Life after death!

I look forward to the last Sunday of every month because I get to meet my best buddies from school… over a meal, movie, bowling or shopping – that is never decided beforehand. We always meet at my place and then decide according to the mood! So there we were, lazing on my couch… chatting about how our lives had turned out, catching up on the new and reminiscing about the old… when I casually asked “What happens when you die?”

Silence prevailed for a few moments. Everyone knows there is heaven and hell, that we are reborn, that we get a human life after many other lives, etc… but we still wanted to know exactly what happens. So we decided to explore… and suddenly became children all over again, dancing with excitement as we had found our agenda for the day!

We jumped into our Tata Safari and set off on our 300 km journey to Souliland. You must be wondering… that if it’s a place accessible to man, the knowledge of life after death must be publicly available. The catch lies here – once you enter Souliland, you become Amir Khan – not literally – but you experience what Amir does in Ghajini. The memory of whatever you see in there is completely erased once you leave. Nevertheless, we wanted to go and get answers to the questions in our minds! 

We reached Souliland at noon. We were very excited! There was a single castle, that looked a little like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. We expected to see something that depicted heaven and hell – may be a sparkling white land on one side and a dark sight on the other. People being treated like kings, with angels all around them... or some being fried in a large cauldron by demons!

I don’t remember what we saw in there, but I do remember what I felt when I came out – as if the Gods had given us a message to take home: These days, both heaven and hell are found on earth itself, you don’t have to wait to die to experience it! If you do good, you get good - you attract good things for yourself for this life and the next… If you do bad, your life will become hell on earth, sooner or later…

We might not have found an answer to our question about what happens when we die… but we did find out how we should live while we are alive… that life is a circle - you will get back what you give :)

Shopping in 2030

I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing. I have a new notification. ‘Reminder: Alumni meet today.’

Damn, how could I have forgotten the most important event of the year for every girl? A single platform to flaunt your latest size zero figure, your expensive designer outfit, your Gucci’s, your Prada’s, your Jimmy Choo’s and your recent promotion to corporate Vice President. You want to be the envy of every other girl out there, who by the way, is looking to do the same. 

Even though I have a perfectly stocked versatile wardrobe, nothing seems good enough for tonight. I quickly instruct my laptop to switch on; of course it recognizes my voice very well. It springs to life almost instantaneously. 

In this age of electronic cash, all your purchases are made by a single card with a single identity worldwide and webwide. There is a single login ID for every site – your UIDAI number! So eBay knows that you bought a Louis Vuitton from Singapore last month and Flipkart knows that you bought a tee shirt from the store next door last Saturday. More importantly, your purchases over the last decade are no secret! So whenever you login, the stuff that you are most likely to pick is displayed right on top based on your recent purchases from both brick & mortar and online store, worldwide.

So I login to eBay and quickly choose a few outfits. Now I need to decide what looks best on me before I leave for work. How, you ask. With their Virtual trial experience J A 3D representation of the outfit emanates from the screen and you can position yourself in front of the laptop so it looks like you’re wearing the dress. I look at myself on the webcam and I decide that the colour is too dull for me. I pick another outfit and it looks wonderful. 

I purchase it immediately, lest someone else picks it up before I do. It will be delivered by evening. After work, I get dressed and pick out matching accessories. I can’t wait to see everyone’s reaction at the reunion. 

I hear my phone buzzing again. Wait, this time it’s the alarm. It’s 7 am and it’s only 2013! Guess I got confused between thirteen and thirty in my sleep… Right now, the only single identity we have is to login to any site using our Facebook accounts! :D And sssh... no one knows that I splurged on that designer gown even though it was not on sale.. ;)

The perfect moment!

This picture was taken from my office a few days ago. What a beautiful view of the sun setting.. I went back a couple of minutes later and this perfect view was gone. It was still very beautiful, but just not as awesome. Even earlier today, I happened to catch glimpse of the sun just before it set, bright reddish-orange in colour.. glowing! A second later, it was gone!

