Relating the unrelated

Well, it is said that blogs are meant to express your thoughts. These thoughts can be from rational to irrational, from random to subjective, frompre -mediated to spontaneous. I will try to express one such thought that lingers in my mind, since many years. This is an abstract thought, purely aimed at making the reader smile, if not wonder, on perhaps one of the mostunrelating 'relations' ever.
Making no more eyebrows to raise, I would plainly state that I am trying to make out the relation between two the two most liked fields by me- 'Indian Classical Music and Biotechnology'. Before this, I would like to clarify that I am indeed not a master of these! I have neither published a recording, nor any research paper. I have only 'attended' a concert, as I always 'attend' a lecture or a presentation. I am yet to 'give' any of those myself. Hence, please don't even think of taking my statements seriously...:D
My thoughts here rest solely on the belief that all forms of sciences are related to each other in some or the other way. And I consider all forms of arts and music, as a science. So, these also should be related to each other,atleast conceptually.
Indian Classical Music consists of something called 'raag'. It is a collection of musical notes, that have to be interpreted melodically. However, a raag has a collection of fixed notes, and while performing a raag, any note used other than those in it, is considered as a huge musical mistake! Similar analogy can be made to the wild-type DNA,which has a fixed nucleotide sequence in it. Or also to a plasmid DNA, where there is no foreign DNA inserted.
However, there is a liberty to use a foreign note in a rigid raaga structure, in order to generate a composition, that perhaps requires a specific situational modification. In this case, the foreign note is used such that, it does not completely hamper the mood of theraag , but changes it in a manner that appears pleasing to the ear. The phenotype( 'product') obtained is a melodious modification of the existing rigid note structure. In the same way, we are having a liberty to use foreign DNA fragment, in an already existing wild-type DNA. This foreign DNA fragment, does nothing to hamper the normal functioning of the organism, but adds to the organism, a function that is not its characteristic, but the requirement for the moment. Thus the foreign DNA fragment can be compared to the 'vivadi' sur , that we use to beautify the existing raag structure.
It is known that the DNA is made up of 4 nucleotides- A,T,G and C. These 4 nucleotides make up the DNA structure, with some variations of these nucleotides observed somewhere. These variations are minor, and not very prominent. A genetic code is unique, in the sense that it is composed of a specific sequence of only these 4 nucleotides, nothing else than this. Araaga , on similar lines can be said to be composed of only a specific sequence of the 12 musical notes, nothing else than this. The minor variations, can here be said to be the 'shrutis', which are more than one form of a same musical note. A raag will consist of a specific sequence of the musical notes. A change in the sequence, makes an entirely different raag, just as the change in the sequence makes a complete different protein. So, if the nucleotides are the seven musical notes, a protein can be a 'functional'raag!
Further thinking has led me to relate the degree of expression of a protein, to the degree of rendetion of a raag. Every similar protein in two individuals has a different phenotypic expression, and which results in the two individuals becoming different. This difference is, although the proteins under consideration are similar in their nucleotide sequence i.e two similar proteins. Similarly if we have Pt.Bhimsen Joshi singing a 'yaman' on one side and Pt. Kumar Gandharva on the other, we have a different expression of the raag, inspite of it containing the same musical notes ( nucleotides). The raags are the same, the notes are the same, but the degree of expression varies!
Hence, I would conclude by stating that both are research fields, and require immense patience to handle! The outcome, however is simple....pleasure!!! InBiotech , in order to work on a topic, we have the same microbial strain, its particular nucleotide sequence, a specific protein to consider, and a known consequence to handle. Hence, in order to expect something new, we have to innovate, improvise on the given resources, which would be the same. The thinking perspective would differ, every coming day. The expression of araag is no different aspect. We have the same sequence of notes, similar patterns to follow, and an expected design of the raag in mind. Still, we have to innovate, improvise on these given resources, so that everyday, we paint a different picture of the sameraag. We decorate the same body with different clothes. So, at the end of a concert, the same raag appears different, the every time you listen to it. Just as Pt. Bhimsen Joshi's 'yaman', or a 'darbari' or a 'miya ki malhar ', has being offered to the audiences countless number of times......each time with a different approach, a different appearance...however with the only one thing same....sheer joy, absolute pleasure and an infinite sense of divinity!!!!