Being a Biomedical Engineer in India

 

A young and vibrant girl was extremely excited. As excited as Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit who was going on an adventure. A tedious and difficult journey lay in front of her. She had reached a milestone in her life and was embarking on a new journey to gain more knowledge. She had done a good deal of research before starting on the path she wanted to take. In the beginning, she was confused but after her research, she concluded that although the path she had chosen was less travelled, it was going to be more exciting than the others. More challenging, and more diverse of all the other paths available. She would encounter a variety of subjects on her journey and honestly, that was the part she was looking forward to the most. But little did she know that she was going to be right in the intersection of two warring factions, and none of them would like her.

Sounds like a great beginning for an adventure story, doesn’t it? But let me get more real and tell you that this is not an exciting adventure story. This is about me. I was the young, vibrant girl and that was the time when I was going to start my undergraduate studies majoring in Biomedical Engineering. Who are the two warring factions, you’d ask? Engineers and Doctors. Or my fellow Telugu speaking people would know. People who chose MPC during their Intermediate studies vs people who chose BiPC. And I was smack in the middle of both those factions. I call them factions because they literally hate each other. Or that’s what I understood from being a Biomedical Engineering student and taking courses from both an Engineering and a Medical College.

To the uninitiated, after you finish 10^th grade in India, or more specifically Telangana/Andhra Pradesh, you’re given two options (there’s more than two but nobody cares about the rest). You could choose Maths, Physics, Chemistry as your primary focus and that’s MPC (the expansion is the same subjects you’d be focusing on) if you’re smart enough. But not all of them are good at Maths, are they? If you are not, that’s not a problem. You could choose Biology, Physics, Chemistry as your primary focus subjects, for which you’d have to study BiPC and eventually become a doctor. Now this path is daunting and long and tedious but it’s extremely worth it as you could be making big bucks without having to move to another country like the MPC people eventually do to make more money. Now, what do you do if want to study both Maths and Biology? Like me? Well, there is an option called MBiPC which is not very commonly offered and is also advised against because you’d neither be fully focused on becoming an engineer nor a doctor. It’s just trying to be a jack of all trades (or a jack of two trades should I say? Those two are the only ones that matter!) and end up becoming a master of none. And a master of none doesn’t make big bucks. So that is not a good idea.

After a lot of contemplation, I took the easy path and went on to do MPC. This was for two years and I don’t remember a single time I wasn’t distressed during those entire two years. After it was done, I decided I did not want to be so distressed all the time. That’s where the vibrancy came from. I was young, and decided against being distressed, so I was also very vibrant. Now, I had to become an engineer but what engineering should I do? I saw that I qualified for a Biomedical Engineering course in one of the oldest and prestigious universities in the Telugu speaking states in India. I jumped at the opportunity and it kinda felt meant to be, because I did want to do Biology in my Intermediate. This was perfect! “I was going on an adventure!!!!!”

Once the adventure started, I realized that none of the other engineering batches considered us one of them. We were always a separate group. Even lecturers used to point out that we were Biomedical Engineers and we were the worst amongst all the other engineering departments. It hurt honestly. I wondered why we were so looked down upon. The Maths professors, especially, always pointed out our inadequacy in the subject (I’m not amazing at Math but I’d like to think I’m decent. Not to be a show-off but I enjoy Calculus, better than basic Arithmetic, and I think I’m good at it.). The second year of Engineering, we were sent to a medical college to take some classes on Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry. This was an exciting aspect for me as I was gonna be doing something that was so different from my regular courses in my first year. But I was soon deflated after my first day in the Medical College where we were told that Biomedical Engineers are extremely undisciplined and lack the capability to work hard like doctors do. I also remember one incident, where a doctor lecturer scolded us for not remembering the name of a bone. And to quote her, she said, “This is not your Maths!” This is a very common trait of most Indian doctors. They hate Maths! In fact, they’ve only become doctors because of their inability to grasp Mathematics and are looked down upon by Engineers who believe they’re Math experts. There’s so many boundaries between subjects and courses in India. If you’re good at Maths, you should hate Biology and the thought of understanding it. If you’re good at Biology, you should hate Maths. Does this hinder collaboration amongst different domain experts? Are these barriers broken at a higher level amongst scientists where collaboration is absolutely necessary? I wouldn’t know and can’t comment on it but I’m sure some amount of this contempt is carried upwards as well.