It just made me think, how important timing is, in our lives. One moment early, or a moment late, and that moment has passed. The effect is just not the same. A word of encouragement said at the right moment is worth more than a few hours' of motivational lectures when it's not needed. A smile or hug from a friend when you're feeling blue, will offer more solace than a river of comforting words later.

Just a thought. :)

Tucked in! :)

The best feeling in the world - being tucked in bed with a rajai early in the morning, not wanting to move at all - even to reach out to the AC remote to switch it off, listening to the rain outside.. The loud thunder, the gentle pitter patter of rain drops.. and the feeling that the weather outside is much better than it actually is, 'cos your room's cold :D Feels like heaven, doesn't it?

Just when you feel like you're in dream land, reality strikes - your alarm rings and you have to wake up and get ready for work. You'd rather go outside and get drenched in the rain!! It's high time the work from home option got introduced! Aah well. At least you had a beautiful start to the day! :)

Interesting phenomenon! :)

You learnt a new word while reading a book. Now, that word seems to appear everywhere!

You randomly read about a certain event last week. Yesterday that very event was the topic of discussion at your team lunch. And today, you've received an email about it from some random source!

You heard about this company that your friend works for, which you had never heard of before. Suddenly, the name of the company seems to be in every article or magazine you read! And to top it all, you realise that you actually cross this company on your way home everyday, but never noticed!

Do these instances sound familiar? Atleast to me, they do! And it's actually a widely discussed phenomenon. (I can't recall the name though!)

Anything new you come across, starts crossing your path again and again! I used to wonder why this happens, and how it's possible! It then struck me, that it's no big deal, it's just got to do with how the human brain works. It's not like you wouldn't have come across the new term earlier, but now that it has come to your notice, you pay attention to it every time you hear or read about it. You would not have spotted it or realised that you had seen it earlier, 'cos you didn't know about it!

The best part about this phenomenon - now that you've read about it, be sure that you'll come across it somewhere else, very soon! ;)

It happens only in India :)

We often complain about a lot of things that aren't alright in India. Sometimes we wish that India was more developed and that things were better or more organised. But behind all the imperfections lie certain experiences that we all truly cherish... some of which make life a little more exciting!

We complain about the bad roads and water logging in the rainy season... but don't we have memories of paper boats, playing in the water and taking a ride on the road just to see the water splish-splash? We complain about not having electricity at times... but do we not have memories of having unexpected candle light dinners with family, making shapes with our hands and projecting them on the wall? Where else can you make a local call for as low as 10p/min? Where else can you still buy a toffee for 50p? Where else can you play cricket on the street and get away with situps for breaking your neighbour's window? We complain about infrastructure... but where else can you find a handy cobbler or tailor right across your house on the street, in every locality? Where else can you say that the yummiest chaat is the roadside chaat? :D And on a lighter note, even if you are late anywhere, you can always blame it on the traffic ;)

We might have a lot of things that need improvement... but there are certain other things that we cannot find anywhere else in the world :) I love my India :)

Names changed on request!

You must've have come across this phrase while reading articles in a magazine or newspaper. Usually, when it is a real life story with certain personal or embarrassing details, the actual name of the person isn't divulged and another random name is used. At the bottom of the article there is one single note for all the changed names as the newspapers have to mention it to ascertain it's genuineness. Hence, when you read the article, you go with the flow and you don't care about the names used, 'cos even if the names are common, in all likelihood you wouldn't know the person mentioned in the article. And you don't care.

That makes sense.

But many a time I come across articles where the sentence goes like this.

"Ramya, an electrical engineering student from BITS (name changed on request), was walking back to her hostel after class when..." This would probably be followed by a few other people whose names had been changed and this would be mentioned in brackets for every name changed, all in the same article.

