Horror Autotoxicus

"Literally, the horror of self-toxicity. A term coined by the great German bacteriologist and immunologist Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) to describe the body's innate aversion to immunological self-destruction. However, as we now know, the immune system can upon occasion attack itself and does so in the autoimmune disorders."

Basically, Ehlrich discovered that goat erythrocytes from a different Goat B introduced into the Goat A can trigger an immunological reaction but Goat A's erythrocytes cause no such immune response in itself. This is because your body knows what "belongs to you"and what is "foreign" and responds accordingly. Sometimes, our mind too works in a similar fashion; our brain chooses what belongs (or rather who belongs to us) and eliminates other irrelevant characters. Which is why we find ourselves dwelling only on a limited number of people like our family and circle of friends. Everybody else is eliminated. We focus (or atleast we should) focus on the things that matter. 

The human body sometimes fails to recognize a foreign body and treats it as its own (example when the HIV infects the T helper cells in case of AIDS). Often, we make errors of judgement and fail to eliminate irrelevant issues from our mind and hence affecting productivity. In some other occasions, the body fails to realize that a certain protein or antigen is a part of its own system and unknowingly attacks and eliminates it. The lens protein of the eye is one such example which when exposed during any surgery, can result in phacoanaphylaxis (immune response where antibodies are produced against the lens protein). There are times when we fail to realize the importance of people in our lives and unknowningly eliminate them. (This is just randomly compiled nonsense because I decided to study MicroB today. Don't know if this made any sense.)

Another amazing thing I did today was read Forensic Medicine (for the first time) and not fall asleep in the process. According to the author, KSN Reddy, a cognizable offence is one in which the accused can be arrested even without an arrest warrant issued by the District Magistrate and this is only for few specific crimes such as murder, rape, dowry death, or any rash/negligent act. But this is so untrue in the Indian setting. How often, arrests are made without any warrant because the accused is ignorant of the law or is unable to defend himself. There are times when the ones who are to protect us are the ones who are to be feared more because of their misuse of power. We live in a country where corruption can make the right man punished, while the one to blame walks away. Trust me, It isn't uncommon to see an honest person in custody all because someone had a grudge against him and some officer's palms were greased with a few crisp notes of paper bearing the photo of the man who stood for honesty, integrity and non violence. Ironic, isn't it?

The year is ending, it does not do well to dwell on the bad times. Let me hunt for better things to write about. Music has been therapeutic, to say the least. Got several new songs to my playlist:

• Axwell Ingrosso: Something New
• Kelly Clarkson: Dark Side
• Christina Perri: Butterfly (lyrics! :) )
• Ed Sheeran: A Team
• Carrie Underwood: Blown Away
• Taylor Swift: Everything Has Changed
• Imagine Dragons: Demons
• OneRepublic: Counting Stars (popular in the hostel right now), Good Life
• Beyonce': Halo, Best Thing I Never Had
• One Direction: Steal My Girl

Adios, dear reader! :)

Here's wishing you a great year ahead. Every year has its ups and downs, every year teaches us something new, something to remember for life. Every year, we meet new people who will make an impact on us. Every year is an opportunity to make more out of our lives. Here's to better times ahead in 2015. May you work harder, may you reach your goals, may you face the tough times with grace, the good times with care and live life to the fullest and without regrets!