I’m always fascinated by the diverse majors and minors people in the United States have. I’ve seen Computer Science majors, minor in Psychology. Or History. There was one person, whose course I recently took whose qualifications fascinated me. She was an astro-physicist and a folklorist. How cool is that? That would be so cool to tell someone. That I’m an astro-physicist and also a folklorist. Can’t get over how incredibly cool that sounds! Makes me want to do my Bachelor’s here again. I would probably have taken courses in English Literature or something like that. English was my favorite subject in school and I was ridiculed by many people for saying that because your favorite subject could be only Maths or Biology. What’re you gonna do with English? Be an English teacher? (I don’t see what’s wrong with that but apparently it’s bad). I am also to blame. I took the easy way out, did an Engineering degree, migrated to the US, finished my Master’s and am working for a corporate. I am no different than all these people I ridicule and laugh at.

In conclusion, the point I wanted to make was that there’s way too much hate between people who do different courses back home. Here, it’s so different. People respect whatever course you take. Be it Music, Film Making, Creative Writing, Computer Science. And the coolest part, is that people get you’re only 18 and figuring things out. You don’t have to decide on a major right away, and even if you do, you don’t have to stick to it. You can take courses from other disciplines and become an astro-physicist major with a minor in folklore mythology (Sorry, I keep mentioning that again and again but isn’t that the coolest?!). This kind of flexibility and openness is lacking in our current education system. So yeah, in conclusion, one final time, this is just another post criticizing the Indian education system. 😊

The Protagonist’s Sister

Hi there! I am the protagonist’s sister in one of your favorite Telugu movies. Let me just break it down for you, I’m the Hero’s sister. My name is…. It’s really not that important, is it? Well, I mostly do have a name. It’s just a name and a face though. There’s no character or personality to that combination of a name and a face.

On second thoughts, I do have a personality. Or maybe I should call it a purpose. I could think of two off the top of my head. I’ve listed them down for you -

1.  One of my closest friends (the prettiest amongst the lot usually) would become my brother’s love interest and would eventually end up as my sister-in-law. (Oh, No! Of course, that’s not weird and awkward!)

2. It’s really not safe out there for girls and somebody would either catcall, tease or do something worse to me, and my brother would come to my rescue, bash those bad boys and make me realize how lucky I am to have a brother like my brother.

That’s pretty much it. Oh, and sometimes, I fall in love with a guy, who I later realize is my brother’s arch-enemy and was trapped as a means to get back at him. Heartbroken, I run crying to my brother who beats him up. Was it traumatic? you would ask. Nah, I’m just happy seeing my brother hit the guy who hurt me. Although I’d have to admit, this is far worse than being kidnapped by the arch-enemy. My point being, I am usually my brother’s vulnerability.

Apparently, having a sister makes one a better person. I totally agree with that. My brother and I are very close. We have meaningful conversations, discuss life, and have helped each other grow. But a movie can only be three hours long, right? You wouldn’t expect that time to include a little more about our bond and me now, would you?

PS – Think this is short? You should’ve figured out by now, that I don’t really have a lot to say.

2020 - I couldn't think of a better title

2020. A year in the distant future when the world would in that ideal phase with futuristic flying cars and advanced technology. The year where we’d have robots serving humans but slowly getting intelligent enough to try and overthrow humanity. The year I would turn 25, I used to laughingly think. I was very curious about how I’d be, what I’d be doing, and what my thoughts would be then. But the thought of me turning 25 has always been funny to me. It still is, when I am 24 and a half. Probably because I was the baby of my house and always remember my parents and my older brother laughing at almost everything I did. Neither my political opinions nor my sport team favorites were taken seriously. They were shrugged off and laughed at as a “baby’s opinion”. I was never offended. I laughed along with them. Somewhere deep down inside, I don’t take myself and my opinions seriously. I myself think my thoughts and opinions are “baby opinions”. The funny thing about writing, which I always notice, you start with one thing in your mind, with one goal, but as you type, things head in a completely different direction. I don’t even know why I mentioned about me considering myself a baby. I was talking about the year 2020. I even forgot what I wanted to say now.

