Editorial: January 2014

We bring to you this month’s issue with some interesting articles along with an anonymous write-up on the experiences incurred as an exchange student abroad. Sreejith gives us a curious glimpse of his diary as his words paint the invisible for us to behold – an attempt that finds visual fruition in Sindhoor’s cover art. The idyllic campus comes to life in the eyes of Varun and his camera while Suyash takes us for a fascinating trip to pre-natal DNA sequencing. In what is a hilarious tribute to Sheldon Cooper from the popular CBS sitcom The Big Bang Theory, Alekhya and Karishma try to locate pleasure center neurons in the brains of our distant cousins – the monkeys.

Can alcohol help us age backwards? Can caffeine fight cancer? Malini asks us to take a tantalising sip of coffee and wine and, in her words, go ‘down the rabbit hole’ to find the answers. Rahul spends moments in introspection in his attempt to figure out the enigma of happiness while Aditi dreams of a tranquil life where one finds a place she can call home, seeks shelter in a timeless moment and pens her lust for a life that can be lived to the brim. Roodra focuses on the research highlights of 2013 while Chaitanya tells us about the fascinating CompMusic workshop that IIT Madras recently hosted.

December marks more than the end of the year. With another year drawing to a close, we herald the future for all it might offer and steal a glimpse, however fleeting, of the past that must now linger on in our memories.

Very often, in our ecstasy, we forget to say goodbye to the past, to the tears and the rain, the sun and the snow. What we leave back are more than memories, we leave a part of ourselves behind.

It is in the past, and in our inevitable, poignant parting from it, that the new is born.

“In my beginning”, wrote Eliot famously, “is my end. In my end is my beginning”.

May the New be the brightest of dreams!