On increasing use of plasticware in life science and biotech research

I think the time has come to replace the word in vitro to in plasto. I have been working in Molecular biology, microbiology and protein biochemistry and cell biology fields in different capacities for the past decade. It is remarkable to note how glassware has been replaced with plastic ware. Starting from centrifuge tubes (Eppendorf, Falcon etc) to Petri plates, dispensing pipette tips to measuring cylinder – every usable item is made up of plastic these days. Even chemicals come packed in plastic bottles. Tissue culture flasks, dishes and 96, 24, & 6 well plates used in cell culture are also made of plastic. In fact most of the experiments in molecular or cell biology, biochemistry or microbiology are conducted inside plastic tubes or containers. Only glaring omission from this ever-increasingly plastic world are glass coverslips or glass slides used in microscopy.

In vitro literally means ‘inside glass’. When plastic was unknown experiments performed in glassware i.e. outside the living system were called in vitro. But everything is done in plastic today. And there is remote chance that glass will replace plastic in future.So isn’t it high time that we, the scientists change the terminology of in vitro to in plasto?  In ‘The Graduate’ - the cult Hollywood movie of the sixties starred by Dustin Hoffman, the film hero’s father’s friend whispers the word ‘Plastic, plastic’ into his ears to reiterate the fact  where the future business and money lie in. It is truly a plastic-filled world now and the scientists (chemists, molecular and cell biologists, biochemists and microbiologists) should take note of this.

An outsider’s view on Mumbai

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Few weeks back, Amitabh Bacchan wrote a special article in an esteemed daily that chronicled Big B’s experience of making it big in Mumbai after initial struggle. He was also an outsider in Mumbai and his view on Mumbai reflects that of a very famous outsider.

Let me share my views-the views of an unknown outsider. To me, Mumbai is the New York of India. It is the most cosmopolitan city in this country, which does not ask your caste or creed; rather it asks for your talent, determination and hard work. It is the city of opportunities; you can make a living without any snide remarks from your neighbor if you know how to work hard. Every profession is respected here and if you know tricks of the trade, then sky is the limit. Due to the endless job opportunities, it is jokingly said ‘Hum do hamara do, teesra hua to Mumbai bhej do’.

The skyscrapers of marine drive are nothing short of Manhattan skyline. Coming from Calcutta, the cultural capital of India, I had a highbrow attitude toward culture. I thought Mumbai would be a departure from my Pablo Neruda-craving, Satyajit Ray-loving intellectual style. Rather, I found it even better. The NCPA, Prithvi theatre, Kala Ghoda festival bowled me over. Best of meaningful theatres and movies, both national and international are showcased in Mumbai. Jehangir art gallery is a place where painters would vie for an exhibition. And where else would you find a National Symphony Orchestra and Mehli Mehta foundation playing the western classical music to the discerning masses?

 Due to its inclusive nature, Mumbai is for all. Today, in this globalized world, you cannot keep one outside. Who knows where the next big idea is coming from? And who other than the Mumbaikars know it better that in Mumbai transcending all religions and ideologies only one deity is worshipped-the deity of wealth. And where is the leisure time in this city running at breakneck speed to pause and think who is an outsider and who is not? The city is always on the run; the local train bogeys seem to me a big escalator, which churns out thousands in every station endlessly. Where is the time to stop and think? I have not seen a single day of strike (Bandh, as we call it in Kolkata, which is a regular phenomenon there) after coming here. Hats off to Mumbai.

Note: This article written by me was first published in Times of India, Mumbai edition, on 31st May 2008.

Rabindrasangeet I like

It was winter of 1996. Cable TV had made entry into our household then. We were slowly getting used to plethora of channels. One late night I was watching Star Movies. Suddenly a Rabindrasangeet started while an English movie began. It was “Majhhe Majhe Tobo dekha pai” sung mellifluously by recently departed Ritu Guha. The backdrop was fitting well with the song. A young lady was waiting at a port to meet his beloved. In the distant sea we see a ship approaching towards the port. Now we hear the soulful strains of that Rabindra sangeet exemplifying the feeling of the lady…..Majhe majhe tabo dekha pai, chirodin keno paina…Keno megh ashe hridoy akashe tomare dekhite dei na……..(Why don’t I see you more often ? Why don’t I see you forever? Why the clouds eclipse you inside the sky of my soul?)………The song stayed with me forever…..The movie was ‘Island ‘by Australian director Paul Cox.