I find this a little stupid, and frankly I don't understand the purpose of mentioning it every time, instead of just writing it once in small print at the end of the article. Somehow I find myself concentrating more on the names of the people than the incident itself while reading the article. And then I start commenting on why they had to use such a weird name, with a pseudo initial as well! There are so many nice and pleasant names, but no, they find the most obscure names on the planet and print it.

Just a random post - I'm just amused that at times, I concentrate more on the names than the actual important content in the article. ;)

Sorry? Ejjjaaaaclty! :P

For those who don't know, this is a famous dialogue from the movie Salaam Namaste. The context isn't important, and it's not like it made much sense in the movie anyway, hehe. What I'm going to write about is completely unrelated to the above, however, this is the best title I could think of for my post.

These days all of us use earphones a lot, though we know that they damage our ear drums and our hearing abilities will deteriorate over time. I've also read that the usage of ear phones increases the bacteria in our ears 700-fold! I even see young children aged 7-8 using earphones.

I was wondering... since this trend has begun only with our generation, no one has really seen what earphone usage will do to us when we get old. Or may be we won't have to wait to grow that old to find out. But we still use it anyway. (I do too. Not so much these days but I used to.)

I guess it won't be long before our hearing will become such that if anyone said anything to us, we would say, "Sorry?" And then...The little earphone devil would say "Ejjjaaaactly.. what I was hoping would happen to you!!"

:P

Dear Sir or Madman...

I came across some actual blunders made by job seekers in Reader's Digest.. they're hilarious!

- I am sure you have looked through several resumes with the same information about work experience, education, and references. I am not going to give you any of that stuff.

- My mother delivered me without anaesthesia, so I have an IQ of 146 and can therefore learn anything.

- I realize that my total lack of appropriate experience may concern those considering me for employment.

- I have integrity, so I will not steal office supplies and take them home.

- Please don't regard my 14 positions as job-hopping. I never once quit a job.

- I'm attacking my CV for your review.

- I realized that my resume is no longer exemplary thanks to my family destroying the computer file.

- Here are my qualifications for you to overlook.

- Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you shorty!

Happy Birthday Soleil :D

Soleil realised in semester x that Confused Soul and Cookie Monster were cousins.

Clue 4: In RVR, go to level x and find dudette x.

=)

Do these questions have answers?

I read this poem somewhere:

If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly, and pray the Lord your soul to keep.
If I knew it would be the last time that I'd see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss, and call you back for just one more.

If I knew it would be the last time I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would tape each word and action, and play them back throughout my days
If I knew it would be the last time, I would spare an extra minute or two,
To stop and say "I love you," instead of assuming you know I do.

So just in case tomorrow never comes, and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you, and I hope we never will forget.
Tomorrow is not promised to anyone, young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance you get to hold your loved one tight.

So if you're waiting for tomorrow, why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes, you'll surely regret the day
That you didn't take that extra time for a smile, a hug, or a kiss,
And you were too busy to grant someone, what turned out
to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today, and whisper in their ear,
That you love them very much, and you'll always hold them dear.
Take time to say "I'm sorry," "Please forgive me," "Thank you" or "It's okay",
And if tomorrow never comes, you'll have no regrets about today.

They say you should always leave loved ones with loving words, 'coz you never know.. it may be the last time you see them. But is that how life works? Every day of your life when you talk to your family, friends, etc., is this what you think about? If you have an argument with someone and you decide to give the other person time to cool down before you talk again, is that not contradictory to what I first said? Or do these feelings come in only when you do lose someone and then fade away? Do we actually have the time these days to think about all this? Should we even think about all this? Should we not live life to fullest?

They say life is short.. is it really? If you've lived 20 years, isn't that a long long time? They say you shouldn't let little things bother you.. they say you must forgive and forget.. If you're upset because of someone or something for one day, is that bad? If 20 years is a long time, how small is one day? How can you live everyday just being happy? They say you should everyday as if it was your last.. Can you do that? If people say things to you and don't behave well, should you let that go? What happens to your feelings? You give someone time to get alright, but even during that time, doesn't it matter to you how that person behaves? Isn't life made up of little things anyway? And if they say life is short, then every little thing should count, right?

