Short write-up on the theme "Genetics"

I joined the 'developmental genetics' lab here in India in Dec 2004. Within a couple of months into this new exciting area, my supervisor asked me to write briefly on the theme 'Genetics' for a class of summer students. This was in 2005, 27 May. At this stage I had only recently initiated in the field of genetics. So this was also a good opportunity for me to read, understand , assimilate and write about this topic in my own language, which is given below. Of course there is much to improve upon and add to what I had written then: