Cool things I learnt this week

1. About Tunisia!

So I met this girl on the bus and we started talking. She said she was from Tunisia and that she was a graduate student. After we exchanged pleasantries, she said she is a big fan of Indian movies and that as a kid she used to watch Hindi movies with Arabic subtitles all the time. Interesting. I was thinking really hard on what I could say in return about Tunisia .. but I realized I knew nothing. I stuck to "So, Tunisia must be a really beautiful place..". She agreed and then told me proudly about the Tunisian revolution. Apparently, the recent Arab Spring originated in Tunisia. A man who was selling vegetables on the street was humiliated by a policewoman, he tried to complain to higher authorities but of no use, so he attempted to burn himself alive in front of the government headquarters. That led to widespread protests all though the country and finally their authoritarian president fled to Saudi and never came back. Soon, protests started in all the neighboring countries too leading to the wave of revolution in the middle east. Did you know it all started in Tunisia?

2.  Pimm's cup is a cocktail that has Pimm's liqueur, ginger beer, lemon juice and some cucumber juice. It's kind of a refreshing summer drink, but also very potent.

3. Fun-guy po-boys are po-boy sandwiches with deep fried mushrooms instead of sea food. Punny? Yummy too.

4. Japan is so cool. 

Do you guys know about Article 9 of their constitution? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_9_of_the_Japanese_Constitution

And now their football fans! They clean up the stadiums after a match even if they've lost and even if it's not in Japan. Keep it up guys. Arigatou!

5. The polysaccharide that I've been trying to study in lab, does not run on an SDS-PAGE gel because it's probably too large. So I'm going to partially acid-hydrolyze it next.

6. While making paruppusili, after you use the mixie to grind the dal and then steam it, you got to let it dry and then use the food processor to coarse powder it. Works like magic. 

7. What a wedding anniversary feels like. 

Lots of love from friends and family, gifts, flowers, horny wishes from girlfriends, special dinner date, parents reminiscing the actual wedding ceremonies - me not so much, Facebook profile pic change to lovey dovey pic just so that everyone knows its official, a replay of the same dull witted mami jokes that were cracked one year back, a sense of accomplishment followed by wait is this really an accomplishment? and finally a feeling of gratitude for being so privileged.

8. Time flies. So don't sit on your ass and dream of a better world. Get up while you still can and do your part like the Tunisians and the Japanese.

Go Oranje!