chaguturu

indian food

After Centuries, the Vegetarian Feast of India Finally Arrives

yum. indian food. reading this article made me miss my sangeetha's fast food in t. nagar, near pondy bazaar. what i would do for some pongal and sambaar...

human anatomy

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/23/health/23CADA.html

over the years, i know that i've changed, probably for the more conservative or tradition bound ways, thanks to this wonderful process known as medical school.
but this is one thing that i feel strongly about - there really is no substitution to dissecting an actual human body..." which forces the student ... to confront human mortality."

of course, the argument can be said that human mortality is our (medicine's) business, and if we don't confront it in dissection, we will confront it again and again throughout our career. but there is something to be said about the socialization process that brings physicians in training together in those first few months. and honestly, there is very little that deals with human mortality in that visceral, in-your-face way in the first two years of medical school - those are years esentially spent holed up, *hidden* from humanity. curling up with robbin's pathology is not curling up with issues of life and death, and isn't conducive to deep contemplation about the profundity of donating one's own body to the pursuit of science, medicine and education.

however, i can say that in my anatomy lab, the entire class was so moved by the experience that we collectively had a ceremony to honor the gift that the people who taught as anatomy- dead or alive - had given us (bad sentence structure, i know).

i hope that more people consider donating to science. will i do it? my dillema is between donating for education or for transplantation. but regardless someone's gonna get something that'll help someone. and i hope you consider doing it as well.

the other side of outsourcing:

the other side of outsourcing:

well actually, it's more brain drain than outsourcing, but both are a pain at the "glocalization" level. i was just chatting with a nurse here in chennai who has a telephone interview scheduled with saint barnabas health care system of new jersey. there's a huge shortage of nurses in america. there's a plethora of nursing colleges in india. and they speak english. so it's a pretty easy decision for a nurse to choose between a Rs. 4,000 job or a US$ 40,000 job. and for a research center like ours, the loss of quality nursing to america can be difficult.

but once again, friedman. do read:

Op-Ed Columnist: The Great Indian Dream

from slate, william slaetan. Re:

from slate, william slaetan. Re: Kerry flip flops... "Kerry thinks it's the other way around. He's been telling Democrats Bush is "the biggest say-one-thing, do-another" president ever. Yesterday Kerry's campaign responded to Bush's ads by accusing the president of "unsteady leadership." In the Democratic primaries, this accusation worked for Kerry, because liberals think Bush is a liar. But most voters don't, for a good reason: It isn't true. If Kerry makes the election a referendum on Bush's honesty, Bush will win.

How can Kerry persuade moderates to throw out Bush? By turning the president's message against him. Bush is steady and principled. He believes money is better spent by individuals than by the government. He believes the United States should assert its strength in the world. He believes public policy should respect religious faith. Most Americans share these principles and think Bush is sincere about them. The problem Bush has demonstrated in office is that he has no idea how to apply his principles in a changing world. He's a big-picture guy who can't do the job.

From foreign to economic to social policy, Bush's record is a lesson in the limits and perils of conviction. He's too confident to consult a map. He's too strong to heed warnings and too steady to turn the wheel when the road bends. He's too certain to admit error, even after plowing through ditches and telephone poles. He's too preoccupied with principle to understand that principle isn't enough. Watching the stars instead of the road, he has wrecked the budget and the war on terror. Now he's heading for the Constitution. It's time to pull him over and take away the keys."

Confidence Man - The case for Bush is the case against him. By William?Saletan

okay, it's the continuing commentary

okay, it's the continuing commentary of friedman in bangalore.

Op-Ed Columnist: The Secret of Our Sauce

something struck me after a late last fall when travelling in asia (another armchair economic analysis):

china's development is *because* of the government, india's is *despite* of the government.

as friedman writes unapologetically at the end of this article, bangalore is a tough city to work and live in. sure, it has some of the most sophisticated infrastructure in all of india, but it's still rife with problems. and all these beautiful buildings rising up everywhere function as indepndent economies, separated from the government as much as possible.

you don't see that in beijing or shanghai. corporations (state-run for the most part) meld into the beautifully laid highways and ports of these chinese megapolises.

indians love to discuss about why india will rise above china over the next fifty years - arguments range from the patriotic to the racist, economic to the political - but invariably fall upon the fact that 'democracy will prevail'. personally, i hope both will rise up - heresy to whisper in these parts, but anything that provides a better quality of life to two billion people - i can't oppose. additionally, i don't know how much i buy the argument that democracy is provides a better ground for development, though i'm sure my old professor dietrich rueschemeyer at brown undergrad would convincingly argue otherwise (See book: capitalist development and democracy).

