Astrovelo

Today’s word from AWAD website:

adit (AD-it) noun

1. Access; entrance; admission.

2. A nearly horizontal passage leading into a mine.

[From Latin aditus (approach, entrance), from adire (to approach), from ire (to go). Ultimately from Indo-European root ei- (to go) that is also the ancestor of words such as exit, transit, circuit, itinerary, and obituary.]

A very interesting article was published earlier this month in New England Journal of Medicine about mortality rates after hospitalization of a spouse. You don’t have to read the full text of the article. The point that I want to make is quite obvious in the abstract.

Among men, 6.4 percent died within a year after a spouse's hospitalization for colon cancer, 6.9 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for stroke, 7.5 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for psychiatric disease, and 8.6 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for dementia. Among women, 3.0 percent died within a year after a spouse's hospitalization for colon cancer, 3.7 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for stroke, 5.7 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for psychiatric disease, and 5.0 percent after a spouse's hospitalization for dementia.
...
Overall, for men, the risk of death associated with a spouse's hospitalization was 22 percent of that associated with a spouse's death (95 percent confidence interval, 17 to 27 percent); for women, the risk was 16 percent of that associated with death (95 percent confidence interval, 8 to 24 percent)

Men get more affected by serious illness or death of their wives compared to the other way around. More than twice as many men die within a year of incapacitation or death of their wives than the women do in case of incapacitated or dead husbands.

Is it because men love their wives more, miss them and can’t live without them or are they just inept and can’t continue living without the helping hand of a wife?

This website has become my latest addiction. I can’t help take a peek whenever I have a few minutes to spare.

Tween girl #1: Aren't you gonna wash your hands? Tween girl #2: I don't need to. I flush with my foot Tween girl #1: Do you also wipe with your foot?

–Union Square Regal Cinemas ladies' room

Ambition is the last refuge of the failure.

– Oscar Wilde

I have been busy working in the lab whole morning. One of my colleagues was trying to extract a compound from bull testicles to use as a reference. Unfortunately, you can’t buy it from Sigma/Aldrich, you have to do the extraction in the lab. He accidently dropped some crushed balls on the bench. Now, the whole lab has a sick meaty, beefy, yucky smell. Almost made me gag. Can’t work there till it is all gone.

On Morning Edition today, there was a segment about this website, OverheardInNewYork. S. Morgan Friedman and Michael Malice run this website that posts snippets of overheard conversation from all over in New York city. Initially, it was only Michael and Morgan who used to contribute to the site, but, nowadays a lot of New Yorkers send in what they overhear while they go about their day-to-day business. The website is just hilarious. It is amazing how some people can say things that they say. I am sure it is more funny because it is taken totally out of context. It is a site worth reading for a good laugh.

Suit: Hi, what's your vegetable special today? Waitress: Ehm, let me check...Macaroni and cheese. Suit: No, your vegetable. Waitress: ...Macaroni and cheese.

–Applebees, West 42nd Street

Overheard by: Hot Child in the City

They have also published a book, Overheard in New York that features a collection of the best snippets.

This is an excellent idea. Hope someone starts a website like this about things overheard in Mumbai’s trains and buses.

Photo Booth is quite cool.

The Eye

The Chin

I am thy lord, God, fear me!

This is one of the best optical illusions I have ever seen. If you look at the movement, you see only pink dots.

Stare at the “+” sign in the center and you see a moving green dot.

Continue staring at the “+” sign in the center and slowly the pink dots disappear.

Wonder how the brain makes up something that is not there.

via kiruba

Finished reading (listening) this excellent book by Thomas Friedman, The World Is Flat. It is a very insightful book that tries to explain everything about globalization and outsourcing using lots of examples and anecdots. The book talks about the rise of India and China as knowledge and manufacturing powerhouses and how that is affecting the US and global economics. It interestingly theorizes that the factors that brought about the spurt of globalization, global supply chaining and outsourcing are the same ones that are helping the spurt of Islamic terrorism.

Most of us have lived through the computer and internet revolutions of 80’s and 90’s. It was nice to read that whole history in a nutshell in one place. The chapters about global supply chaining were quite interesting as I didn’t know much about it. Next time I open a box of something that I ordered online, I’ll wonder about all the wheels that turned behind the screen to make that happen.

