The Action Potential

For Rhanor GIllette's course's final exam we had a bonus question where we could write a poem on any topic from the subject. I wrote this poem.

The membrane thought it would form a selective wall

Not let Sodium in at all

But along came acetylcholine

Sat on its receptor named after nicotine

And forced the beginning of a positive free-for-all.

And so was set the podium

For the opening of of the voltage gated channels for Sodium

But the neuron thought it would be unfair

For Sodium to have all the fun's share

And so opened the channels for potassium.

The results of this normalization

Was that the cell saw hyperpolarization

But the membrane thought it would be prudential

To return to its resting potential

Ans so soon it reached its native configuration.

Its Over

Dear Dairy Milk

I will get straight to the point as I feel it will be better for the both of us. I know this may be tough to hear, but the beautiful relationship that we shared is over.

You know I loved you. I really did. In fact when I left the Indian shores I wasn't sure how I would cope with missing you and my my bro, the Alphonso mango.

After coming here, every moment I stepped out, there was someone tempting me. But I resisted. I swear I did. I knew you would be waiting. But at the end of a long and hard day, with the prospect of spending the evening alone looming large, I just couldn't stop myself from giving in. I assumed it was going to be just a one night stand. A fling to satisfy my pent up emotions. But, the moment I touched her, Lindt extra creamy, I knew that she had taken over all my affections.

I know this may be hard on you. You were extremely lovely. But I have moved on and do not wish to be seen as two timing with you. My emotions, at present arreserved for someone else, and I have a feeling this is going to be a life long love affair.

I hope the best for you. I hope you get many more, and far more worthy admirers!

I was

Yours

Bharat

A study on the relationship between effect on brain function by alcohol and time

Introduction

Ethanol (C2H5OH) is a well studied organic molecule that has wide ranging effects on the human body and applications in a wide variety of industries (Mahadevan, 2008). Ethanol for industrial purposes is normally produced by hydrating ethylene whereas for human consumption is prepared by fermentation of different carbon sources.

Ethanol acts as a depressant of the central nervous system with the principle mode of action involving GABA. The metabolic fate of alcohol in the blood stream is its conversion to actealdehyde by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, principally in the liver. The acetaldehyde produced is further converted to acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase.

The pshychological and physical impact of consumption of alcohol as a recreational drug in the immediate, mid an long term has been subject to intense study. (Thethy & Rajesh, 2006). The behaviour of people after consumption of alcohol has also been analysed. (Rao & Kishore, 2007) But there is very little existing literature on the relationship pattern between time of consuming the alcohol and setting of the various alcohol induced behavioural mores. The present study aims to establish this pattern.

Material and Methods:

Alcohol was obtained from Diageo, Russia (Smirnoff Vodka, 40% alcohol v/v), United Spirits, India (McDowell's No. 1 whisky, 40% alcohol v/v) and Hennesey and Co., France (V.S.O.P cognac, 40% alcohol v/v). Orange juice and carbonated water were obtained from Pepsico India. The alcohol was administered to volunteers under different settings and the effect of the alcohol on the volunteer's behaviour were studied. 60 ml of whisky diluted with 60 ml of carbonated water or 60 ml of vodka diluted with 60 ml of orange juice or 60 ml of cognac were considered as one drink.

After consuming the alcohol the volunteers were evaluated on the sober index. The sober index is a random scale from 0 to 100 with 0 standing for not drunk and a score of 100 attributed when the person loses consciousness, due to excessive drinking. (In colloquial language, person passes out.) A score of 50 is called drunk level 1, a position where brain function has been reduced substantially. A score of 75 is called drunk level 2, where a person loses all control over his brain but is still conscious. This level is also called the "I Love you" stage as many researchers have reported the utterance of this phrase by people who are at this level on the sober index, to random, unconnected people. (Navnit, 2010 )

The score on the sober index was plotted against the time elapsed from T0 (Pronounced as the first two letters in Toast) for various circumstances and the graph obtained.