I associate my favourite Rabindrasangeets with people. I learnt ‘Ganer surer asonkhani’ from my mother, Sadhana Chatterji in class VII which I never forgot. She was very particular about the tune and notations because she was a trained singer. Three songs ‘Jene shune tobu bhule achi’ , ‘Amar ja ache ta sokoli dite parini tomai’ and ‘Hridoye tomar daya jeno pai’ by her are unforgettable. She sang them with heart.

Harisadhan Dasgupta, India’s pioneering documentary filmmaker was my room partner in SSKM hospital of Kolkata. He narrated a tragic incident of his life associated with a Rabindrasangeet. His brother Bulu Dasgupta died of a lightning strike when filming ‘Panchthupi’ in a Murshidabad village. He brought his dead body back to Kolkata in his car. All the while he was singing ‘Keno chokher jol e bhijie dile na sukno dhula joto’ wishing that his brother will come to life! He sang this song to me and I remember him whenever I hear it.

I will end with other personal favorites 'Amar Bela je jai sanjh belate' and ‘Diner seshe ghumer deshe ghomta pora oi chhaya’. My maternal grandfather Dr. Murari Mohon Mukherjee used to put me to sleep singing thiese. I was raised by him. I always  asked him their  meaning. He used to say “You will understand this when you grow up”. He was right. With advancing age  I realize we will all go to ‘Diner seshe ghumer deshe….’ someday!

Fugitive pieces, Moonlight Sonata & Pather Panchali

15 years ago I first heard Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata…..the slow adagio sostuneto is an all time romantic tune on earth…yet I did not like it for its romanticism…but its brooding sadness….a slow ache of un explained nostalgia that it always evoked….The bars stayed with me. I never knew why….recently after I saw ‘Fugitive Pieces’ (2007, directed by Jeremy Podeswa based on a eponymous novel by Canadian writer Anne Micheals) in IIT Bombay film club, a movie about Jacob Beer a holocaust survivor trying to coming to terms with his own loss I rediscovered the haunting melody of Beethoven….I realized why they say Beethoven is a timeless classic. Jacob’s sister used to play piano and Jacob remembers moonlight sonata from his past when they were a happy family of four until the Nazis hounded them in Poland, killed his parents in front of his own eyes and abducted his sister. Jacob survived miraculously with the kind help of a Greek archeologist. But the trauma that incident left behind is difficult to hide. He grows up in Canada, becomes a successful teacher and writer but never away from his past. He is consumed with the obsession of finding holocaust stories and writing them…..his wife Alexi deserts him once she gets to know from his diary how the shameless vitality of her is a distraction for Jacob’s endless pursuit of the past. In these moments and others when Jacob’s sister comes back in his dreams and memories I could identify with Jacob’s sense of loss. Though my history of difficulties are far more different and culturally irrelevant to Jacob’s yet the universal sense of loss evoked in me that unexplained nostalgia for my lost possessions, time , opportunities and losing on life as a whole. These feelings of loss occur in every society. When Jacob remembers her sister and moonlight sonata comes in the backdrop, I identify him with young Apu remembering his dead sister Durga from Ray classic Pather Panchali…..you got to see it to know my feelings…..

Uttam Kumar's dedication

Uttam Kumar did some forgettable Hindi movies in sixties and seventies like Chotisi Mulakat, Shakti Samanta’s Amanush.

But he used to reign supreme in Bengali screen. No one till date enjoyed his popularity or charisma. He might have been the last star to be mobbed on the streets of Calcutta. Even the great Ray thought none other than Uttam Kumar for his ‘Nayak’. When Uttam Kumar died Calcutta came out on streets; (I was only six years old; I remember his cortege being taken through Lansdowne Road where our maternal uncles stayed and I accompanied my grandfather to Uttam Kumar’s Sradh (last rites) ceremony!).

Anyway let me not deviate from his professional dedication. I am recounting a story that I heard from my maternal grandfather Dr. Murari Mohan Mukherjee, a pioneer plastic surgeon.  Bengali screen legend Uttam Kumar was known to him. Every Bengali knows that Uttam Kumar starred in a famous movie ‘Agneeswar’ made in the seventies. But not everyone knows that the character he played is actually a shadow of an erstwhile legendary surgeon Dr.Panchanan Chatterjee. In honor of his memory Association of Surgeons of India still holds a Panchanan Chatterjee memorial oration which is a coveted and prestigious one among the surgeons. Agneeswar was written by Banaphool a.k.a. Dr.Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay, a native of Bhagalpur and a senior to my grandpa in Medical College, Calcutta. Banaphool told my grandpa that he wrote Agneeswar with their medical college teacher Dr. Panchanan Chaterjee in mind. If you see the film you will note the central character Dr.Agneeswar Mukherjee was a small-town doctor, upright and acerbic, who defied the British rulers, helped the freedom fighters and wrote revolutionary literature as well. A Rabindrasangeet ‘Tobu Mone rekho’ sung by Sumitra Sen and a Dwijendrageeti ‘ Dhana dhanyo pushpo bhora’ sung by Hemant Kumar are still popular. When Uttam Kumar got to know from my grandfather that Agneeswar is a shadow of Dr.Panchanan Chatterjee he came into our house to learn the mannerisms of Dr.Chatterjee from my grandfather since he was Panchanan Chatterjee’s favorite student. You will notice the unmistakable leaning gait with hands folded on back, the specific way of looking over the spectacle glasses and the pithy, barbed talking of Uttam Kumar …. All reminiscent of Dr.Panchanan Chatterjee on whom the novel and the movie are based on. After watching the movie in Purna Cinema Hall in South Calcutta, my grandfather commented “As if I saw our revered teacher walking and talking on screen!” …such realistic was Uttam Kumar’s rendition.

 

Anilendranath Gangopadhyay, a teacher extraordinaire and Prof Abdus Salam, his Nobel laureate student

Spreading knowledge is not the only duty of a teacher. One still remembers a teacher with immense respect who was kind, helpful and who helped in building character. A teacher becomes an epitome of honesty and morality. India has been home to respected teachers who helped in nation building before and after independence. But with overall decadence in an increasingly materialistic society in past few decades, teaching profession has been tainted by some teachers and students as well.

Today on the eve of Teacher’s day (5^th September) in India, I would like to introduce a forgotten teacher; a teacher who represents a bygone era of plain living and high thinking. Anilendranath Gangopadhyay (1892-1982) was one such teacher. From Calcutta University he finished M.Sc. once in Pure Mathematics and another time in Applied Mathematics in 1915 and 1918 respectively. He joined Sanatan Dharma College in Lahore to teach mathematics. After partition, the college was shifted to Ambala in India and he continued teaching till retirement in 1953. He enjoyed a retired life in Calcutta after 1953. He was a bachelor and he loved his students like his children. Up to this it seems to be a life history of an ordinary man whom we see next door in real life. But there is a grand story in the fag end of his life when his student got Nobel and that story reveals his greatness as a teacher and shows the respect inherent in the perfect student-teacher relationship which, sadly, is fast disappearing from the society.

Professor Abdus Salam, the legendary Pakistani scientist was awarded Nobel Prize in Physics in 1979 for discovering weak forces in nature. This caused much excitement in the Indian subcontinent because he was the first Pakistani to get a Nobel. In 1981, Calcutta University decided to award him Debaprasad Sarbadhikary gold medal in honor of his achievement. Prof Salam simply declined this award on the ground, that his revered mathematics teacher, Anilendranath babu has never been shown any due respect in Calcutta. Anilendranath was his guru under whose tutelage Salam learnt to love mathematics in Pakistan and this sound mathematical training established him later as one of the finest theoretical cum nuclear physicist. If Anil babu is given any award, then only he would be ready to receive the medal, declared Salam. This caught the imaginations of Calcuttans by fire. Calcutta University instituted an eminent teacher award and Anilendranath Gangopadhyay became its first receiver. On the day of award-giving ceremony held in an ailing Anilendranath’s South Calcutta residence in 1981, Abdus Salam was present to see his revered teacher getting his due respect at last. A contented Anil babu died shortly thereafter in 1982.

