A few Updates!

Well, quite a few updates to be precise. That's natural when one is away from the blogosphere for a long time. Lots of things happened since my last post, not all of them worth mentioning of course. The most important of them perhaps is my new affiliation and job. Yes, as I mentioned earlier, my PhD life ended on June 30, 2012 as scheduled without taking any extensions. And thankfully, I dint have to roam around jobless for a long time. I got an offer from a central government university in Tezpur, a small town in the Indian state Assam. Though I was supposed to join HRI, Allahabad sometime in July as a postdoctoral fellow, this offer from Tezpur University came as a big surprise. Being a fresh graduate, I applied there with zero expectation but with a good reason (as the University is just 30 km away from my Home). Also, I did know that its the best University in the North Eastern region of India and the education system is not too different from the IIT's. I am not much sure how different life would have been if I had gone to HRI rather than coming to Tezpur. But one difference is for sure: in Allahabad I would been crossing the river Ganges everyday whereas here I am crossing the Brahmaputra everyday ;-)

Anyways, life is quite enjoyable here in Tezpur specially after I got a campus residence few days back. I hardly feel like being away from my alma mater IIT Bombay. But of course the difference is severe if one goes outside the Tezpur University campus and that of IIT Bombay which for me is not of any concern as I never got addicted to typical city life in Bombay or any other cities. I have been teaching Electromagnetic Theory to MSc first year and General Theory of Relativity to MSc second year. Plus I have to take BTech Physics tutorials sometimes and have to guide an MSc second year project student. Yes, its quite hectic for a beginner as it sounds! But, same load will be on a postdoctoral fellow also in any good research institute. So, I have nothing to complain either to my employer or to myself. It's true (obviously) that teaching load slows down individual research quite a lot. That's the only thing which concerns me most here. I hope I will be able to complement this by visiting some good places whenever my university allows me. Recently, I visited ICTP for the workshop on BEhind NEutrino mass and mixing (BENE) which turned out to be a really good experience with almost all the big shots in this field from all around the world delivering some enlightening talks.I listened to so many talks on discrete flavor symmetries there that I have started liking some of them now, though discrete symmetries always looked very unnatural and ugly to me while I was a PhD student. I am planning to visit Aizawl, Mizoram next month for another conference and perhaps DAE symposium also which will be in January at Shantiniketan, West Bengal.

Hope to post some more updates soon, Cheers!

Last few days of PhD life!

The very title of this post is enough to explain my disappearance from the blogosphere for more than four months or so. PhD life has always been fun until recently. I don't even remember now how many trips I made during last four years for attending schools, workshops, conference as well as for picnic, trekking, wildlife etc. May be the distance I have traveled will be close to the one from Earth to Moon ;-) But finally, the fun-time was over and it was time to do some serious work to finish PhD. With just a few months at hand, it was really scary. The most hectic thing was applying for postdocs, arranging recommendation letters, writing thesis etc which often took me away from the research works I had been involved. And, at the end of the day all these efforts went in vain except for an offer in India. Although there are good people in India to work with, the salary of a postdoc is just four thousand rupees ($80) more than the monthly scholarship of a PhD student and with a bonus of more than double the workload. If I had enough time at hand, I would have probably chosen another PhD life than the poor life of a postdoc in India. Anyways, my time in Montreal is almost over, I have many things to update about life and work in Montreal, hopefully I will do that after returning to India next week!

New Years Eve 2

Finally I could reach New Delhi before new years eve. The train was delayed by 20 hours without any surprise, thanks to Gujjars as well as Indian Railways. The new years eve party was awesome as before. This time we got more company with couple of cool guys joining us. One of them, Amlan was an amazing guiterist who kept playing GnR, Nirvana and many others throughout the party. The take off was around 11 pm and it lasted till around 7 am. Fortunately I was also alive till the end with others. The bollywood item numbers munni badnam, Shiela ki jawani added spice to our crazy dances throughout the party. Although I am not a big fan of such item numbers, I could realize how awesome they become when you have suitable occasions like we had last night. May the coming year bring more such occasions to have such parties. Even if it does not, 31st Dec 2011 is anyway there by default for a blast. Will keep looking for the next party in the capitol...Hope it comes soon...Amen..................

Maiden Trip to South India

I had my maiden trip to South India this weekend. The diwali vacation along with the weekend put me on an advantage to make such a trip. I went to the city of Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state Karnataka. I am sorry that I would stick to the older name of this city in my post, as changing names of cities don't make any sense to me at all. The new name of this city is perhaps Bengaluru if I am not wrong. Anyway, the trip to Bangalore from Bombay is 24 hour journey by train. The journey was very pleasant as the weather was cool all through. The train route was like a train route to a Hill station. There was no electric lines, the train had a diesel engine and it passed through forests, mountains etc. I really felt as if I am going home and not to Bangalore. There were hardly any famous or big stations on the way, the train was mostly passing through rural areas, forests, paddy fields etc. The altitude of most of the stations coming on the way were more than 500 meter from sea level and may be the that's the reason why the weather was pretty cool throughout. Even if there is rainfall, people don't feel the humidity. It was a different experience from Bombay, where rain means too much humidity and you sweat like hell.