Results and Discussions:

A clear pattern was established between time elapsed and control over brain function, as represented by the sober index.(Fig 1). The figure was obtained with experiments performed on the author.

The different conditions that were chosen include drinking to completely lose brain function, drinking slowly and with an aim to lose some but not complete brain function, drinking socially and drinking as result of getting one beer complementary with the meal.

Irrespective of the reason for drinking, the rise on the sober index fitted the parabola

y= 4ax^2, where a is a function of rate at which the drinks were consumed.

After the last drink has been consumed, the sober index continues to rise for some time but the rate of rise continually slows down before reaching a peak and then begins to fall. The fall is much slower and forms a slowly descending plateau. All measurements were made only till the volunteer went to sleep. This is the reason why all the graphs end at a point with a value on the sober index and not at 0. The case where more than 8 drinks were consumed, shown in dark blue in the graph at first glance seems like an anomaly. This anomaly developed as the author was in unable to make measurements on the volunteer. But on observations made by the author on other volunteers the pattern was established in this case as well. (Supplementary information. Contact author) In this particular case the loss of brain function is accompanied by many physiological effects including nausea and sometimes violent behaviour.

The graph also shows that anything beyond one drink renders a person ineffective to drive whatever the length of the meal.

Conclusion:

A clear pattern between time and brain function was established. The author believes this empirical relationship can be used as a ready reckoner in cases of arguments over soberness.

References

Mahadevan S., Use of alcohol as lubricant in the imparting of speech to logic gates, 2008, Computer Gutenberg, 5 (2), 205-210

Navnit A, The Love syndrome observed at drunk level Two, 2010, Behaviour, 205, 1504 - 1508

Rao A.S., & Kishore S., The effect of alcohol on people breathing air polluted with burning grass, 2007, Acta Narcotica, 78, 90-94

Thethy Begs & Rajesh V., Alcohol as a stimulant: A review, 2006, Presented at the Chemistry and Biochemistry Technical Symposium.

Acknowledgements:

The author wishes to thank Varun Sanghvi for partially funding this research via the grant Golf Course 31710.

Pepper gyaan

I learnt a super interesting funda yesterday. If i had learnt it earlier, it would have been a blockbuster quiz question.

To most of us today pepper is just another thing that spices up your meal. But just 200 years ago it was the prime reason why the European powers decided to take over India and seeing success here a large part of the world.

The word pepper is itself derived from a sanskrit word for the spice. The europeans, especially the rich and powerful ones were completely in love with it. So much so, that in order to find the southwest coast of india, they decided to discover alternate sea routes and ended up in the Americas. Here they saw another plant was used to spice up the food and decided to name it chilli pepper after the only other spicing agent they knew.

This is where it begins to get interesting.

This plant was more adaptable and could grow in a wide variety of climates. They brought it back to Europe and also spread it to the old world. In hindi it is called mirchi. Slowly it spread across india and became ubiquitous as the primary spicing agent. Well plants from one part of the globe are transported to another. This has happened to any plants. What is the big deal.

This is what happened. The mirchi became so ubiquitous that in a cruel irony of fate, today pepper in hindi is called kali mirch.

So in the west the relatively new spice agent is called chilli 'pepper' whereas in India the original pepper is today named after the chilli as kali mirch!

Of atheists and superstitions

I was wondering, if atheists have any right to be superstitious. This thought has been running in my head for quite some while.

I remember seeing in a quiz somewhere, a trivia about eastman's statue at M.I.T. To get good grades many students would rub his nose. Similarly outside C.B.T, Anna University is the infamous arrear stone. No self respecting 9 pointer except Suhas (who should not be counted anyway, as he is not self respecting) would sit on that. I am not trying to say that universities have only athiests. They do have a higher number of people who claim to be, but that still boils down to an extremely low percentage. Universities thought should definitely have a higher percentage of rational thinkers. These two legends, actually put this thought in my head. Ok, so universities have superstitious people. Lets see what can be worse. Atheists.

