A poet's pen in a scientist's hand

Last semester of coursework, and I was writing my final exam for one of the courses. It was just not yet another exam. It was different! It was unfolding something interesting and had its own style. I will tell you how.

How often we end up reading a question in an exam and smiling to ourselves ? How often we see something like , " Pick a topic from the course and write a poem" and feel a poet's pen in a scientist's hand?  I got reminded of those days when I used to blog poems. I carefully wheeled through a list of topics in mind and settled down for "RuBisCO - An enzyme responsible for photosynthesis".

RuBisCO

" Dancing and wandering in the wind,
          There fell a lone leaf,
   Resilient in its nature,
           Poignant in its form,
   Little does it know about its heart,
          That yearns to bind with CO2 and O2.


Converting every energy wave to sugar,
       Binding every molecule into Calvin cycle,
For oft, little does the lone leaf know its soul,
      Thy name is Rubisco. " 

My 24th birthday

It was a spur of the moment , I decided to pack my bags and go on a solitary vacation for my 24th birthday. Aish was going to live the most adventurous and spectacular moments of her life! I frantically searched for places. Deepa (my roomie) pointed 'Palm Springs'. Humongous peaks, beautiful palm trees, rustic desert landscape, strolling in the valley, mild 24/7 massage spa accelerated my propensity towards this place.

It was 12 July 2014, about 5:00 am in the morning. Aish was really excited about travelling and especially checking things off her bucket list. The take off from Tucson runways are always exciting! Massive mountains , conspicuous cacti - I lost myself gazing the beauty of Tucson. That was not the first time I was flying from Tucson. But, every time I did, it was special and spectacular!

As we approached Palm Springs, I saw the massive desert city sheltered by San Bernardino, Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. A thought flashed and Sky Diving made its debut! The plan was simple - I'm going to get crazy and seize the moment for next three days in my life and Sky diving seemed to be a perfect addition.

View from the Top 

As I was delving into my thoughts, the pilot announced that we will be on ground in a few minutes. As the plane descended, I could see the bright desert landscape. We landed and my Day 1 begins here:

Day 1 : I reached Palm Springs mountain resort which was close to the downtown. I unpacked and was all set to ride the world's largest rotating tram (http://www.pstramway.com/).  Everytime the tram rotated and inched the slope, there was a wave of excitement. We were all strangers, but we joined hands to happily feel the adventure! The valley was breathtaking and at the end of our 10 minute ride, I was at the second highest point in Southern California, San Jacinto mountains.

The tram cables

The Tram!

Day 2 : That was one moment! Skydiving @ Perris Valley. The airplane, 'Shark' was ready to ascend. I humbly agree, it was not a fearless moment. But, the excitement surpassed the fear! We reached 12,500 feet and it was our turn to jump. My brain paused; My heart mellifluously spoke; Life was happening right there! I moved with wind , just like a bird. The aerodynamic lift, thrust from the parachute, and the gorgeous view of the valley from the mid air  invoked the puerile memories of watching Disney movies. Indeed, my 24th birthday was a fairy tale. 

Tandem Jump @ Perris

A sense of accomplishment and confidence sprung in my heart. The city had much more to delight me. As we drove back to Palm Springs from Perris, I could vividly see the LA smog. The smog thickened as we approached Loma Linda. I could see for myself why chemists loved California smog! I was charmed too!

Day 3 : Nothing beats a refreshing spa massage after two days of adventures! It was a hard moment to bid adieu to the city which stood with a mighty valor , yet humbled before its audience with its mesmerizing beauty!

Blogging and graduate school - Are you kidding?

Are you a PhD student/ a researcher, busy to breathe, and busy to get excited kind? Have you transformed into a grad student who has placed the blog on the back burner? Hold on, I felt the same way. Perhaps, blogging could be a game changer!

It was a Sunday evening , when I was frantically piecing together a bunch of scientific figures for my talk. That's really what drove me to blog again. I realized ,I missed the art of scientific storytelling very much. This was indeed a game changer! Here I am, happy to jump start my blog to help you connect with my research. If you buzz around , this is the sort of interesting information you will learn about my research. 

1. What makes the cultural capitals of India appear hazy during the winter months and what makes the summer skies vigorously turn brown in the southwestern United States? - Are emissions the only culprit?

Desert dust storms

Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Delhi : Morning haze



2. How can we combine data from different platforms and sources to optimize the data analysis - yup, you got me! I'm not a data assimilation expert. But, that's where I'm heading!

An example of Ozone data assimilation system (Lahoz et al., 2010

3. How can we design more efficient satellite missions and instruments to tackle major air pollution issues?

While you wait for my other blogs , stay hungry, stay foolish! Looking forward to your comments and creativity!