We know the way!

A smart guy once said that Presidential elections are won and lost on one square foot of real estate, up here - Leo McGarry on the West Wing 

 You must have heard that our actions are manifestations of our thoughts. I sometimes think that we have all been cursed like Cassandra, our rational selves know what course of action is the best for us, how hard work and perseverance can lead to success; however we rarely end up listening to that voice in our heads.

One of those beliefs is the power of believing that you will achieve your goals. This little gem has been codified in multiple ways, whether you call it 'the power of positive thinking' or 'the secret', all of these boil down to a simple fundamental truth. You can achieve your dreams only when you are truly convinced that, in spite of how bad it may look right now, you will eventually reach your goals.

This stratagem is what Steve Jobs stretched to the limits, much to the bewilderment of his co-workers who ended up labelling it to be 'reality distortion'. The reality distortion field was how Steve perceived the real world, I am sure he was not even aware that he was bending the truth and conflating facts with fiction just to ensure that reality conferred with the picture of the future that he had painted in his head, and if it did not it was time to change that particular reality. That is how you create the future.

The reality distortion field was a confounding melange of a charismatic rhetorical style, an indomitable will, and an eagerness to bend any fact to fit the purpose at hand. If one line of argument failed to persuade, he would deftly switch to another. Sometimes, he would throw you off balance by suddenly adopting your position as his own, without acknowledging that he ever thought differently. - Andy Hertzfeld

More than anyone else you need to believe in yourself, you need to trust that you have it in you to realise those dreams. No one is genetically programmed for success, if you work hard enough you can master any skill (yes even math), the world is your oyster. This is a hard fact to digest for some of us, because it entails that the only thing standing between us and our goals, is us. 

But once you internalize it this can be a very powerful tool in your toolbox. If we believe that we can achieve something we start acting like the person who can and, subconsciously, slowly we become the person who can. 

Only when you are dead sure you will reach the goal do you have the audacity to take the risks that you need to take. Only then will you make the investments that you need to make. Only then will you dedicate the insane amount of time that it takes (no one has the time to put in all it takes at the same time create a safetynet). Only then will you commit to it.  All it takes is a leap of faith, in yourself.

Happy Birthday Dr brother, may all your dreams come true!

On intellectualism and the case for lifelong learning

I am increasingly understanding why those who achieve things worth achieving are termed as 'misfits' and related terms like 'people-ahead-of-their-times'. It is because unlike what one would hope for, people in general do not spend their time tending to their intellectual growth. The very mediums that were intended to help us relax and unwind at the end of the day have increasingly become the tools that are stopping us from achieving our potential. As I interact with people and observe macro trends across the globe, I observe that rather than having stimulating discussions on historical figures and the roles they played in getting us where we are today, critically examining business ideas that sprung out of conversation and examining why or why not would they be a success, stressing our memory and summoning our (limited) knowledge of the basic sciences to understand the science behind some natural phenomena and racing each other to the solution, deriving pride from where we are as a civilization and the things humanity has achieved and placing our bets on the ever optimistic future. Rather than discussing how much work still needs to be done, how we still live in a society that has unfathomable amounts of inequality not only of resources but more importantly of opportunities, story boarding possible solutions. We are busy with gossip.

The majority of dinner tables are discussing the beauty, skin tone and possible hook ups of their beloved actors. When scientific curiosity is not encouraged from a young age, I find it highly improbable that today's youngsters will be able to develop it when they grow up. And soon enough science would induce the terror of equations and memorization rather than the deep sense of wonderment that it is meant to encourage. 

When we practise racisim and sexisim on a daily basis with and in front of our children how can we expect them to grown up to be ideal world citizens? Aren't we failing an entire generation as a society?

Unfortunately too many of us do not realise the importance of having the right kind of conversations and encouraging our interlocutors to grow. Now don't get me wrong I am not painting all art as evil. On the contrary art is one of the things that makes life worth living. Entertainment and relaxation are as important as the main goal itself; my only caveat is that why cannot the art and entertainment we consume be one that helps us expand our mental horizons both intellectually and culturally rather than reinforce dogmatic ideals that have no place in this century.

Why are we bent on painting intellectualism and the thirst for knowledge as  elitist pursuits for the snobby, liberal, out-of-touch people? Why not embrace it as a way of life? Understand that our entire life is a learning experience the more we learn the more we grow the more we understand ourselves and our fellow inhabitants of our planet the happier we will be. Is it the fear of failure? The fear that we will look stupid attempting to learn something that we don't know? Well guess what silly, no one knows anything either. Everyone is a co-passenger on this journey of learning. Some people may be ahead of you in a particular dimension, but I guarantee that you are ahead of them in another. Learning does not have to be a lonely process, seek the help of those that are ahead of you and help all those that you can. Doing that multiplies the joy of learning and indeed the joy of life. 