Then I began thinking. I consider myself an atheist. Not the confused agnostic. Atheist. God doesn't give a damn to the nitty gritties of my life. I don't give a damn to his. But in a lot of matters I am extremely superstitious. Whenever I start something I cross my fingers. When I was in class 2 there was this teacher who said if a train was going on a bridge above you and you crossed your finger and made a wish it will come true. I still follow that religiously :) . Not many have come true, but I still make a wish none the less. Now, do not come to the conclusion I am irrational. In most cases I am not. Except probably these two idiosyncrasies.

Well before i digressed to give you my story, I was thinking. And this thought led me to my theory and I came to the conclusion that atheists not only have a right to be superstitious, they are also more likely to be. Sounds counter intuitive. This is my argument.

Whether you are a believer or an atheist or confused, probability still sticks to the same rules. You win some you lose some. Some days you are the bug, some days you are the wind shield. So faced with a situation where chances of success and failure are the same, everyone wants to do something that will improve their chances of success. I mean, over and above all the possible effort that can be put into the particular thing you are working on.

So a Ganesh Bhakt will go and break a coconut. This is an expression of faith. In case it doesn't work he will just complain. Ganesha, you cheated me even after taking the coconut. Its alright next time I'll break 2 coconuts. Bribery made. Probabily of failure two times in a row anyway lesser. Chance of success higher, and ganesha gets credit.

Confronted with the same situation what does an atheist do. He cannot run to ganesha. He knows knocking on that door is pointless, at least for him. Yet, something has to be done to calm down the heart. Additional stone has to be turned to make lady luck smile. So before beginning/ submitting his job, he crosses his fingers. If it still screws up, next time he will have two pairs of fingers crossed. Same story repeat. Chance of success higher. And the crossed fingers worked.

Confronted with a series of defeats ganesh bakht has two choices. Go deeper and deeper into his faith. Believe its a challenge set by God to not lose hope on him and persevere. Or become athiest and start crossing fingers.

The atheist confronted with series of defeats again has two options. He will start thinking of what use were the crossed fingers. Now stop behaving stupid. Persevere and success is around the corner. Or become a ganesh bakht and start breaking coconuts :)

If the atheist did persevere and achieved the success and things became normal once more, there is a high probability he will get back to his superstitions. No harm pushing one's case, and everyone is not Hari Seldon. Even he could not predict individual cases.

The Mosquitoes and me - A story of Blind one sided love

The mosquitoes around Seema Society - they absolutely love me. Every time I come home, you can bet half your fortune that i am going to catch malaria within a month's time. You could claim that my society is close to a huge breeding ground for mosquitoes, but then why is it that only I get malaria and no one else in the building.

I analysed this and came up with a few possible reasons

a) I am a babe magnet: okkkkkkkkk. I'll say it again. okkkkkkkkkkk. I mean how could my brain even come up with that. Agreed its the FEMALE anopheles mosquito, but the other side is you. when was the last time a woman gave you a second glance. Wait a minute, when was the last time a woman gave you a first glance. Ok. Enough. Theory chucked.

b) Personal hygiene: I agree, I do not set very high standards of personal hygiene. In fact if it was possible I will lower it further, but that would be an impossibility. That actually puts me in a good position to realise that its the flies that are attracted to dirt and not mosquitoes. And even if that were not the case everyone else in my house are cleanliness freaks. The house has to be spic and span. Plus they hate mosquitoes, making it a point to deploy chemical repellents to keep them away.(Personally, am neutral. I do not car4e if mosquitoes live or die.) Yet the mosquitoes overcome all this and more to come kiss me in my bedroom. Additional proof that I am the sole object of the mosquitoes longing is that my brother who sleeps in the nearby bed in the same room has never been affected.

c) Virah mein pyar badhtha hai?: Not being at home for longish periods of time, the mosquitoes begin to miss me. So when I do return the mosquitoes shower their love with some sort of vengeance. This is corroborated by the fact that my first bout of malaria was when I returned home before starting 4th year of college. I lived in mumbai before joining college, and after that only for vacations.