What is life really all about?

Don't worry, be happy!

Sometimes I wonder why things that happen in our lives, happen at all. 'Coz some of these things change your life entirely - may be forever. You wish that some things never happened, or certain other things happened - but what we always forget is that if everything happened our way, wouldn't life become too predictable and boring? You would just say "I want it that way" and it would happen - no, that's not what life is all about. You need to experience unexpected things and derive excitement and happiness from those things, cos if there are no chanllenges, there's no excitement. Challenges come in 3 categories - easy, difficult, impossible. Those who take on the easy alone have a boring and staright forward life. Those who take on the difficult have a tough but satisfying life. Those who take on the impossible are remembered forever! (I read this quote somewhere) Always remember - all that happens, happens for good. If God does not give you everything you want, it is because there is a reason behind it - and it is for your good. Time will teach you everything, even if you don't understand it at the moment. 'Coz time is the greatest healer..

The return of Confused Soul.. :P

It's been exactly a year since my last post. I don't really know why - I guess I just lost interest in blogging, or 'cos there were other things happening in my life, or as always, I didn't know what to blog about :) But now I'm back, and I hope to continue blogging the way I used to!

What really inspired this post was my trip to Banaras (also known as Varanasi), in UP. I went there with my mom and her mom - my granny, cos my granny wanted to take me to a few temples in and around Banaras. And I must say it was an eye-opening experience. I don't have any pictures with me unfortunately, I wish I had taken some.

~The roads, if I could call them that, were just pure mud. Stones and puddles all over, it was a complete mess. And such narrow streets! I wonder how people manage to drive there! And I am surprised people there haven't turned deaf - every single vehicle on the streets honks continuously.

~Traffic - my definition of it in Banaras: It's an ocean full of fish swimming in all directions - you find your way through and try not to get hit. Lol.. It was pretty hilarious.

~Temples. People go there with so much devotion, but the way everything has become so commercial, it is really sad. You can't visit any temple in peace. Right from the time you are half a km away from the temple, pandits come to you from nowhere and follow you till you reach the temple, offering you a good darshan in a short time, buying all the necessary items for the pooja, etc. There are a million shops selling things that are offered to God - prasad, flowers, milk, coconut, etc. and all the vendors call out to you to go and buy from their shop. You just cannot enter the temple in peace. As if this is not bad enough, you have beggars before you enter the temple, inside the temple, and when you are out, asking you for money. There are some who say they sweep the temple and so ask for money. Don't we put enough in hundis for the management of the temple? Then they say things like you will get a good spouse, make good money in business if you give them money. The problem is also that if you give any one needy person a few coins, the rest will come crowd around you. Everything has become so commercialized - it was a sad sight.

~Tourists. All the Indians treat tourists like they are Gods or some aliens from outer space. I wonder what impression they get of India. All the Indians try to make as much money from the tourists and I wonder if they resort to cheating them in doing so, by giving them false information or charging them exorbitant amounts. At the station, this foreigner was taking snaps of a little girl cleaning the railway tracks.

~Train arrival announcements. My train was late by a couple of hours. While we were waiting at the station, each train's arrival brought with it - *Ting ting ting*, then the announcement in Hindi, then in English, repeated atleast twelve times each! When the current went off a couple of times, I was so happy! Lol.. But it came back in a minute each time.. The announcements were really very annoying.. they were too loud, and were made too many times. And there was absolutely no mention about my train being late for the two hours that we waited. We were wondering if we had missed the train or something.

India is such a beautiful place. It has so much to offer in terms of culture and traditions, monuments, temples, etc. It has already become such a popular tourist destination. Rajasthan was full of tourists when I went there. I hope the government takes steps to put some systems into place, and to make potential tourist spots clean and organized, with good systems into place for tourists to get reliable information and to get bookings done. And when it comes to Indian devotees visiting temples and the like, I hope something is done so that we can have hassle-free and peaceful visits to religious places.