Yes! So, this was always how I viewed 2020. And it just seemed so distant. Seemed like it would be a very long time before it finally came and now, it is less than 6 months away. And my 24 and a half years in this world have taught me that less than 6 months is not a very long time. Hell, 2020 was supposed to be like a hundred years away. How is it here so soon? How am I turning 25? How am I an adult already? In fact, 4 years past the “legal adult age”. I know it isn’t just me and everybody my age is going through this. But shouldn’t I have come to terms with all of this by now? Each year passes by real quick and with each passing year my age is going up but I don’t feel that old. I still feel like a teenager. In my mind, I am probably 16-17. Maybe that is what mental age means. I heard “old people” say mentally I am in my 20s. And by old, I mean people in their 40s. I realize that isn’t very old anymore. It is just like 20 years away and 20 years isn’t a very long time. Maybe my mental age is 16. I can’t believe I have a mental age now. It was supposed to be something only old people had. Am I old?

My 12-year-old cousin thinks I am old. Of course, there’s no way I am the youngest person on the planet. I might have enjoyed that privilege for a few milliseconds before it was taken away from me and then taken away from the person who took it away from me in the next few milliseconds. But it is still very difficult for me to accept the fact that I am this old. I don’t know if I’ll ever come to terms with it. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I think a part of my mental age is also contributed to the way I look. I look like a kid with my huge nerdy glasses. I see raised eyebrows whenever I mention I am 24. People I interact with are extra nice to me and call me “honey” and “sweetheart”. They probably wouldn’t if they knew I was 24. I see people younger than me, not called those things just because they look older. I go with it. I don’t correct people and act all confident like an adult. I act like a cute, confused kid because I like the treatment I get. Maybe that is also contributing to my denial and keeping me from accepting this “fleeting time” feelings I have.

If you’ve taken the time to read this random, structure-less bunch of words I’ve thrown together and got to this point, thank you! You didn’t have to, but you did, and I am grateful. If you feel like “OMG! That is exactly what I feel!” then “Tell me about it!!”. It always feels good to get that validation that you’re not the only one.

PS - I just realized I’ve mentioned my age at least a million times. Whoops!

Devasena : The Warrior Princess

We have all seen and loved Bahubali, The Beginning, and Bahubali, The Conclusion. It was a gargantuan project and the director, and the entire team is to be lauded for their dedication, their hard work and the near-perfection they achieved which is a first for Indian Cinema.  (Sorry I say near-perfection because I am obsessed with perfection, which is sometimes not a nice thing because I myself am so imperfect). What is even greater is that it was achieved by a regional film industry and not Bollywood, which is supposedly the biggest film industry in India. And I always feel proud to tell people that I am from that region where Bahubali was originally created, the Telugu speaking states.

Apart from the amazing performances from all its actors, their costumes, the way all the actors looked, the laudable VFX and compelling story-telling and screenplay, Bahubali was also admired for its strong female characters. Sivagami, the queen regent, ruled the kingdom of Mahishmati single-handedly with her righteousness. She was known for her excellent decision-making skills and was loved, trusted and respected by her people and subjects equally. This strong character has also got her origin story in the form of ‘The Rise of Sivagami’ which is the first part of a series of books called ‘Bahubali: Before the Beginning’ by Anand Neelakantan. (Off point, here’s what I thought of the book, it was my review on Goodreads –

The plot's all over the place. Would have been better if the author hadn't tried to pull a GRRM. I found many equivalents of ASOIAF characters in this book.
Bijjala - Joffery reincarnate
Kattappa - Ned Stark? With his sense of duty
Sivagami - Jon Snow, the favourite
Gundu Ramu - Samwell Tarly
There was also a dwarf who was into alcohol, whores, and sarcasm.
Don't think I will be returning to Anand Neelkantan's Mahishmati.)

Then there was also Avantika and not to forget another strong and important female character, Devasena, who defied Sivagami herself many times and was admired for her strong personality, bravery, and fighting skills which equaled and were greater than many warrior men.

And this article is entirely dedicated to Devasena, one of my favorite characters, who I realized recently on watching the movie again, is just another man in a woman’s body. Now, being a woman and clearly a feminist, who proved she could do very well what any man can do, you would expect her to not make certain comments which are condescending towards women. For instance, in her entry scene, she fights off bandits and then notices Bahubali and Kattappa and chides them for hiding amongst women when there was a fight going on.

In the second instance, she asks Bahubali to join her to kill some wild boars and when Kattappa tells her Bahubali can’t do it, she says, “Vantintlo koorchunte em vastundi?” which translates to he is not going to learn anything by sitting in the kitchen. Which is again, a term generally used to refer to women. They are weak, so they sit in the kitchen and work. Being a woman, and a highly evolved human being, (which is clearly depicted as a part of her personality throughout the film) I would expect her to respect what a woman does in the kitchen because it is not easy work and definitely not something weak people can do.

