ARC

In your eyes
I see the tears
Of a love struggling
To find a foothold
On the cold crags
Of my frozen feelings

These words flowed
Like fresh honey
These words purred
Like a snuggling cat
Once upon a time

Some things never change
My solitude
My melancholia
Partners in crime

Strewn
All around me
Are fragments of hope
Scarred and burnt

Eternal
My love
Fleeting
Your smile

                                                                        Perhaps
                                                                        I’m to blame
                                                                        But remember
                                                                        You are not clean
                                                                        You are not a saint
                                                                        Either

                                                                        Don’t waste
                                                                        Your breath
                                                                        Cursing me
                                                                        As you said
                                                                        I’m not worth it

                                                                        Go ahead
                                                                        Blame me
                                                                        For everything
                                                                        You were so good
                                                                        At that anyway

                                                                        Perhaps you forgot
                                                                        The heavy silence I got
                                                                        From you
                                                                        When I had opened
                                                                        My heart
                                                                        For you, twice?

                                                                        My silence
                                                                        Was not
                                                                        Of my own
                                                                        Making

                                                                        You
                                                                        Like many others
                                                                        Refused
                                                                        To cross
                                                                        The doorstep

Your words came
Like the sea
Drowning me
In questions of
What if?

And now the dreams
Can be burnt
In one big bonfire
As farewell signs

Sometime, somewhere
When someone whispers
Look around
It might be me

Somewhere
We will live
And dream
About a love
Left to dry out
In the harsh glare
Of our indifference

Silence
Reigns supreme
Gloating over
Our still-born dreams

In its latest issue, the science journal Nature has produced a special Outlook section on the current state of science, and in particular life science research in India. The articles are uniformly well-written and objective with very little of the usual condescension shown by Western scientific establishments towards Indian science. Together, they give us an insight into how research is done in India and the many problems plaguing it. From a scientific culture which frowns upon independent thinking and instead rewards conformity and obedience to the lack of accountability and appropriate funding, from the lack of proper regulatory frameworks for critical areas like stem cell research and human clinical trials to the heart-warming stories of a handful of research institutes leading the way in life sciences the issues are many.

To name a few; India is still way behind in research spending as a percentage of GDP even when compared to other developing countries like China, Brazil or South Korea. Ayurveda is another crucial area where India is sitting on a goldmine of traditional medicine that could be a potential source for new drugs if only the traditional knowledge is subjected to rigorous scientific analysis. The education system also needs to be upgraded and revamped. The present emphasis on only the theoretical aspects of science should be changed and equal emphasis needs to be placed on the experimental aspects, which are what makes a good scientist in the long run. This is one crucial area, I feel, where science graduates from India in general are behind their Western counterparts. I am a product of the Indian scientific education and have experienced first-hand the deficiencies of the existing system. Most of the crucial experiments in Genetics and Molecular Biology were either demonstrated to us or worse only described. We rarely had hands-on experience over techniques which would be considered standard laboratory work elsewhere and this was in a central university where the standard is much much higher compared to state universities!

But do not despair yet. Things are slowly but surely moving ahead in the right direction. The success of independent research institutes like National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, National Centre for Cell Science, Pune and few others is reason enough to hope for more change. Scientists from these institutes regularly publish in high-impact, peer-reviewed international journals and their numbers are steadily increasing from year to year. Start-up biotech companies like Biocon, Avesthagen and established pharma companies like Dr. Reddy’s, and Ranbaxy are also growing in strength and stature. All that India needs now is good support and direction from the government in terms of funding, less bureaucratic hurdles, and last but not the least, for a critical mass of life-scientists to develop to give research the right push. This could usher in the next revolution, for after IT it might just be the turn of BT!