Genographic Project Update III

I have already written my understanding about the Genographic Project. Do not get confused by the word Genographic, DNA, Chromosome etc; rather read this one just as a discovery information, then it may be interesting.

I was reading an article in internet from the site of Genographic project, and came to know some interesting facts about human migration and thought sharing here.

Scientists agree that all humans share a common ancestry in Africa. Much less well understood is how the human race migrated from Africa and became so diverse. So far we know from the evidence of fossil and genetic data that human race was originated in Africa couple of hundred thousand years ago, few thousand individuals in Africa to six and half billion today all over the World.
The genographic project, which helps in analysis of DNA to track the ancestry roots have already reveled some interesting facts. Some of them I have mentioned in first post.

Here goes the analysis of DNA of an US born anthropologist Dr Spencer Well who is heading the project. He has common Y chromosome haplotype or set of linked markers that’s found through Southern England. If we go little bit further back, his ancestors were living down in Spain. This is during the worst part of the last ice age; that means 15000 years ago. If we go back to 35000 years ago, his ancestors were in Central Asia, and before that at around 40-45,000 years back they lived in Middle East; as part of second migration out of Africa; they were back n Africa along with everybody else, around 50,000 years ago.

As far the project can tell about two migrations from Africa, the second one was the major one we just discussed, was through Middle East around 45,000 years ago.

The first one took place probably around 50-55,000 years ago that took a southern coastal rout, so along with the south cost of Asia, southern India and ended up in Australia. Isn’t it amazing!!

This document has opened up some more information to me. I discussed that the ancestry root can be traced by Y chromosome, but for female I didn’t have any clue, but came to know about Mitochondrial DNA; what I still don’t know is how we can trace with this DNA, still searching for answers.

If you have a vision, stick to it - Part III

Last week, I came across many different personalities and all of them unequivocally expressed same thought, in different forms. First, an American country manager, the Global account executive of Vodaphone account of our firm, but very friendly in nature. He invited me for a surprise dinner and it was my pleasure to attend a casual dinner with a senior director of US, where we discussed limited necessary business topics and more about general objectives. What impressed me more about him is his focus to work and adherence to objectives. He has given some example in his twenty years of professional career, where he simply focused to get the job done. According to him, we are here to perform certain tasks and it’s obvious that many problems will arise before completion. We have to complete it in a proper way, following the guidelines and overcome all hurdles by means of our constant endeavors. Yah! It sounds simple, though this is the fundamental aspect to be succeeded, that most of us do not follow, or try to follow and give up in certain point of time. A failure in any form is comparable to a small death. The constant effort, focus of objective, the fight for every inch, the adherence to goal, and the continuous battle to the objective makes the very difference between success and failure, living and dead.
Now comes the question of objectives, how to determine and what to do? The set of objectives are determined by the vision of each individual. Well, I am not going to deliver a small lecture on how to objectives and vision, but want to tell about two Indians I met in flight while coming back to India. Both of them are from AP (HYD based) and incredibly focused in their vision. The first gentleman (sorry I can not tell the name/company name as I haven’t sought permission beforehand) was seating next to me and is in IT industry for last 10 years. Ten years is a long time, but very short compare to what he has done so far. After completion of his BE and MBA from Hyderabad, he went to US and worked in IT, opened a firm, learnt latest technologies, trained people and developed a firm of 80 consultants only within a span of four years, then got a good offer and sold the firm in million dollars. It was impressive, but what stunned me was his next innings. In last five years he has built one ERP software product development with the help of 30 consultants. He finally launched it this year and implemented in some small medium scale industries. This is completely unbelievable and just a dream for me. This is just not possible without vision. He is not from IIMs/IITs, but a man with a vision, where degree, Institutes hardly matters. Education is the basic step which only can give a start up. Rest on the will and effort and of course on the Vision. Vision is something in which we can see the futuristic realistic dream and which can be attained by the successful execution of a set of objectives in a definite timeframe.

Now the question comes, what should be one’s vision? How to determine what to do? These questions has wonderfully answered by another US-UK based businessman, another entrepreneur originally from AP and harvesting his dreams. I encountered him in Mumbai Airport. He is a man with definite projection of his vision, where he wants to see himself after 5/10/20/lifetime. What impressed me most was his understanding of Vision, in short and long run. He emphasized that everyone should jot down what you really want to do, even if it is about taking care of your parents or writing a book. Most of the young graduates always ask what they should do, but it has to be decided by every individual, what he like to be, his vision, his path.
He told, in an engineering college three hundred students were asked to write about their vision in after thirty years, and only three of them were able to write. The interesting observation after thirty years is those three people are earning eighty five percent of the total of all students. It’s nothing but because of planned traversal in a particular trajectory. Vision comes from dream, Visions gives us the path of traversal. But we may have many contradictory paths of interests, which one to choose? Obviously we should follow the most important dream of our life, which is worth, which is closely associated with our soul, of which we are capable. It reminded me the words from Carlos Castaneda---“My friend, you know for me and for you and perhaps for everyone there is a path, a path that has heart, there we have to travel, looking, looking breathlessly.”