This real life story shows how great a teacher’s influence can be on the course of a student’s life and how respectful can a world-famous student be for his teacher who may not have achieved any material success at all in life ! This mark of respect for an unknown teacher by a renowned student defying geographical borders and political animosity between India and Pakistan reflects the simplicity, humility and endless admiration present in a student-teacher relationship.

Source: Samsad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Vol.2) Biographical Dictionary by: Anjali Bose. 3^rd edition, pg 13, May 2004. Publisher: Sahitya Samsad, Kolkata. ISBN: 81-86806-99-7 (Vol.2)

Note: This article written by me was first published in The Times Of India, Mumbai edition, Mulund Powai Plus, 2008.

This blog generated quite an interest among netizens beyond borders. Please see the following link to see the response.

http://topsy.com/biswaprasun.blogspot.com/2011/09/anilendranath-gangopadhyay-teacher.html

Juno, 4months 3 weeks 2 days and Kya Kehna

Recently, I watched these 3 movies in a time spanning 2 weeks and amazed to discover how human societies react differently to the same situation of unwanted pregnancy in different parts of the world depending on socio-political circumstances. In fact, I watched the first two in quick succession and the third one came to my mind to compare the situation. Critical acclaim for the first two attracted me - Juno got Oscar for best screenplay in 2008, 4 months 3 weeks got Palme d’Or in 2007 in Cannes film festival. 

Juno was an unexpected hit in the US despite being a small budget film. Juno, ( portrayed brilliantly by Ellen Page), who  is a bubbly young woman , all of 16 ,  has an unwanted pregnancy. Though she wants to terminate it, she changes her mind later to keep the baby and her father and stepmom support her. In fact, when she declares this to her family, her stepmom jumps to take her to a gynecologist readily. Her father arranges for adoption of the baby by a rich childless couple. This seems quite possible and expected in a free country like America. A girl is exercising her choice to give birth to a baby even though it is unwanted and an open society helps her in defending her right to be an unwed mother.

Now come to the movie 4 months 3 weeks 2 days. In a country where a dictator reigns supreme, where human rights are thwarted every moment and where abortion is illegal, a young college-going woman aborts the fetus quite matter-of-factly in a hushed up manner and goes back to her routine life as if nothing has happened. No question asked about whom or where is the father, no response known from the young woman about how she felt losing her child. In fact, if one has no choice to exercise regarding right to have an unwanted pregnancy, what kind of feeling one could expect from the unwed mother? Even the strongest of feminists would cringe at the movie. 4 weeks 3 months is shot in Romania portraying a story of illegal abortion during Nicolae Ceausescu’s dictatorial regime. Seeing this movie, one can feel how claustrophobic life was behind the iron curtain.

Now come to India. Kya Kehna portrays Priya (played by Priety Zinta ) as the unwed mother who has this pregnancy arising from a relationship with her boyfriend who refuses to own up to it at first. Priya’s family faces social ostracism at first, but when the bold young lady explains her decision to keep the baby and upholds her right in a tearful speech in a social function, her boyfriend and society starts to realize their fault and come up with support. Made in the year 2000, Kya Kehna was a landmark movie in India where unwed motherhood is still considered a taboo. But the movie does not fail to show that Indian society is changing and getting more open to issues like unwanted pregnancy.

These movies made in past few years reflect the position of women in different societies. In open societies women can enjoy personal freedom and in societies like dictator ruled Romania women are left with no choice.

 Note: This article written by me was first published in Times Of India, Rouge, September,2008