Read, Travel, Assimilate, Discuss, Argue, Challenge your beliefs, Introspect, Shatter the false walls of your minds, Grow, Help, Be happy. 

Success is easy

Success is easy if you have the right people supporting you. Listening to your everyday struggles and encouraging you to go further, When you surround yourself with people who are not afraid to give you a piece of their mind, of pointing out your flaws. And when you are happy to take them in your stride and work to overcome them. Selective humility is a virtue of the successful.

Success is easy if you are being kicked all over the field by your boss/coach/research guide. It means they have not given up on you. They have hope. They see something in you which perhaps you yourself don’t. They know you have not tapped into your inner potential just yet.

Success is easy when you have role models around you. When you hear people making it based on just their grit and conviction. Success is easy when you believe in a version of the American Dream. When you believe that hardwork is the only thing you need to reach your goals. When you believe that the world is conspiring to extend very opportunity to you, you just need to extend your hands to grasp them.

"Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to ye"

Success is easy when you believe in yourself. When you have a somewhat pseudo assurance, a trust in your abilities, in face of evidence to the contrary, that you are meant for greatness. When you have what some may call a false arrogance, because if you have that, you will not settle for anything less. You will not take the easy path, you will not shy away from challenges.

Success is easy when you have professionalism, it is easy when you consistently choose to do the right thing even when and especially when no one is watching; things have a funny way of compounding, if you play by the rules, help everyone that you can on the way, not be haughty, and respect people around you, all of that comes back to you in ways you cannot even imagine.  

Success is easy when you celebrate the little things, the mini achievements. When you cultivate a culture where minor steps in the correct direction are applauded. That creates a virtuous cycle. Who amongst us is not hungry for fame and recognition and appreciation. When you positively reinforce minor success you and people around you will work towards the next goal with a renewed zeal, secretly craving for that appreciation.

Success is not easy, it is hard work, it is sleepless nights, it is failing multiple times, it is losing the trust in yourself and finding it again,  it is getting up, dusting yourself and getting back in the saddle, it is not giving up when everyone around you is, it is not settling for the ordinary.

In the end, that is what makes life worth living.

Faith (a.k.a how to get into a top 10 university)

Most of us find ourselves too often backed up against a corner, contemplating what are we doing with our lives. Whether our actions and choices have truly been our own, or are they just providence. Are things what they seem to be, or is it just our filter bubble showing us things the way we want to see them. I know this feeling of self doubt where you are unsure of everything. I have been there many times, too many times in the past couple of months than I care for. Today I am here to tell you that things have a funny way of working themselves out. If you keep your head down and focus on your work at the same time have compassion for people around you, things do work out. Missing a few parties, working sincerely when slacking off seemed enticing, working on your research project when rest of the college was busy mugging up for the exams, is not too big a price to pay for ending up in a top 10 university (for AI) in the World. 

During one of my internships, one of my mentors who is now at JPL gave me a piece of advice that has really stuck with me: 

Do good work. Thats more important. Enjoy your time, but do good work. Great work.Very few manage to get good opportunities. Use it well.

Look at your mentors and the people you admire and firmly believe that you will get there too one day. It is only a function of your hard work. You will have that lifestyle, you will have that success both personal and professional, it is just a matter of time and faith. Faith in yourself, in your hard work and gratitude for the opportunities that you have been lucky enough to have. 

Gratitude and humility are very important traits to have. They make the journey a whole lot easier. Be humble and apologize when you screw up. Do good upon the world and that good will find its way back to you, karma is real. Trust people, as Randy Pausch put it 'if you wait long enough, people will surprise you'. If you are disappointed in someone, you have just not given them enough time.

You can't get there alone. Having an amazing support system in your family is an amazing asset to have. It is very important to have a space, it can be with family or friends, where you can discuss things without being judged. A space where you do not bring your pride and ego, a place where you listen to feedback instead of coming up with excuses for your shortcomings, a place where you identify your weakness and come up with ways to work on it. It is a difficult process. Whenever I spoke to one particular mentor of mine my self confidence would go for a toss, his feedback was brutal things were only compounded by the fact that he was out there achieving so much. But that is the kind of feedback which helped me the most. You will find hordes of people who will be willing to tell you how great you are, only a limited few will give you real actionable feedback. Treasure them.

Trust me, one day, and that day is not far away, you will look back at your journey, at your struggles, on all those occasions where you could have taken the easier way out, when almost everyone around you took the easier way out. You will look back and you will be proud. 

I am UMass Proud! 

How did I not know about this?

Mary Claire King visited the Indian Institute of Science as part of the 'Cell-TNQ India Distinguished Lectures Series' and her lecture just blew me away.

