A Brief Summary of the Week's Highlights

Shiva Call: No matter how old I get, it never gets easier to pay shiva calls. But I do appreciate the importance to mourners of people offering condolences. I was glad I went Tuesday evening, because one of Bob’s daughters told me how much Voices in the Glen (the storytelling group I knew him from) meant to him.


Embassy of India: I went ot an MIT Club of DC event at the Embassy of India last night. The first talk was by Ambassador Harsh Vardhan Shringla and focused mostly on the economic impact of Indians who have studied abroad. He did comment on space launches in the context of the expanding Indian economy. The longer talk was by Professor Pawan Sinha, who directs an internship program that (among other things) sends MIT students to India. He talked about his own research, which has to do with the ability of blind children to learn to see after surgery. There are, apparently, high rates of childhood blindness in India, largely due to pregnant women contracting rubella. They used to think (based on animal experiments) that the brain could not learn to interpret visual input if the blindness was corrected after a certain age, but they’ve found that isn’t true and there isn’t any upper age limit. The talks were both interesting, though the room was uncomfortably crowded and rather hot. The crowdedness also inhibited mingling to some extent.

But, of course, the main reason people go to these things is for the food. Which was plentiful and varied and quite tasty. I stuck to the vegetarian options and there was a cauliflower dish I particularly liked. I was also pleased that there was gulab jamum for dessert.


Baseball: Of course, the big news of the week was the Nationals winning the World Series. I hate to admit it, but I fell asleep in the 6th inning of Game 7, while the Nats were still trailing. One of the things I miss most from my youth is day games