Mummy... it's over!

Yesterday was the last day of my two-month long internship at IBN. In a way, I was really happy that I wouldn't have to go to work anymore, but another part of me knew I would miss the place terribly.. and the fun I had during my internship.. both at IBN and at NUS..

I'm going to miss sleeping after midnight, most often at 1-2 and then snoozing the alarm a hundred times in the morning! Taking the NUS shuttle bus and then waiting for the Biopolis one next to NUH.. Waking up late on weekends and having lots of fun! Coming back from work and going swimming, playing cards, going out for dinner or for a movie, or simply watching movies on the comp.. [I've lost count of how many I've watched this summer!]

I'll miss the fun times at IBN.. the friends I made there over the course of two months.. a couple of whom I got really close to.. I wonder if I'll ever see them again, coz one of them lives in the US. It's a strange feeling, when you see someone everyday for 2 months, discuss your everyday events with them.. only to realize that you might never see that person again.. :( The messages that I would get the moment the clock struck 12.. saying "Lunch!! I'm hungry!".. getting my non-Indian friends to eat at Annalakshmi with me.. explaining to them what each dish was.. deciding how much to pay! Frequent visits to the IBN pantry to make milo or just to have cold water and read the newspapers.. waiting for the blessed 6 o clock.. having one hour breaks while doing an experiment [You get loads of these in research :P].. wearing my lab-coat and gloves and getting the feeling of being a dentist or something.. getting irritated when I had to do certain irritating and repetitive procedures.. getting instructions from my mentor.. talking about general stuff with her [She's only 5 years older], cracking jokes with people around..

It was a truly memorable experience.. I learnt a lot, and had fun all the same. At IBN, they don't call it 'internship'.. they call it 'attachment'.. Need I say more?

The worth of weekends!

Ever since I've started interning, I've really looked forward to the weekend. I'm not implying that I get bored at work or I'm not liking it, it's just that after a 9-6 week, you look forward to: the Friday evening when you can go out, have fun and get back however late you want.. the Saturday and Sunday mornings when you can get up at noon if you wish.. the movies you can watch at the theater and not just on the comp.. the book you were half way through, you can now complete.. meet all your friends who are working too and whom you don't get to meet during the week..

I had this feeling after the very first week of work! And I know many of my friends felt the same way too.. Even during the week, I used to have fun after work - we would go swimming, have dinner and then play cards or watch a movie. It had become a sort of a routine. But still, weekends have their own charm.. During the semester whenever my dad used to ask me "So, what plans for the weekend? Or simply "What plans for Sunday?", I would go like "Nothing much, just usual, might go out for lunch or dinner".. and most often, since it would be mid-term time or exam time.. "What else but study?". I never realized the worth of weekends then. But now, after working 5 days I week, I really look forward to Friday evenings.. sometimes, I start longing for it from Wednesday itself, especially if plans had been made for the weekend in advance.

Somehow, even when I was in school, I never felt weekends were so very special. May be because school just wasn't as taxing in the lower classes, nor as long as an entire day or work at office.. And after Std.10, the weekend just meant more time to study! I can't believe it now! So I would actually look forward to the weekends in this case, but for a different reason! After having experienced a tiny bit of how work life is going to be, now I realize why my dad loves to laze around on Sundays at home. He really relaxes, in the true sense of the word. He doesn't mind if we don't go out or do anything special on Sundays, but the very fact that he gets and entire day to relax is enough. Sometimes, my mom tells me, we should go on a holiday soon, your dad hasn't had one in a while. I never realized how much my dad needed it, or the value of it, until I started working myself. The value of getting a day/week off. Of getting time alone, of getting time to relax, to spend with your family.

A short internship has taught me so much! And it's just an internship. What it is going to be like when I start working? I will just have to wait and watch! :)

Change.. finally!

