The aim of the wind-tunnel apparatus was to generate streamlined flow of known specific velocities and then possibly measure the behavior of the fly in the wind tunnel. Deepti Trivedi shares her memory of the device and the people who worked on it.
Soon after he moved to NCBS, Obaid Siddiqi started getting interested in hiring students at the BSc and MSc level in his lab. Students from the time would discuss the disproportionate size of his lab, compared to other labs. The trainees would stay…
Back in the day when it wasn't easy to just print copies of journal articles off the web, reprints carried a lot of currency. Obaid Siddiqi continued to maintain a pile of reprints in his office and an even bigger set in his lab, in alphabetical…
Deepti Trivedi shares her memories of discussions between Obaid Siddiqi and Sunil Prabhakar, who joined Siddiqi's lab as an assistant, offering technical assistance for fly behavior experiments, stock keeping and management of laboratory consumables.…
Deepti Trivedi's remarks upon seeing her handwriting and Obaid Siddiqi's handwriting in the lab, more than a decade after she passed through the lab. "During the time we were trying to find different ion channels that are present in Drosophila…
Obaid Siddiqi avoided computer-generated graphs as far as possible and expected his students to do the same. He would force them to draw curves by hand to get a feel of the trend in a particular experiment. The philosophy of verifying your own data…
T-traps were used for odour preference assays for Drosophila. One of the arms of the T-trap has an odorant while the other one is a control. Flies are let in from the third arm and allowed to roam around. The flies that are attracted by the specific…
A flood in 1999 in Obaid Siddiqi’s lab led to water above the ankles, and damaging a lot of previous material. Deepti Trivedi, a former student, recounts the event.
Electrode puller probably obtained from TIFR when Obaid Siddidi arrived at NCBS. It was never used and used to be in a room with other old equipment. Deepti Trivedi, a former student, was really surprised to see it outside and wonder if it was used…
KS Vishalakshi, early NCBS hire for administration: Reflections on starting at the TIFR Centre as a daily wage worker and typing up 100s of theses for students.
K VijayRaghavan, faculty member at NCBS: The path to TIFR after a chance reading of an Obaid Siddiqi paper while recuperating from tuberculosis in Delhi
N Shanthakumary, early hire in NCBS administration: Memories of entering the IISc campus for the first time in the early 1980s, and being hired into the system.
TM Sahadevan, long-time administrative architect at NCBS: An early career move from Coonoor to Bangalore, and being the first person from TIFR, Bombay, to land at the TIFR Centre, IISc in the mid 1970s.
Mukund Thattai, a 'Young Investigator' NCBS hire and current faculty member: Early childhood, a short history extract and a unique engineering project.
Kaleem Siddiqi, faculty member at McGill University: Memories of a childhood in the 1970s when he and his sister used the TIFR molecular biology unit conference room as a personal study space since it was sparsely used.
Satyajit Mayor, faculty member and current director, NCBS: Reflections from early childhood, family history and a personal and serious interest in cricket.
G Gajendra, staff member at the Fly Facility: Moving to Bangalore from Kolar district to teach, and then entering NCBS as a security guard before shifting back to science.
SN Basha, staff member of the NCBS security services: Moving from Bijapur to Bangalore after the Emergency in search of a job, and eventually leading up to NCBS in the late 1990s.
Ashok Rao, administrative officer: Moving around the country with a parent who worked as a mining engineer for the DAE, and then joining the DAE family himself.