be low monetary benefit which will easily surpass ones passion. I think CSIR can be sued under social discrimination for not letting somebody write a PhD entrance for a simple reason of being older than 28 years. One of my MS classmates here in the US was 40 and he was planning to get into a school to do a PhD in the next 2 years. That is when research grows. Age cannot be a blockade to scientific thinking. I really wish CSIR changes its (absurd) rules for good.

Redefining beauty

Beauty is not defined by the usual norms anymore – fair skin, tall, long legs, photogenic, slim, money, etc. are not the only characters of an attractive woman. There is much more to her life than trying to look good. Here are some ways I redefine beauty. Of course some of these are important but are not the only important things.

Beauty – Myths and truths?

Color of skin? – Color of thoughts.
Painted face? – Smiling face.
Ramp walk? – Confident walk.
Color choices? – Career choices.
Wealthy? – Healthy.

And the most beautiful thing about a woman is Motherhood! And to add a little bit of science into it, Motherhood yields a healthy and a happy baby only till about an age of 30. After that, the chances of the non-disjunction monster stealing the health of your baby gets higher as the mother gets older.

Pratibha Patil - Representing India's women?

If Pratibha Patil becomes the next President - The first woman President - of India, does that mean anything? Does that signify women's liberation? Absolutely not. My English professor, a long time ago taught me a word - Tokenism. I now understand that word in its true sense! By throwing the bait to one, the government is shutting the mouth of a million women in the country. One of the richest and most powerful countries in the world, the US, which has relatively better men-women social equality, is yet to see the dawn of its first woman President!

Are women truly liberated in India?

1) Women are still harassed in the work place
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20070016079

2) Women still have restricted "Freedom of speech and expression". They cannot utter the word "Sex" on camera - I pity South Indian film star Kushboo
http://www.hindu.com/2005/09/29/stories/2005092916020300.htm

3) Indian women are deprived of the freedom to wear what they want! - I pity Sania Mirza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4229052.stm

4) See what the UN says about the fate of widows in India. This is the latest report - about 6 months old - widows suffer multiple suppression in India and are given "worthless and invisible" status!
http://www.wunrn.com/news/2007/01_07/01_08_07/011407_India_widows.htm

5) "City of widows" - Fame or shame??
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9711/16/india.women/

6) Dowry less marriages outside main cities is a dream. The article here says, "Legislation banning dowry was passed in 1961 but is still flouted"; "the laws are hardly enforced"; " women are afraid to file a complaint against their own husbands"
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=HOTEN20070012704
When laws are not enforced, is there a reason for amendment?

Do you want more? Having a woman President is not going to change anything.

God = Creates; Human = Creates; HUMANS = GOD?

Bush cannot suppress these guys for a long time! Read this -

http://www.economist.com/research/articlesBySubject/displaystory.cfm?subjectid=526354&story_id=9333408

That is just AMAZING! More so for a biologist. Man is now a Creator! Though this bacterium is semi-synthetic, its more than an achievement for mankind. On the controversy part of it, there is always a bad side for anything under the sun. Can/Will our beloved Mr. Bush stop the production of weapons of mass destruction because it (he) is going to kill humble lives? What has happened to a bacterial cell will happen to a human cell soon! This research has opened new avenues into embronic stem cell research - we can create a designer/artificial embryonic stem cell by synthesizing its genome, propagate it and use it for research! He cannot stop it!

When/If I become a millionaire sometime in life, all my money will go to the SCCF (Stem Cell Charity Fund)!!!! You guys with me?

Another feather in India's culture cap!

http://in.news.yahoo.com/070620/211/6h7e4.html