While most of us are busy in apprehending what we should do, some of us are really making their dreams a reality. The recent trend of entrepreneurships by Indians in US market has changed my notion about us, Indians. We can do things, can achieve the pick in every field, and may be we will achieve it one day. I don’t feel comfortable to criticize my country in everything, because the words are not going to deliver changes. Important to me is what each of us are delivering to change the so called shabby image of Mother India.
Finally on Sunday evening, I was watching IFEA awards. The concluding words were from the Winner of Filmfare Best Actor Award - Hrithik Roshan. He reiterated the same voice “Nothing is impossible, believe me nothing is impossible”. Impossible means – I am possible. It’s just a mental barrier makes our tasks sometime harder, remove it, and feel free …

End of Greece ???

Is it because I don’t like Athens, for its scorching heat, traffic congestion, unclean appearance, dense buildings and language problem; NO, this is not the reason.

Is it because I am bit scared of the illegal immigrants of Omonia, who don’t care about anything and busy in robbing, rape, black marketing, and made the deshi market a hell, OR of the Pakistani who caught me one day in the street, and asked why I am not Muslim, explained why should I accept Islam, who emphasized being a civilized and educated person, how can I be a Hindu who follows stupid rituals. NO, this is not the reason.

Is it because I am homesick and cant live without my family, missing my town and surroundings desperately, or enough of Europe, my long stay in Greece made me sick; NO, this is not the reason.

Is it because of my poor performance, or we lost the project or the local managers gone crazy and decided to spent rest of the summer in Aegean beaches with beautiful babes, go live should have been delayed. NO, this is not the case.

Is it because some urgent issue happened in my family OR I am feeling sick OR the water is not good enough for my hairs. NO, this is not the case.

The reason being the stupidity of Greece Immigration who refused my extension of my Work Permit and more idiots is the local employer who made a mess of it. As a sweet consequence I have to leave Greece forever, for which I was not ready. But again this is the part of our professional life and I now ready to go. It was a great stay and I enjoyed every bit of it, starting from the mountainous Delphi to seaside driveway of Sunion, volcanic Santorini to historic Marathon, bluish Mediterranean to greenish Poros and enchanting Aegina, colourful Corinth to ancient Acropolis, new capital Athens to old capital Nafplio. I must say the work life balance was excellent here and I will miss many more things, so now feeling nostalgic.
No more emotional talk and I have to pack my bags (as of now 16 bags have been packed and still going) to catch the flight to Kolkata.

I really don’t know whether I will come back, but what really bothering me is the abrupt end of the assignment. I have closed many things during last three days. Packing, Cargo, Bank, Apartment, Handover of my work, reapplying Work Permit …. All in three days. The uncertainty of my work permit is still there. That’s the reason I am not happy.

The only happy part is going back to my own country :-)

One more form of Indian Corruption

Its very Important … for the person traveling abroad… Read this carefully ….

Be Careful at the Indian Airports, This is a well organized conspiracy by Indian Immigration, Police, Customs and Air India staff with networking at all the Indian International Airports. Be careful when ever you give your passport to Immigration/ Customs/Air India staff. The pass port can be easily tampered and can create trouble to you. They have found easy way of making money from NRIs. This is the way it works:

At the time of the passenger's departure, if the passenger is not looking at the officer while he is stamping the exit, the officer very cleverly tears away one of the page from the passport. When the passenger leaves the immigration counter, the case is reported on his computer terminal with full details. Now all over India they have got full details of the passenger with Red Flag flashing on the Passport number entered by the departure immigration officer. They have made their money by doing above. On arrival next time, he is interrogated. Subject to the passenger's period of stay abroad, his income and standing etc., the price to get rid of the problem is settled by the Police and Immigration people. If someone argues, his future is spoiled because there are always some innocent fellows who think the honesty is the basis of getting justice in India ...

Please advises every passenger to be careful at the airport. Whenever they hand over the passport to the counters of Air India, or immigration or the customs, they must be vigilant, should not remove eyes from the passport even if the officer in front tries to divert their attention. Also, please pass this information to all friends, media men and important politicians. Every month 20-30 cases are happening all over India to rob the NRIs the minute he lands. Similar case has happened with Aramco's Arifuddin. He was traveling with his family. They had six passports. They got the visa of America and decided to go via Hyderabad from Jeddah. They reached Hyderabad. Stayed about a month and left for the States. When they reached the States, the page of the American visa on his wife's passport was missing. At the time of departure from Hyderabad it was there, the whole family had to return to Hyderabad helplessly. On arrival at Bombay back, they were caught by the police and now it is over 2 months, they are running after the Police, Immigration officers and the Courts. On going in to details with him, he found out the following: One cannot imagine, neither can believe, that the Indian Immigration dept can play such a nasty game to harass the innocent passengers.

All the passengers traveling to & fro India via Bombay and Hyderabad must be aware of this conspiracy. Every month 15 to 20 cases are taking place, at each mentioned airport, of holding the passengers in the crime of tearing away the passport pages. On interviewing some of them, none of them was aware of what had happened. They don't know why, when and who tore away the page from the middle of the passport. One can imagine the sufferings of such people at the hands of the immigration, police and the court procedures in India after that. The number of cases is increasing in the last 2-3 years. People who are arriving at the immigration, they are questioned and their passports are being held and they have to go in interrogation. Obviously, the conspiracy started about 2 to 3 years ago, now the results are coming. Some of the Air India counter staff too is involved in this conspiracy.