Friedman gives career advice to the young people in USA that they should concentrate on education, especially science and engineering. They should not take it for granted that USA will remain as the richest and technologically advanced country forever. USA used to be a leader in this area but, is seriously being challenged by the rest of the world as all US college graduates are scrambling to become a lawyer or get an MBA. He provides statistics that show the reduced number of science graduates and reduced numbers of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles from US compared to the rest of the world. It is still not too late for this trend to reverse but, there needs to be a big change in the educational system and attitudes of ordinary people and politicians towards science.

Friedman talks a lot about India in the book. I was taken aback by a couple of things…

• He repeatedly says, “India, a country with almost no natural resources…”. It made me wince the first time I heard it. But, later his point became clear to me. He meant that India does not have large natural resource such as oil, that she can drill and sell to the world. This activity basically doesnot require any skill. All you need is ownership of the land on which the oil-well stands. India’s biggest natural resource is her talented people that can be tapped for outsourcing.

• He talked about the plight of untouchables and their lack of access to schools and other services, etc. I thought that it was true in my grandparents' generation and somewhat true in my parents' generations, but, I hadn’t seen untouchables being treated badly or discriminated based on castes. Maybe, it is because of the sheltered city life that I lived.

Overall, it is a very well written book and I highly recommend it.

Ashwini and I rushed out of the house this morning. As I strapped her in the car seat, the following conversation took place.

A: ha ha ha ha… You forgot to put my shoes on, Dada.

I realising the problem went back in the house and brough her shoes.

Me: I am sorry, Ashwini. We were leaving in such a rush, I forgot about your shoes. A: ha ha ha… WHATEVER. Me: What? A: WHATEVER.

That ‘word’ just hit me like a ton of bricks. I wasn’t ready to hear it from her mouth before her 3rd birthday. Heck, I didn’t want to hear it for at least 10 more years.

Maybe, it was just one more example of Ashwini repeating what she hears without understanding its meaning. But, it is uncanny how she uses these words in the right situations.

Or, I have a 2 year old on my hands that is going onto 12 in another month.

I had seen this video for Jana Gana Mana quite a few years ago on TV. Found it on Google video. One of best of AR Rahman.

It was a nice day yesterday. We couldn’t really go out and celebrate with a 4 week baby in tow. Celebrations are deferred by 6 months and we will celebrate our 10.5th anniversary in July.

I gave V these ear rings and she gave me a spa package for 1 hour deep tissue massage with pedicure and manicure. This will be my first trip to a spa and I don’t know what to expect. But, it is the first step towards becoming metrosexual. yeah, BABY, yeah!!!

The best present though was from Ashwini. She pooped in the toilet for the first time ever. She was so excited and proud of her creation that she didn’t want to flush it. She made sure that everyone in the house gazed at it, commented on it and told her how proud we were of her for making poopy before finally flushing it away. I think this is good progress towards her freedom from diapers.

When fun is being had, time just flies by. I can’t believe that V married me 10 years ago on this day, Jan 25th and we are still married after all these crazy years. Life during these 10 years just seems like a blur, especially last 3, during which we increased the size of our family by 100%. But, I have immensely enjoyed every moment of it. Hope to make posts like this every decade for a long time to come.

Here are some photos of us during these 10 years in a chronological order. We first met each other in August of 1987, almost 18 and half years ago. Couldn’t find any photos from the 80’s. Will have to dig in some boxes stored in the basement. Disneyland in 1993


in Austin, Tx; 1995


Our wedding in 1996


Our wedding in 1996


Camping trip to Lake Ontario in 1999


V’s first camping trip to Grand Canyon in 2000


Rafting trip to Grand Canyon in 2002


Us getting buried in snow in 2003


Us with Ashwini in 2005

I didn’t get time to scan the photos that were prints. In stead, I took digital pictures of those for posting here. So, the quality is not so good. Hopefully, all my photos will be in digital format sometime in the future.

V is not going to like this photo in ‘red’ dress. But, I don’t have too many photos of Adit to choose from. I took so many pictures of Ashwini at this age. It just seems like there is no time to pick up the camera these days. Hopefully, I’ll get a chance this weekend.

I didn’t think ‘Adit’ was an uncommon name, but have received several queries about its meaning.

Adit: pronounced as ädit, and means
1. The first
2. The Sun

The second meaning is the same as the longer version, Aditya. According to my mother, Adit is the prakrit version of Aditya which is a sanskrit word. We liked the shorter version better.