Inspite of the anti-malarial drug induced thought (the most likely reason of how i must have come up with option a), I am happy that I had the reasoning power to come up with option c and also conclude that it was the most likely option.

The mosquitoes are losing their sting though. First time their love sent me to the hospital for a week. The second time I was in decently bad state for more than 3 days. This time the affter - effects of their love seems to have lasted just the better part of a day.

Holiday to Ladakh and Kashmir - Paradise

Words, I must say, were simply not designed to describe the beauty of Ladakh completely. In this respect even photos fail to do a convincing job. The place has to be visited to understand how beautiful nature can be.

With this warning behind, I will attempt and describe Ladakh here.

We began our trip, as a group of 13, by flying to Srinagar. This is in the beautiful and green valley of Kashmir. The mountains were decked with pine trees and anyone's imagination of a hill town would be satisfied to a 'T.' Srinagar has two extremely beautiful gardens designed by the Mughal emperors, known as Shalimar Bagh and Nishad Bagh. These were the first places we visited. These gardens are exquisitely laid and were in good bloom. Flowers of various hues and sizes were on display. The lawns were also well maintained. It was the sort of place the poets of the romatic era would have absolutely loved. Wordsworth might as well have written Daffodils here.

The evening was spent on a shikara ride on the beautiful Dal lake. The shikaras in themselves were comfortable and very relaxing. All sort of economic activity happened on the lake via them as well. Photographers came and offered to take our photos in traditional kashmiri attire. There were people selling corn, tea, pakodas etc. There was a floating market where all sorts of handicrafts could be purchases.

After the ride we were dropped at our houseboats, where the night was spent.

Next morning we began our journey towards Ladakh. Our first stop was the meadow of Sonmarg. We had lunch there. Many people offered us a pony ride to the glacier above. We declined and moved on. The mountain pass separating the Kashmir valley from the ladakh region is called the Zojilla pass. La means mountain pass in ladakhi, and ladakh itself means the land of mountain passes, being surrounded by them. Zojilla was snow filled, but not particularly high compared to the other passes we would visit subsequently, but the first experience of snow for this trip was fun nonetheless.

Once the zojilla pass was corssed the typical ladakhi landscape began to emerge. Completely barren mountains, with the taller ones having their peaks covered in snow. A spot of white on top of brown! Till your eyes could see in all directions. And probably, except you, not another soul for miles on end. We did not see a single village between sonmarg and drass which must have been at least a 3.5 hours drive (about 90 kms). Drass is famous for being the second coldest inhabited place in the world with temperatures easily touching -45 C every year, and in 1995 it supposedly touched - 60 C. Drass was also the main theatre of war during 1999. The war memorial for operation Vijay is also located at the edge of this town. Just reading about the exploits of Capt. Vikram Batra, Lt. Manoj Pandey and all the other soldiers who fought in such harsh conditions made our spines shiver and our hearts proud. (We were hard pressed to climb 20 ft at one go. They had to climb 1000s of feet facing fire from above with hardly any place to take cover)

The physical features of the people also changed during this travel across one pass. From the distinctly Arabic in Kashmir to the Mongol looking people of Ladakh. Religion changed from Islam to Buddhism. But one thing was constant. The warmth and hospitality of the people.

The night was spent at Kargil, the biggest town in the Ladakh region.

The next morning we began our journey to Leh. On the way we stopped at Mulbekh. Here there was a small monastery with a huge Buddha carved on stone. Next stop was Lamaiyru, a 1000 year monastery. Within this monastery there was a small cave and a statue of the monk who first brought Buddhism to this region. After crossing Lamauru we caught a glimpse of a place known as "Moonland." This was a region straw yellow in colour with features that looked like a flat but huge anthill, or probably one could say a place with with many holes, from which the name moonland followed. The necessary quota of pictures taken we moved on. Again our only companion was nature, with a village, if at all, seen once in 30 odd kms. During a large part of this journey we meandered along the Indus river. At one point the bank was so extraordinarily beautiful that one would be forgiven to think that the place was in a dream. There were two huge boulders separated by 10 metres right at the bank with about 20 metres of bank behind them and then the road and the mountain. The opposite bank began the mountains. Nature - pure and undistilled. Thankfully it was in such isolated a place. If it was anywhere else someone would have put two tables and started selling lunch at 5000 a couple - stags not allowed.