We start with a brief introduction of this amazing scientist who has literally changed the world in more ways than one. A Berkeley educated geneticist, King proved for the first time that humans and chimpanzees are 99% genetically identical, giving weight to the theory that the two species diverged only about 5 million years ago, a view that was not very popular at that time. She is responsible for discovering the BRCA 1 and the BRCA 2 genes and announcing to the world that cancers like breast and ovarian cancers can be hereditary. She is also known for her human rights initiatives. She joined the protesting grandmothers in Argentina, whose grandkids and kids had been taken from them by the regime and were forced to live with military families.  Her work in genetic forensics provided irrefutable evidence that has since helped thousands across the world.

Dr King at the JN Tata auditorium 

Now this is important: I am not a geneticist, my formal links with classroom biology were severed in high school, so inspite of King's wonderful talk the content that follows is my understanding of the talk, which may be inaccurate at several points.

Okay so here goes,

Breast and Ovarian cancer have been dubbed as the disease of the educated and the disease of the rich. We know for a fact that human females are the most evolved organisms to have roamed the face of this planet, unfortunately they seem to have become victims of their own advancement.

One might wonder why did evolution not take care of curing cancer, by natural selection for healthier indivisuals? The answer lies in the fact that both breast and ovarian cancers are post reproductive, thus escaping the scrutiny of evolution.

The risk of breast and ovarian cancer is directly proportional to the gap between the age women start menstruating and the age at which they have their first pregnancy. Who knew!

Menstruation starts when estrogen (the female hormone) hits a certain level in the body. Interestingly the production of estrogen in the body is related to the body mass index (BMI) (defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height).

As families start to become more educated and are more well to do, young women are hitting the BMI threshold earlier (as they have access to better diets), therefore we see young women hitting puberty much earlier, the age has progressively lowered from 18 to 16 to now around 11.

At the same time women are making an active choice of putting their carriers first and choosing to start a family at a much later age.  Thus increasing the gap.

This phenomena is highly correlated with the how well to do the society in which they live are. In the past Europe and the US have been the primary victims of these cancers but as the developing world catches up to the developed world it inherits their problems too.

Studies show that the cases of breast cancer in Indian cities are growing at an exponential rate.

The graph looks like this, this is not the original graph just a py plot simulation 

If you are looking for an interesting read check out The race to clone BRCA1 in 'Science', which documents the fascinating story of discovering the gene.

Dr King's work shows that individuals who have a BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation are at a very high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. Infact these people have an 80% chance of developing these cancers over their lifetimes. 80%. Let that sink in.

Complex Structure of the BRCA1 RING domain and BARD1 RING domain
credit: By Emw - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8763313

But my mother and grandmother did not have these issues!
It is not just the women!
BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 can be inherited from the paternal side too. Also men carrying these genes are predisposed to developing prostate cancer in their lifetimes. [The new England Journal reports that 15% of patients suffering from prostate cancer have a BRCA-2 mutation]

THE SOLUTION 

Knowing what we know how can we help ourselves? The answer is early testing for these genes. The BROCA gene panel can be used to conduct a simple sequencing which costs about $225. If the patient is a carrier of the either the BRCA 1 or BRCA 2 gene then Dr King recommends a salpio oophorectomy around the age of 35-40 i.e. the surgical removal of the ovaries and fallopian tubes to lower the estrogen levels in the body. This will significantly reduce the risk of both breast and ovarian cancer. PARP inhibitors have also know to be helpful.

If there is one thing that you take away from this post let it be this: get yourself and your loved ones tested for the BRCA 1 and 2 genes. It is just $225 test which can change your life. 

"Every breast or ovarian cancer patient with a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation detected after diagnosis is a missed opportunity to prevent cancer. "

Thank you Dr King!

Update: 

Dr Priya Mathur, a PhD holder in Biochemistry & Molecular Genetics from the University of Chicago weighed in with the following advice:

My concern with advocating for BRCA testing for the general population is that it can lull people into a false sense of security. It is critical that those with a family history of BRCA-mutant cancers be tested because these mutations drive an aggressive form of hereditary cancer and steps can be taken to prevent it. However, the vast majority of breast cancer is sporadic, or non-hereditary, which means that even with a negative BRCA test result, a person carries the risk of developing sporadic breast cancer. Early detection via routine screening is the best way to improve outcomes, BRCA1/2 screening is not a substitute for routine mammography and self-screening.

The Greek Life: Part I

Having had the wonderful opportunity to intern at the Athena Research Center in Athens for a little over 6 weeks, I pen down some observations that struck me as different when compared to the Indian way of life.