In another instance, when Sivagami’s marriage proposal reaches her and she denies it with a very arrogant reply, she asks Sivagami to deck her son up in jewelry and send him to her. This from my interpretation means your son is so weak that you should dress him up like a woman and send him over to me, so I can protect, and take good care of him. If you have noticed, Devasena is always decked in jewelry and she clearly didn’t consider herself weak.

These comments had me a little disappointed in the film. Looking and behaving like a woman is a sign of weakness and hearing these comments from another woman is the last thing you would expect. I might have just magnified things a little too much and people might put this whole thing off as another rant from another “pseudo-feminist”, but it just goes on to show how certain stereotypes are so deep-rooted in our society that people are now insensitive.

Does a strong female personality just mean a woman who behaves just like any other man? Something to think about.

The quest for the perfect 'DP' - Part 1

It was midnight and I was scrolling through my newsfeed on Facebook when a message pops up on my screen. It was Priya. The moment I saw the message I knew it wasn’t one I could ignore. It read “MAJOR EMERGENCY!!”

I panicked a little and started wondering about what could possibly be wrong. Could it be her weight? Or was it mine? I knew I had slacked a little and eaten lots of pizza and ice cream the past few weeks, in spite of Priya’s repeated warnings. She must have overheard Shalini and gang talking about my big butt. I absolutely knew where this was going. The whole college knows Shalini has an eye on Babu. I myself was surprised when Babu said he was interested in me (lucky me) and that earned me the wrath of Shalini and her cronies. She was always looking at ways to steal him from me and this is going to be the perfect opportunity for her. Me getting fat and ugly is going to make Babu lose his interest in me and that’s when Shalini is going to swoop in, like the eagle she is, and carry him away from me. Oh no! This is a major emergency indeed!

I was brought out from my thought by another buzzing noise on my phone. It was Priya again with a ‘U DER?!!’ message.

ME: OMG! SUP? I think I know what this is about?

PRIYA: U do? Den y don’t u do something about it?

ME: I already have a plan in mind. Starting tmrw, I’m cutting down on carbs n will shift to fruits and salads for sustenance. It might be tough in the beginning but I will get used to it.

PRIYA: Wait! what r u talking about?

ME:  My weight gain which is gng to cost me my bf.

PRIYA: Oh, I totally 4got about that. I was referring 2 smthng else but now that I am reminded, YEAH! That’s smthng u gotta think of too.

ME: Wait! So what were U talking about?

PRIYA: Ur inactive social media account!

ME: What do u mean? I log into my fb and insta every day. I am active

PRIYA: But how do people know u r active?

ME: Uh…

PRIYA: U gotta keep uploading stuff. U c ur bf? He’s so active on social media. If u don’t catch up, u might as well give up on him.

ME: No! ☹ Tell me what I shud do then?

PRIYA: 1^st change that dp! It’s been a month since you changed last.

And there began my quest for the perfect DP.

The life of a smartphone - 5 (The epic finale)

A similar kind of incident had happened again. She had dropped me under a car. There were no regrets on her face when she was picking me up. She was very confident that I would be fine. Did she ever even realize how much effort and pain I had to undergo in order for her to still use me?

This doubt had been growing inside me since the bus incident. I felt I was being exploited and being taken for granted. I contacted my buddy from the shop who was also taken the same day as me by a different person. He told me that there were zero scratches on him and he had a tempered glass put on his screen instead of a mere scratch guard. He was in excellent condition and didn’t even know what being mistreated meant. When he heard of my condition, he said that it had only been a year and it couldn’t be that I was already in such a bad condition. “We are supposed to last much longer. Not make efforts to say alive only after a year of use. This is supposed to happen maybe four or five years down the line” he said.

Listening to all this I had decided that I was indeed being taken for granted. I wasn’t being appreciated for my efforts and was instead being scolded, cursed and laughed at for them. I wasn’t liking it anymore. I wasn’t liking her anymore.

One day, she went to the toilet with me. She had started doing this 6 months ago. Days were still good back then but not as good as they were in the beginning. She sat down on the toilet seat holding me tight. But that tightness was making her hands sweat and all that sweat made me slip and fall into the water below. I can’t even describe the horror I felt when I fell in. It felt very bad. No smartphone should ever go through what I went through that day.