We drove on. We reached a high plateau with long straight roads. I am certain we could see at least 10 kms of straight at that point. Night halt was in the town of Leh.

The next day was spent in local sight seeing. We first went to the magnetic hill. This place was absolutely brilliant. There was a point on the road marked with white bands. When vehicles were parked there (brought to a complete halt) and the vehicle left in neutral the vehicle would start moving and that too move uphill. I kid you not. I am not making this up. I will upload the video we took. Next we visited the Spituk monastery. To reach the highest point there was a climb of about 100 steps. (Arjun and me decided to check our fitness by running to the the top. Do not be stupid enough to emulate us. Its not fun to feel breathless right at the top. It took us about 5 minutes to reach normalcy. The air is extremely thin. In fact there was a warning at the hotel which said that if you fly directly to leh do nothing for the first 24 hours. this will help you acclimatise to the height and the lack of oxygen!) We also visited the hall of fame - a museum maintained by the ladakh scouts regiment, both about the history of wars in the region and also about local ladakhi tradition.

Next morning we stated on our trip to Pangong lake. The route to the lake was extraordinarily mesmerising and at the same time extraordinarily tough. On the way one had to cross the Chang La pass, which at 17568 ft is one of the highest motorable roads in the world. People who got off to visit the toilets maintained by the army started feeling dizzy due to the low oxygen levels. The roads being continually bettered by the elements were also in a pitiable condition. For those able to take the ride the frame of mind would be "Do not think why the roads are so bad, rather be greatful that roads exist in so beautiful a place." For those who cannot take the poor road conditions, especially on the back of already having travelled 8 hours a day for the last 3 days, the frame of mind would be, " Which corner of hell, albeit granted a beautiful corner, am I?"

The route in itself was breathtaking. At one point there was this extremely narrow valley, about 20 metres wide and a few kilometres long. In the middle of this narrow valley a small stream meandered by. Nothing else in sight!

Finally we reached the lake and with the first look that it presents, the lake breaks your heart with happiness. You absolutely cannot believe the place is for real. It is like you are in the middle of virtual reality. All the photos one take will not be able to give you the full picture. The guy who imagined Pandora could as well die of shame. As grander words, would anyway not do justice, the only way I could describe it is it is an extremely beautiful lake surrounded by snow capped peaks. It is probably the only place, even whose memories I feel so greedy about that I would rather not share. What if, what if, by sharing the memory, I somehow manage to lose it ! (The only other memory I cherish so much is that of monsoons in Mumbai. Sitting on a narrow ledge by the window, doing nothing but see the rains go pitter patter! Something that is happening as I write this piece. My view at present is of the Pipal tree getting soaked by the rains)

Half the group sat by the lake for the evening. Some people left, others came. I was at the banks throughout. The other half was too sick from the travel to venture out and enjoy the place for any considerable length of time.

The next morning the weather played foul and obscured the view of what would definitely have been a brilliant sunrise. Pangong Tso, I'll be back! You needn't have played such games with me to make me come again!

We returned to Leh as per schedule.

Anyway with all this travel, and more in store, four people of the group decided to head back back to Mumbai. My sincere suggestion, to anyone planning a trip and having by mistake chanced on my blog, avoid older and people who do not like to travel much, if visiting ladakh. If you wish they definitely accompany you take them only to leh and our next destination nubra valley.