The much needed change in my template! :)
And so far, my shortest post :P

Whatever! :(

~ Three of my sandals/slippers have snapped in the last four days. Coincidence? Just plain bad luck? The first, while I was walking towards the library. I had no choice but to carry it in my hand and walk into the library. After borrowing the book I wanted to, I asked the librarian for some tape. My sandals were fine after that, for exactly ten seconds. So I walked from the library to the bus stop holding the sandals in my hand again! About 15 people stared at me, some of them more than once (!), and one old uncle walking towards me looked at me and started laughing! I joined him! The whole thing was pretty hilarious. I was as amused at their reactions as they were about me walking barefoot, sandals in hand. I was wondering why they were so amused.. When their slippers snap, is this not what they do? I feel it is better to walk barefoot with a pair of broken slippers in your hand, than just walking barefoot on the pavement!

Coming to the second pair of sandals, one of them snapped when I was crossing the road in Holland Village, and the other, half an hour later in Clarke Quay! But this time, they had snapped such that a little bit of tape kept the sandals in walkable condition till I got back to campus.

The third - well, my bathroom slippers. All three pairs are lying in some garbage can somewhere! I guess it's high time I went footwear shopping!

~ I've been swimming at SRC for the past few days.I meet Macho Girl at the bus stop outside MPSH and we go to the pool together. I usually take the A1 from PGP, but today I decided to take the A2 since I had to return the book I borrowed the other day from Hon Sui Sen Library. Since I didn't want to keep Macho Girl waiting, I decided to do this: Get off at the biz2 stop, run quickly to the lib, put the book into the 'book drop' machine, run to the Tamasek bus stop and catch the same A2, which would take time to get there coz it would have to go through the business loop, plus I saw it caught in some kind of a mini traffic jam opposite KR. It went off as I had planned, just that I reached the Tamasek stop huffing and puffing. Finally reached the pool, only to realize that I had forgotten my costume!! Everything else was there - goggles, cap, towel, sarong, only my costume was missing. Wonderful. So much for getting almost breathless to catch that A2 and not keep MG waiting! Going to keep her waiting for a day now!

~ We booked seats for HP5 online, and then site then directed us to the online payment section. But somehow, the transaction got cancelled. So we decided to start over. But to our dismay, the seats that we had planned to book (they were good seats) now showed the status 'blocked'!! Blocked by us! But we had received no confirmation ID or anything for us to go claim it again! We felt like such fools. But luckily for us, the site said that seats get blocked if a transaction stops midway, but after 15 minutes if it is still not completed, the seats become available again. Thank God! We finally got our seats back a little later!

~ This post seriously proves the fact that I am a confused soul, doesn't it? :P And when one is talking about me, how can lame jokes not come into the picture? Cookie Monster and me had gone to Macho girl's place for dinner on Sunday. But it started raining really heavily and we were kind of stranded at her place! Haha.. So Macho suggested we stay over at her place.. but both cookie monster and me had the same problem - both of us didn't have our lens solution and couldn't sleep with it on. Macho asked if water would do. We said yes. So she said, 'There you go! We found the solution to our problem!' And immediately I pointed out the lame joke in it, and so did cookie monster.. I guess I'm getting everyone around me to think just like me! :P

07.07.07

Back in school, I used to love writing such dates in my note books. I think the first one was 9.9.99 and then it came every year with 01.01.01, 02.02.02 and so on. It just looks so nice.. you can't tell the difference between the day, month or year, and it's like you're in a totally different world and time seems to have no bounds!