but re: innovative thought. i have to agree with friedman when he says that the american education system allows for flexibility in intellectual development. people in india can not fathom why i would take eight years, plus an additional year out, to get a medical degree that can be obtained in five years in india. why would i possibly need to study development and politics to be an effective doctor? why would i spend a year away from school to practice in india? i'm not going to write more about this - i'm sure people who are reading this have bought into one system or another.

back to my last thought... america might be a more innovative society. but i wonder... does that innovation translate into money? america can innovate, but the indians and chinese will find way to make those innovations cheaper and more efficient.

and back to the elections - i've read that only about 4-10% of america's current job loss is due to outsourcing. so what's happened to the other 90 or so percent? that's what bush and kerry have to answer over the next long long eight months.

now THIS is like! Op-Ed

now THIS is like!

Op-Ed Contributor: The Next Best Thing to Being President

quick thoughts: when i think

quick thoughts: when i think about the work-flow platforms of our hiv research units in chennai and providence, it's unbelievable how seamless information flows between the continents. once we've come across a finding, we can upload our data analysis for secondary review, and overnight, researchers on the other side of the world formulate their opinion and send them back to us.

globalization 3.0. i have to agree. i'm in bangalore right now, perhaps down the road from friedman, researching my own ideas with exira technologies (www.exirasoft.com). i've been so taken by this outsourcing business, that i had to investigate some of my own business ideas in healthcare information technologies. let's see how it goes. in the meantime, read on:

Op-Ed Columnist: Small and Smaller

i'm trying to work out

i'm trying to work out a problem today at yrg care. after reviewing the clinical database of the six thousand patients we have seen here at the clinic, we've found that incidence (new cases diagnosed per year) of tuberculosis is rising, despite the increased access to antiretroviral therapy (which should theoretically bring down tb rates). tuberculosis remains the leading infectious cause of death in india, killing close to 500,000 people a year. india has far more cases of tuberculosis than any other country in the world — about 2 million new cases each year — and accounts for nearly one third of prevalent cases globally. i'm scratching my head, trying to figure out exactly what is going on - lots of ideas, but no clear conclusion. but in my research and background reading, i came across a quote that really struck me. it's from the director-general of the world health organization, who said "the whole world benefits from the fruits of indian tuberculosis research - the whole world, except india." (Grzybowski S. Natural history of tuberculosis: epidemiology. Bull Int Union Tuberc Lung Dis 1991;66:193-194.) from the data i'm mulling over, pardon the tasteless pun, but he's dead on.

i agree with most of

i agree with most of what friedman writes about in this article - these jobs do provide a vision of a better future for many people...

but i would go farther than friedman... i know plenty of people here in india who think that call centers are career limiting. it's algorithmic thinking. of course you can make good money, but you aren't forced to learn skills. in a highly competitive market, you can't afford to take two years in a call center to make money and then try to re-enter a software market that's moved light years ahead.

you can't afford to take a call center job if you can afford to take risks for two years with very little pay - thus the middle class and above look higher, the poorer, with the taste of money, are more likely to take these jobs. hightech sweat shops? far from, but just thoughts...

so these call centers jobs are good for those who are looking to make quick money - but lots of graduates shun these jobs for a more entrepreneurial route.

but the end argument of friedman still holds true, if not stronger by what i've seen - these jobs are providing the promise of a better future. and it gives credence to the BJP's campaign - india shining.

the intelligent discussion that needs to happen next is what will happen in america... kerry seems to understand how nuanced and confusing this issue is... but he understands it by not really explicitly taking a stance. neither has bush, really... let's see how this all turns out.

Op-Ed Columnist: 30 Little Turtles

it's becoming increasingly clear that

it's becoming increasingly clear that outsourcing and international free trade is going to be a central issue in this campaign. herbert had mentioned in an earlier article what krugman articulates much more eloquently in this article. and i think it's a rational view of free trade - it's not a win-win situation - there are winners and losers - and domestic safeguards need to be placed with clamping down on economic growth. hopefully a coherent, persuasive argument will emerge in congress that will help US workers (like my mother who was recently layed off) domestically, while lifting up our international trade partners (like my cousin who runs his own software company in bangalore, india).

Op-Ed Columnist: The Trade Tightrope