Madhu's Musings

  T he ongoing pandemic has irreversibly changed many aspects of our lives. Still, recently I stumbled upon a new discovery, a new life lesson when I was studying Covid-19 immunological protection data from an instrument called Flowcytometer for vaccine studies. As a lifelong student of life, I gained an insight that I could never manage for the last twenty years of my professional life. Earlier, I found the instrument a little complex and too scientific. I could have never imagined that it would teach me something besides science one day. A life lesson. The flow cytometer is a versatile instrument used for the immunological analysis of any cancer, infectious, or genetically abnormal cells. Basically, cells are tagged/colored with a fluorescent dye and made to pass through a laser beam. The cells are then analyzed based on their size and quality and on an attached computer system. Before all this, blood samples have to be processed to be analyzed by laser beams. However much care i...

"That's the thing about unhappiness. All it takes is for something worse to come along, and you realize it was actually happiness after all." I was watching The Crown on Netflix the other day. Queen Elizabeth commented after President Kennedy's death when her mother asked about Jackie Kennedy's unhappiness. As a lifelong student of life, these words of Queen made a lasting impression on my mind. As human beings, aren't we generally programmed to keep taking things for granted until it's lost or taken away? We tend to believe unhappiness to be real and happiness to be some distant goal that needs to be achieved. Rarely we human beings are contended with what 'it is,' only to be shaken out of the slumber when that 'it is' is lost or gone forever. The words from the Queen were nothing extraordinary, and we all know such words of wisdom, but sometimes some words impact us more than others. Whenever I feel dissatisfied with anything or, for tha...

 I recently watched The Lord of the Rings, much after my son's insistence, as I am not much of a movie person. I remember watching it in bits and pieces when it was released, but as usual, it didn't interest me. Perhaps this time also, I would have given up but for my son's persistence. And honestly speaking, maybe that might be one of the best spiritual learning for me. The movie seems to be a lot like the Mahabharata war, where good wins over evil after much chaos and destruction. Many things reminded me of our Bhagwat Gita, where all Krishna had to convince the reluctant Arjun to fight the war besides supporting him throughout the epic battle. Somehow the friendship between Frodo and Sam was like Arjun and Krishna. From beginning to end, Sam remains his unconditional friend who leaves nothing to support Frodo. But as the movie unfolds, like Arjun', Frodo has to carry the task of throwing the Ring in the fire, however difficult it is. "Maybe I can't carry it ...