Boring Summer!

This summer seems really boring with no plans to go to some school or conferences. I don't remember when I spent the whole summer in the institute in last five years. Either I used to go home or to some other institutes for summer internships or schools, workshops. Although the summer internship option is no longer available, I did not find any conference suitable for me. There were two three of them but of so much high standards that registration limit had crossed limit much before I came to know about them. Most conferences nowadays ask to pay registration fees(a huge sum of money for a grad student in India) before applying which is a big headache nowadays. Although there are some options to get these money reimbursed from various funding agencies in India, the process takes some time. ICTP school is a very good option to look for, but I already attended previous year's Cosmology school. I would have preferred to attend the Particle Physics school this year, but it's impossible to get the funding for two consecutive years, and our institute provides funding only when we go for oral presentation and not for attending schools abroad. Even if I had not applied for the Cosmology school and applied for the Particle Physics school this year, I am not sure if I would have got selected. This time the selection was a bit strange to me since many people with publications did not get selected, may be the organizers are looking for fresh participants who have just joined PhD. It at least gives me the good feeling that I at least attended the Cosmology school last year which was a real good experience. I am looking for the SUSY conference this year in Batavia, Illinois but not sure if will get selected. This is considered to be largest conference for people working in supersymmetry theory and phenomenology. Keeping fingers crossed right now. Anyway, spending the summer in the institute has at least one advantage it seems: the campus is far less crowded and takes me back to my earlier days in 2006 at IIT except one difference in the sense that there are not as many trees in the campus now.