Anyway, this year there is something very special about this day. The new seven wonders of the world are going to be announced today - on 07.07.07 @ Lisbon, Portugal. After 2200 years of having had seven wonders of the 'ancient world', today we will have seven new wonders of the world! People from all over the world have voted for their favourite seven wonders. It has been unanimously decided that the Pyramids require no voting, and it is already one of the new seven wonders. So that leaves six more. You can see the nominees here. I voted too!There is a grand presentation ceremony which is going to happen tonight, and our very own Bipasha Basu is one of the few people presenting the awards! I so wish the Taj Mahal retains its place as a Wonder of the World! But only time will tell.. I can't wait to see the results! Well, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed.. :)

**********************************************************************************
The resutls are out, the Taj Mahal is in! Yipee :D Congrats to India, thanks to all the people who voted for it! The Great Wall of China, Jordan's Petra, Brazil's statue of Christ the Redeemer, Peru's Machu Picchu, Rome's Colosseum and Mexico's Chichen Itza pyramid and of course, the Pyramids of Giza are the other new wonders of the world.

Truly a wonder of the world.. Forever..

Why?

I realised only a few days ago that a chinese cluster mate of mine, living two rooms away from mine, is also interning where I am (IBN). I happened to see her in the Biopolis shuttle bus a few times and also in the lift at IBN. I'm pretty sure that by now, even she has realised the same thing. [Unless of course, she is totally oblivious to her surroundings! She actually helped me with a little problem I had with my lens one day just before I was leaving for work, so she's definitely seen me around!But at that time I didn't know she was interning at IBN too.]

We live in the same cluster, go to work at the same place and travel by the same bus everyday. And yet, we haven't said a 'hi' to each other or even smiled at each other! At one of our safety briefings, she was sitting in front of me, and when she turned around a couple of times and saw me, I thought I'd tell her that she was my cluster mate, but her face was totally expressionless and her body language seemed to indicate that she was not interested. So I decided against it. It's been a while now, and we still haven't spoken to each other.. I wonder why..

Is it because we are clannish and don't really like to mingle with other kinds of people?
Or is it because we have too many friends anyway and so we don't need another one?
Or we have our iPod's to keep us company on the way to work..who wants a person to talk to?
Or we just don't care about our neighbours, sometimes we don't even know who they are!
Or may be, we're just not the friendly-and-mingling-type anymore?

Milo protocol!

Warning:This post will seem hilarious only if you have experienced lab work, and have undergone the various safety briefings!!

I'm currently interning at A-Star IBN (Insitute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology) at Biopolis. Today, a couple of my friends at IBN and me went to the pantry on our floor to make milo. Each floor has a pantry and each pantry has a bottle of coffee powder, milo, tea bags, creamer and sugar, and a small box of biscuits/cookies. We wanted to make the milo and freeze it, and have it later when it became a little solidified. I had tried it before and it tasted really good, so I decided to make it again, for all of us. But there was a small problem. The first time I had tried it was in my first week of internship. Today, after 4 weeks at IBN, this is what was in my mind when I made the milo..

1. Wear your lab coat and gloves. Spray your gloves with 70% ethanol to keep it germ-free.
2. Spray the table with ethanol and wipe it with tissue.
3. Take 4 fresh autoclaved cups from the stack of cups covered by plastic, don't take it from anywhere else! And don't forget to label your cups.
4. Add 25g of milo reagent to each cup.
5. Add 10g of creamer to each cup, but make sure you don't touch the spoon to the milo reagent that's already inside the cup. If you do, use a new spoon.
6. Add 10g of sucrose reagent to each cup if you want to drink hot milo. If not, add 14g, because in conditions below zero degrees, the sucrose is less effective. Make sure you don't touch the spoon around, if not use new ones.
7. From the water boiler, add MilliQ water to each cup.
8. Since u have added the same reagent to each cup, u can use the same spatula for all the cups. Vortex. Clean the spatula with the delicate 'KimWipes' and place it back.
9. Clean your work area with ethanol.
10. Spray your gloves with ethanol and also the door handle of the freezer.
11. Put the milo cups inside. Make sure that the pantry door is closed when you open the freezer door.
12. After you finish drinking the milo, please dispose off the cups in the 'general waste' bin and the gloves in the 'biohazard' bin.

One month of work and this is how I think about non-lab activities!!
And I still have 5 weeks to go..