Anecdote ...

It was one of those gloomy Sunday mornings- I came out of my apartment- it was raining heavily and freezing cold. Like most unfortunate Biology graduate students I had to slog all weekends. Moreover I was a Plant Science major- I guess that explains a lot !!! Each set of plants took about two and a half months to grow and then I had to infiltrate a recombinant bacteria to see its effect in the plant. It was fantastically fascinating when my experiment worked (which was roughly one out of seven attempts) otherwise it was the same old story- repeat, repeat and repeat !

My department was located in one of the oldest buildings of the campus- exceptionally quiet specially on weekends. Ok, now I better stop cribbing about my ex-lab {:D}. To be honest there were certain things which I liked as well. My favorite place was my desk which had a huge glass window adjacent to it- I could see the sky and a small road which was mostly frequented by the cheerful and jovial undergrads (No wonder one can easily differentiate between a grad student and an undergrad !!! ) My lab-mates were pretty cool and we shared lab-protocols, Christmas gifts, candies, late-night coffees and not-to -forgetour mutual hateful thoughts (you can guess about whom, can’t you?)

Another thing which was part of my everyday life was my conversations with Jerry. He used to come to our lab everyday sharp at 8:50 am to collect our lab wastes- a nice old man who always had a smile on his face no matter how grey the day was!

“Hey Jerry , how are you? I asked.

He smiled and said “ I am doing great ! How about you?”

“I am good too.”

“Have you noticed it just started snowing? The first snow of the season. “

“Oh ! It did !” I looked outside the window taking a break from plasmid isolation. Yeah …he was right …I could see small white snowflakes gently touching the glass window and gradually melting away.

“Nice- I love the first snow” was Jerry’s spontaneous confession. Well, I should better not comment…I thought .

“So what are your plans for Thanksgiving Break ?“ Jerry asked again.

“Actually I have a seminar where I will be presenting after the break…so gotta prepare for that…how about you Jerry? “

“Me? Naaah ! I have few things to sort out…I will see you soon girl.”

“You have a good break” I said. He smiled, nodded and went away.

Well…my patience finally paid off. My experiments started working finally. Thanksgiving break was over and school reopened – we were all busy again with our normal work schedule. The temperature dropped drastically, the trees were bare, ground was covered with dried leaves…winter was setting in silently.

One fine morning as I was starting an experiment, I saw another lady picking up our lab wastes. I was a bit surprised. I casually asked “ Hey, where’s Jerry? I have n’t seen him in a while.”

She looked at me inquiringly and said “He is not doing well and so he has taken a leave”

“Really ! Is he infected the viral fever that’s in the air?”

“No dear…may be you don’t know- he is undergoing Chemotherapy.”

I remained quiet for a long time…silence was in the air again.

….You know what? This is life – unpredictable, nobody knows what’s going to happen tomorrow- still we plan, dream, predict, hope and what not. I was hopeful- I was pretty sure Jerry would come back in a day or two and with a smile on his face would ask me “Have you seen? Its beautiful outside !” …