The road to nubra valley is probably the best in the region though it passes through the highest motorable road in the world - Khardung La pass at 18350 feet. Khardung La being extremely narrow traffic is allowed in only one direction at a time. The days which direction will be given prefernce are known in advance. But due to some erroneous planning by the travel agency we ended up being at the road on the wrong day. So we had to wait for 5 hours at the base of the pass. While waiting I climbed about 150 feet of the mountain. It was tough. I had to stop 2 times to take my breath. But the ladakhi driver who was with me, was climbing as though he was strolling in a park. This disappoints you a bit, but nothing like when you see them climb down. They run don slopes which would be tilted 30 degrees with the vertical. You feel outright stunned when they do that.

After the wait we were on our way. At the La there are banners claiming the world record and also a souvenir shop. We took photos bought souvenirs and were on our way when 150 metres down the road I realised I had forgotten the camera at the shop. The ladakhi driver(Sevom) and me began running as taking a U turn was out of the question. I ran 100 metres. By then Sevom went the whole 150 metres and was back to the point I reached. It may not sound like much, but running 100 metres at 18000 feet is probably the toughest thing I have done till date!

Anyway onwards we proceeded and soon reached Nubra Valley. On the way we stopped at the coldest place of the trip for tea. This was the base of Khardung La on the Nubra side. A place called North Pullu. Tempaerature -10 C. This is their summer. The night was spent in cottages made of bamboo in the town of Sumer.

The next morning was spent going to places in Nubra valley. Nubra valley is like an oasis in the barren Ladakh region. The narrow valley was filled with trees, many of which flowered. The predominant colours of the flowers were pink and violet with a bit of yellow thrown in. Nubra is called the valley of flowers and from what I understand is in full bloom in July and August. In the valley we visited a hot water spring at Panamic and then went to a place called Hunter where there are sand dunes. We had a ride on double humped camels.

After this we began our return to Leh. The driver tried filling diesel at a pump on the way, but the pump was out of stock. Along the way he tried sourcing fuel via black marketers but again to no avail. We moved along anyway. And finally about 2 kms from the top fuel got over. No fuel, no other vehicle in sight and stranded at 18000 feet. No way we could push the vehicle up, and too far to go down. In case you are wondering what we were doing, we were laughing our guts out. And at the same, the older people who gone ahead in another vehicle and had about a 45 minute lead over us anyway were crying as they did not know what happened to us. They had passed through a blizzard earlier. We being late missed it. Anyway as we were waiting without fuel, we slowly saw a truck come uphill. He came and stopped behind us. If he had to proceed he better have extra fuel for us first. And he did have a spare can on him, which he sold us at market price. The truck had good luck written behind it and to us it was luck indeed!

This too may not be much, but again is one of the most adventurous thing that has happened to me!

Finally we were united with the other car, and then moved on our way to Leh. (Till they read this the older people do not know that in addition to being late because we had eaten our food slowly, which was the chief reason for our delay, we were also stranded without diesel for 5 minutes!)

Our plan was to move onwards to manali via the leh - manali highway the next day. But, this year being one of the harshest winters in that area, the highway hadn't yet opened. We took a call and decided to fly back directly to Mumbai. All the flights were fully booked and thus we were forced to fly back business class, entailing an additional cost of Rs. 20,000 per person.

This trip I must say would remain in my head a long time! One thing for certain though, is that Ladakh will be a place I would be visting time and again! There most definitely exists no other place that is so raw, so beautiful, and yet virgin and not damaged by commercial elements as Ladakh!

Note 1: Our drivers, Thinley, Angchok and Chozbel, you Rock. Especially you Thinley! Extraordinarily brilliant driving.

Note 2: Due to addditonal cost of returning business class out total cost was about Rs. 60,000 per person! The budge conscious, if he has time and weather in his favour, as of 2010, can do this trip ex mumbai at about Rs. 25,000 per person, flying one way and returning by train the other.

NOte 3; I will upload all the pictures on Picasa/ Faceebok soon. Will give you the link here once I have done that. Right now in the blog I have refrained from using pictures of known people.

P.S: the link http://picasaweb.google.com/abcde.bharat/LadakhTripPicsAllAlbumsCollated#