My Identity

As Matt damon tried to find out his own identity in the bourne series i am in a constant fight with my ego to find out my true identity. The identity which i am referring to is not my name or some thing but what i want to conquer actually in my life. It really began when i took B.Pharm in reputed university in india.As the career options are less in pharmacy when compared to IT i decided to take an Elective course called OOPS (Object oriented programming) in my second year second semester to turn my career to the IT side.But I dropped the course as it is too early to take such an elective for a mediocre guy like me in computer programming.Then happened the twist of my career which an vertical transfer to M.Pharm. A notice was put up in the academics notice board saying that B.Pharm people of the second year can apply for the vertical transfer to M.Pharm.Initially the idea didn't interest me,but as many of my friends applied for it i also started thinking about the pros and cons of it.Finally i applied for it the day before the deadline.To my surprise i got it. I got the vertical transfer to M.Pharm.

After this i heard many positive and negative reasons behind the offering of M.Pharm vertical transfer programme in the second year for the first time ever in my university.After this every thing changed.My interests towards IT started to diminish gradually and my pharmacy interests started evolving.It was my 3rd year and i must definitely take an lab oriented project as per the curriculum.So here comes the other twist.I went to faculty of pharmaceutics (A division of pharmacy) for projects and they all said the project slots are filled up. So at that point i went for the medicinal chemistry (A division of pharmacy) faculty for projects and they offered me projects.

Later i came to know that the career options in medicinal chemistry is even less when compared to pharmaceutics.Even knowing this i developed interests in medicinal chemistry throughout my M.Pharm and did all my projects, elective courses and thesis in medicinal chemistry. This is the phase where i started to hate pharmaceutics may be because of the faculty or the subject itself. In the last year of my M.Pharm i decided to do my PhD in medicinal chemistry from United states of America.

Now came the time for campus interviews and i had very few pharma companies to attend for interviews.All my friends made very good jobs in many IT firms, BPO, KPO & other pharma companies. I made a job in an decent company whose name i have never heard of and that too in product development division which is pharmaceutics. Can you believe it i was placed the field which i hate the most. I had no other options left because i was rejected in other interviews as well. Most of my Friends had at least two jobs in their hand.Then comes my external project which is called practice school in my university. Seeing the huge money (20K) as stipend i opted for the project in the field that i hate the most in an reputed firm.This is first time in history of pharmacy in BITS pilani Pharmites were offered 20K as stipend.At last i did my practice school project in the field that i hate the most.

After my project for six months i went out to join the firm in which i was placed. On the first day i requested them to place me in another department other than pharmaceutics and they considered my request and placed me in an department called regulatory affairs.MY hearty thanks to my company.The next episode is trying for the PhD which is for the duration of 5 years (a significant period of my life) in medicinal chemistry.Recently i found out from my seniors that even after i do my PhD in medicinal chemistry in a decent university in US i have no guarantee to find a job in my field of interest which is drug discovery.

Even then some invisible force is pushing me to do my PhD in the field of my interest. During my campus interviews a CEO of an company asked me what i want to do exactly in my life, I simply answered him saying that i want to be in the driving force for the development of at least three new drugs.This is the impact that the medicinal chemistry has created on me.I don't know my future plans if i don't get an PhD admission.I am still thriving to fight my ego to establish my true identity. This fight will continue throughout my life time until my satisfaction ends it.

The F-Factor Reduces a Bit

I am posting this topic as an concluding point to my previous post. The F-factor (Federer- Factor) reduced a bit in tennis after the loss of federer to rafel nadal in Wimbledon 2008. I strongly think that this factor will come up or return back to its normal in a very strong way. It was a beautiful match between the two giants for nearly 5 hours and its also the longest final ever.I was really disappointed seeing the loss of federer to Nadal.I think this is first final in which federer didn't shed any tears for his terrible loss in his favourite court. "I tried everything" were the words utterred by federer during the award ceremony. Finally i want to warn nadal that the No. 1 will come to you very strongly......beware u rafa and federer rocks. I strongly believe that federer will take the french open 2009 from nadal.

Image courtesy: Getty images/ C. Brunskill, from the Wimbledom 2008 website. ©Getty Images / C. Brunskill

"It Happens Again for the Third Time on the Royal Grass"

Though i am not an ardent follower of tennis from my childhood but it started to interest me a few years back. I don't watch all the tennis happening on the globe but follow all the grand slams. I think grand slams are the games where most players fight to match their opponents skills. The reason can be any thing like money involved, prestige, rankings etc...

Tomorrow is the day which the swiz and the Spaniard fight again on the royal grass at Wimbledon 2008. Yes i am talking about the two gentleman in tennis Roger Federer & Rafel Nadal. The intensity of the fight between the two player on grass is growing every year. This supported by the fact that Rafa was once not the hot favourite of the spectators when he first met Roger in 2004. People taught that Rafa was no match to skills and wits of Roger when it comes to grass though the former may be a king on clay outwitting the Roger consecutively for three times at french open. But now this year means in the year of 2008 people are not confident enough to say that federer can win this final on grass which simply means that Rafa has greatly improved his skills on grass and he is not an easy give away. He is also the hot favourite of the Wimbledon 2008.

Though there is a lot of rivalry between these two players on court but off court it seems that are good friends. This friendship is a kind of one that comes from the respect that they give to each other in terms of the game. I want to tell you something about their friendship which i have read on gaurdian.co.uk "once roger got injured in 2005, and was on crutches in Basle, Rafa went to visit him in his hotel and they talked for 20 minutes. Then, a few months later when Rafa got injured and could not play in the Australian Open of 2006, Roger phoned him and consoled him". This is good right.

Coming to the game Roger according to me is a kind of player who has been for many years faced many losses and then came to the top. He worked a lot correcting his errors and improving his play to get to this level.Basically right handed he has a good and powerful fore hand, good touch and moves brilliantly on the court. He is also a good shot maker too. I like his single handed backhand though its not that strong with respect to high raising backhands. I think i have learnt playing back hand in table tennis seeing him only. I play 90% of table tennis with my back hand only. On the other hand Rafa is basically a topspin baseline player who keeps a lager margin for error in his play means always plays in safe side doesn't take any risks of moving to the nets. The one thing i like the most about rafa is his good determination and excellent athletic skills. People say that rafa plays every point as a his match point. This is really good and he is mentally strong. His serve is not that great when compared to federer and not a point winner. He plays two handed back hand and basically he is left handed.

In tomorrow's play i think rafa will come full on federer with all his skills especially his topspin. But i think that federer is going to revert it back and can beat rafa.Lets see what happens....FEDERER ROCKS ON GRASS!!!!!!!!!

Image courtesy: Julian Finney / Getty Images (Taken basically from About.com: tennis)