I could see the horror in her face. Then I saw her expression, she was deep in thought contemplating whether to take me out or not. It pained me so much to see that expression. I still held on, because I still loved her but what happened today was the maximum humiliation I could take.

She somehow got me out and looked at me. I was still holding on but it was getting tougher. She thanked her stars that I was still working but my screen got stuck and didn’t respond to her touch. I was done with her. I couldn’t take any of it anymore. She switched me off and tried to switch me on again. But I was dead!

This voice inside me is still alive and I keep seeing her everyday trying to switch me back on again, trying to go to shops to get me back to normal again but the other parts inside me have told that they can’t function anymore because of all that water inside. She keeps going to shops, she has visited three already to revive me but I have decided that even if some miracle happens and all the other parts start working I am officially done with her and won’t let them work for her anymore.

She is very determined and not ready to give up so easily on me. She keeps opening the cupboard she has thrown me in, everyday, taking me out, running her fingers on me and asking me to start working again. She keeps telling me how much she loves me, how well she would treat me once I get back to normal. But I know better. I am not falling for her lies no matter how much earnest they sound.

She has gone back to using a smaller phone again and I hear her telling her parents that she doesn’t want a new phone and will try every possible option to get me to work again. Sometime I feel sorry for her and think I should maybe start working just to see that sparkle in her eyes again, but then I know what will happen a few months later. Everything will go back to normal. I am better off like this without my human.

P.S. – This is in loving memory of my Asus Zenfone 5 which, I dropped in the toilet (I know all of you are going to judge me now). I finally, went to the Asus service center (my last resort) and they said the motherboard is gone and it would cost me 11k INR to get it changed. I was devastated and didn’t buy a new phone for many days. Yes! I did get attached to it. But finally, I did get a new phone because life goes on and you’ve got to go along with it. I still love my Asus Zenfone. But my new phone a Lenovo Vibe K4 Note is good too. However, I am not very sure if it is as happy with me as I am with it. It must be having a million complaints just like my Zenfone but trust me I have changed a lot after my Asus. I still am not over it!  :’( :*

The life of a smartphone -4

It grew more and more worse as time went. She used to leave me to charge overnight and I used to get heated up. Before, she always made sure she never did this by putting an alarm and waking up in the middle of the night and then switching off the charging port. She had gotten very careless with me now.

Then came the summers. I was always hot and needed some cooling down. But she never stopped leaving me to charge overnight. This caused me to heat up even more and I started getting slower. I was so hot that everything was a daze. I couldn’t process anything properly. I heard her telling her friend that I was useless and getting more and more slack by the day. It hurt me so much.

She was constantly hurting me. But I loved her so. I tried in many ways to prove myself to her. Tried to say that I wasn’t so stupid and useless, that I was a great phone. I started working overtime and it didn’t help me in any way. All those extra hours of work were making my processor slower and my battery drain faster which in turn caused her to curse me more. I remember sitting late into the night praying and asking God (if there was one) to show me a way, to make her like me again, to make her love me the way she did in the beginning. Whatever I did only seemed to make things worse. Nothing seemed to work.

One day, after maybe a year of our relationship, she was boarding a bus holding me in her hand. She never put me inside a bag or anything as she was afraid of thieves who would try and steal me. But they wouldn’t if they had seen my condition. I was scratched all over my screen and my paint had come off in many places. There was also this SIM card problem I was facing. Who would have wanted to steal such a phone? So anyway, as she was boarding the bus I felt myself slip from her hands. I wanted to protest but she was in a hurry to get onto the bus. And then it happened. I fell face down on the road under the bus. The moment I fell I felt so much pain! I thought I would die! But all my love for her came to my mind and I thought I had to stay alive at least for her sake. Because no matter how much she mistreated me, I believed she would miss me terribly if I was gone. So with great effort I held on until I felt a hand pick me up. It was her and she was looking at me to see if anything had gone wrong. If not for a few extra scratches on my screen I was fine. She heaved a sigh of relief and got onto the bus where the driver was already scolding her for holding up the line of people getting into the bus.

She got in, sat next to her friend and said “Thank God my phone’s so insensitive. If it were as sensitive as your phone it would never have switched on again.” She and her friend started laughing about the entire incident and I somehow, deep down inside, knew that this incident had given her confidence about my robustness and she would get even more careless with me. But I hoped she would realize how careless she had been and would treat me with a little respect. A little hope never killed anyone, right? But hope was all I had I realized.