• The Travelling Book

Whether it is the metro, the tram, the bus or the train in every coach you will find at least one Greek reading a book, oblivious of her surroundings, the motion of the vehicle, the general banter and the overall chaos. Lost in another dimension. 

• Smoking 

Now coming from a land which shows crass anti-tobacco advertisements before every screening of every movie, this is a little surprising. But a LOT of Greeks smoke, the brouhaha about the associated lung cancer does not seem to have reached Greece. 

• The Lottery

Now this may be associated with the economic troubles that Greece is undergoing, but it seems Greeks have a thing for the 'idiot tax'. You can find lottery ticket vendors on side walks, metro stations, the famous squares, basically anywhere.

• The Seating Arrangement 

The coaches of the metro and the busses are designed to encourage social interaction and inculcate a feeling of belongingness. The seats are placed facing each other. Even the place to stand in busses is designed in a circular manner.

• Sun Glasses

They are ubiquitous age no-bar, place no-bar everyone dons a pair of shades. Never have I ever felt that my sunglasses were worth it, until now that is.

• Coffee Love

Greeks are incomplete without a coffee container in their hand. No matter if the day is just starting or if it is well past sunset, students, office goers, senior citizens everyone loves their coffee. People even have special coffee holders on their work desk, and it is quite normal to have a coffee cup on your desk and to keep sipping it throughout the day. I have even seen people sip their favourite beverage in buses where others do not have a place to stand. 

• Police Vans 

Greece is going through an uneasy transition, there is no denying that. Fully armed police vehicles cruising away on the streets are an ugly reminder of that. These vehicles look like what India's riot control or Rapid Action Force look like. Every policeman that I have encountered be it in Syntagma square or at a random metro station is fully armed, with an automatic rifle and a bulletproof vest. This struck as odd to me and I mentioned as much to Fanny (a friend from France living with a co-intern) and she said that this was not very different from what she sees in France. In India we have our fair share of armed policemen and paramilitary forces at important places like the airport but the local beat policeman walks around in his khaki with just a baton for enforcing the letter of the law. This is both encouraging and sad at the same time.

• Renamed Cars 

This was funny, walking down the road you encounter cars that you have seen all around you since your childhood but strangely enough they don't have the same names. Your routine Santro is called Atos. Incidentally you see this across car manufacturers, plus you see a lot of the same models that you see on Indian streets unlike the US. This kind of makes you feel at home in a weird way.

• The Flag

The flag of the Hellenic Republic is loved by its citizens, you can find it prominently displayed from houses on vehicles even in commercial shops and on the carts of small vendors.  Seeing such patriotic display of the flag was a refreshing change from how the Indian flag is treated. Inspite of the freedom that the flag code provides to Indians the use of the national flag is still restricted to mostly government officials. Another interesting titbit about the the Greek flag was shared by Eva, the ever cheerful intern from Cyprus on our long train ride from Athens to Kalambaka. Apparently the stripes of the Greek flag represent the syllable of the patriotic cry which loosely translated into English mean 'Freedom or Death'.

• Early Bakery 

One of the fun parts of living in Athens and indeed travelling around Greece was their bakeries. These are small scale local bakeries which are typically run by a single family they open super early in the day and it is not surprising to walk into an empty bakery around 11 in the morning. They only make a limited quantity of fresh baked goods, which people grab on their way to work. I can never forget the apple pie I ate for breakfast in the town of Kalambaka at the base of the Meteora monasteries. There was only one bakery in the entire town and everything was still warm from the oven.

• Sunset time 

This was a little unsettling in the first week, we know that the sun did not set in the erstwhile British Empire but evidently it does not set till 9pm in Athens either. Indians are used to a pitch dark sky by at most 7 in the evening, but a 9pm sunset gives you the opportunity to better utilize the day.

• No spectacles

I don't know if it is their diet or their lifestyle but almost no Greeks wear spectacles! 

• Hand Fan

If you thought that the hand fan was limited to Japanese women and karate fighter, think again. Hand fans are ubiquitous in Greece, where ladies flip stylish ones out in the metro or on a crowded street and seek relief from the heat.

• Past Pride 

The Greeks are rightfully super proud of their rich cultural heritage. Talk to any Athenian about the civilization that gave the world democracy and geometry among other things and you are bound to see her eyes light up.

• Time indicators for buses

This simple innovation helps relieve a lot of stress for the city commuters. Almost every bus stop has an electronic indicator that estimates the number of minutes remaining for the corresponding bus's arrival. What improves the efficacy of this system is that these estimates are accurate within a margin of one minute. This really helps you plan your travel instead of waiting indefinitely at the bus stop hoping that the traffic gods smile at you.

In interest of the reader ever finishing this post, I am splitting the list into (at least) two parts. Second part to follow soon.