Specifics of my life

Name: Sheel
Date of Birth: December 31, 1978
Homes: Detroit, Michigan and Pune, India
Hobbies: sports, music, investing, learning, sleeping.
Instruments I play: Tabla (Indian percussion instrument since 1991), guitar (since December 2002).

Influences
Childhood: Family, Chuck Jones, Mel Blanc, Fred Rogers, Bill Watterson, Jim Henson, Theodore Geisel
Current: Family, friends, mentors (see below), Albert Einstein, Danny Elfman, David Gilmour, Stephen Hawkings, Stanley Kubrick (his old work), Benoit Mandelbrot (fractals), J. Robert Oppenheimer, Ravi Shankar, Roger Waters.

Interests:
Music: Beatles, Blind Mellon, Doors, Eagles, Kishore Kumar, Pearl Jam, Phish, Pink Floyd, early Smashing Pumpkins, Ravi Shankar, V. Shantaram, The Who, Yes, Zakir Hussain.
Sports: Red Wings (NHL), Lions (NFL), Pistons (NBA), Brazil's national footbol team, Pete Sampras (tennis).
Television: In my youth, it primarily was Transformers, Robotech, He-Man, MacGyver, and Northern Exposure. Nowadays if I watch tv, it's sports, CNN, Discovery, or CNBC.
Movies:2001: A Space Odyssey, Akira, Dr. Strangelove, Macross Plus, Party, Strange Brew, So I Married an Ax Murderer, Monty Python stuff, Tsui Kun II (aka Drunken Master II),
Computers: Have a wireless peer-to-peer network comprising three cpu's. Have a DVD+RW burner, Cannon Powershot G1, Sony Digital recorder, HP scanjet etc.

Books: (worth mentioning)
Read: Richard Dawkins (Selfish Gene), Nietzsche, (Beyond Good & Evil), Frank Herbert (Dune), J.R.R. Tolkien (Hobbit, Lord of the Rings), George Orwell (1984), Huxley (Brave New World), Jean Paul Sarte (Nausea),
Need to Read/Reading: Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sun Tu (Art of War), Albert Einstein (The World as a See It, The Physics of Illusion), Karl Marx (The Poverty Of Philosophy),

Travel:
India (18-20 times in my life)
Japan (1988)
Germany (1992)
Italy (1997)
Vatican City (1997)
Hawaii (1991)
France (1993)
Alaska (1998)
Egypt (1993)
England (1995)
Spain (2002)

Currently, I'm...
a Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) student at Oakland University.
maintaining a website dedicated to the Preservation of the Bengal Tiger which generates 280-450 hits daily (to see it, click the rotating globe to the bottom-left).
doing the 'WallStreet thing'.
running a non-profit organization (Project Tiger-USA) to help wild tigers.
Learning advanced Javascript.
Learning Perl and cgi-scripts.
Reading a lot (woohoo, I'm a dork!!!).

Currently reading Tolkein's Middle Earth books, Ramayana, Mahabharata.
Archiving modern history, during the current information explosion.
Accounting and business work.
Studying the guitar and tabla.

During the past six years I...

was a licensed EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) in the state of Michigan.

graduated from Wayne State University (Detroit) with a Masters degree in Basic Medical Science.

did research at the Wayne State University Emergency Medicine Department in brain ischemia. Studied pathways by which eIF2a is inhibited leading to inhibition of protein synthesis. My masters thesis dealt with caspase mediated apoptsis of selectively vulnerable neurons via eIF2a phosphorylation (activation).
My advisor was Dr. Donald DeGracia Ph.D (aka Peter).

graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor with a double major in Biology and Anthropology/Zoology (3.5 years).

had three mentors: Larry D. Noodén Ph.D., Dr. David Kurnit M.D./Ph.D, & Dr. Milford Wolpoff Ph.D.

obtained a certificate of completion of HVA's EMT-B course.

was member of MFAS (Michigan First Aid Stations) at U of M.

did clinicals at the University of Michigan Hospital ER and HVA (Huron Valley Ambulance).

researched the topic of Homo heidelbergensis and its legitimacy under Dr. Milford Wolpoff Ph.D. - Main objective is to disprove any valid reason for The Eve Theory that calls for different Homo species spreading out of Africa and replacing "less fit" populations through speciations.

acted as a laboratory assistant under Dr. Nooden Ph.D. studying plant senescence. The main objective was to isolate the DAD-1 (defender against death) and ced genes in plants, primarily in Arabidopsis thaliana. Techniques implemented for RNA extraction were: Maxi-pop RNA isolation using ATA, gel electrophoresis, gene screen usage, and northern blots.

worked in the University of Michigan Hospital conducting bladder tumor research under Dr. Kurnit M.D./Ph.D. The goal was to create an easy urine test for bladder tumors, specifically for mutations in the P28 chromosome. Methods incorporated included: cDNA library analysis, PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), gel electrophoresis, DNA extraction.

was a member of UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program).

continued to play the tabla (which I've been playing since around 1990).

learned C++ and wrote a couple of programs (though most of knowledge as been lost due to not consistantly writing things).

managed to retain my knowledge in html and learned some Java and Javascript in the process.

worked as a patient transporter at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, MI.