The city of Bangalore was really nice, I found it quite clean and systematic compared to Bombay. I missed the Bombay local train there. The only mode of public transport was bus there. Although I did not have to take any bus, I could guess how difficult it would have been for me if I had to. The sign-boards in the shops, restaurants, buses were mostly in local language, neither in Hindi nor in English. I could just imagine how hard it would be for a new-comer to get adjust to the city life. I found it a bit weird, at least English should be used in the public notice boards if not Hindi. I did not have much time to explore the city, but these were my first sight experiences. I would love to go there once again, may be in March next year. This time I am thinking of visiting IISc for a week or so, so that getting leave from IITB will no longer be an issue. And at the same time will get an opportunity to explore Bangalore and its neighborhood (Mysore for example).

Back from an awesome home trip!

I have come back to my institute yesterday after an awesome trip to my home. This was one of my best home trip in the last nine years. Durga Puja as well as my birthday came together within the 9 days stay at home. The birthday was as special as the date 10.10.10 was, I missed the bumps although which I would have got in hostel. Although I was in Assam during previous Durga puja as well, this time it was much better in terms of crowd as well as the weather. The weather was really cool. The days were sunny and the nights were rainy, keeping the temperature around 25 degree Celsius. There was no need of using fan in the night. The rain was a bit too much on the day of Mahanabami in Guwahati, but in my place (which is 170 km east of Guwahati) was much better with very little rain in the morning. I went to couple of places nearby my hometown to enjoy the Puja crowd. Assam was looking much better in Autumn than in Spring, which might be because of less rain in Autumn. During spring, it rains so much that there is hardly anything to enjoy. But now as the rainfall has decreased (not stopped although), you can enjoy the green and yellow paddy fields, the blue hills with little white clouds hanging over them. At the end of my stay I was hardly feeling like coming back unlike in most of my previous visits. Usually I get bored and feel like coming back to Bombay, but this time it was really different. I am really missing the days I spent with my family. I feel like going back again. I might need 2-3 more days to come back to normal hostel life, presently I am feeling complete blank :-(

Leave me alone please!

I get very much frustrated when people ask me "How long will u keep studying?"...being a PhD student I find it very difficult to answer. Since I have decided to stay in academics, study is a never ending process for me. I get paid for that only. I don't know how to convince those people that people can earn "good" money without finishing their studies also. I don't know much about the cities, but in rural areas people still prefer their children to become doctor, engineer or bureaucrats. In fact when I decided not to do engineering or medical, my father sent me to study in Delhi thinking that after my B.Sc. I will appear Civil Service examination. But nobody asked me why I want to do B.Sc. in Physics: to become a bureaucrat or because of my interest in Physics. Anyway after cracking IIT post graduate entrance exam, I somehow convinced my parents that IIT is a big place and I will do good if I go there. After spending almost four years in IIT, still my parents think I will appear Civil service exam after I pass out from here. I do not know how to keep my family as well as the people in my locality happy. I have realized now that its better not to visit home before finishing my PhD, so as not to let these depressing feelings come in between me and my research. I am really happy with the fact that I am doing whatever I like, but may be people would have liked me to do what they like. They do it everywhere, not just in case of career, but in case of marriage also. They never let you marry the person you love to be with throughout your life, its them who will decide whom you gonna marry. I can't believe I am living in 21st Century and in a country which has one of the fastest growing economy and a future superpower( by 2020 as Kalam said). I would just say those who can't appreciate what I am doing then please leave me alone!

Recent Home Trip

This is the first time I have gone home in the month of January. Just after I came back from Mahabaleshwar, I took a flight to Guwahati. Although I was expecting the weather to be very cold, I found it average type which was really embarrassing. During the magh bihu (3rd week of January), the weather there was very cold and when my mom told me about it, I got very tempted. But as soon as I landed at Guwahati, it seemed as if the winter is gone. After sunset however the weather became cold, but during the day it was sunny and hot as well. Although I reached home almost ten days after Magh Bihu, yet I could find a Harli Ghar (a hut built in the paddy field after harvesting on the occasion of magh bihu) where we had party at night with a bonfire. This was like a never before experience for me, when I was at home till my class 10th, my father did not allow me to go out at night. We did many crazy things there at night like stealing woods, bamboo from people to keep our bonfire alive. I stayed at home for one week and came back to Guwahati three days before my journey date from Guwahati to New Delhi. I spent some really good moments with my girlfriend there, did some shopping as well. I reached New Delhi on 5th February and fortunately its end of season sale going everywhere here, the best time to do shopping. I did shopping this time in such a way as if I am buying stuffs for next one year. I am leaving for Ahmedabad tomorrow and will be staying there till June. Hope to have a nice time at PRL and do some good work.

Ohh God..please take me out of this...

Life was pretty cool until few days back. Suddenly so many things have started occupying my mind:

1. Today is December 17th and still grades for the course HS 699 which I did in the last semester have not yet come. The Department should have sent the seminar presentation skill marks to the Academic office but the stupid losers have not done yet. When I went to the academic office they told me that all the students whose marks have not come from the department will be given NP(Not Passed) grades. Can you believe this? It was this damn useless course for which I have come to IITB campus from IIT Gn (where my supervisor is) sacrificing my research and even after attending most of the lectures and passing the written component, I am in a situation of being failed just because the stupid department forgot to send my seminar marks. Nothing can be more frustrating than this.

2. I need to register for PhD which has already been delayed by almost one year for similar stupid reasons. And since HS 699 grades have not come yet I am not being able to do this important thing also.

3. I am planning to go to WHEPP, Asian Winter School, SERC Main School in the next semester for which I need to take academic leave from the institute. I also want to go to PRL, Ahmedabad for some research work. Basically I need to apply for academic leave for the whole semester. In a sucking institute like IITB, this is not a very trivial process. I have to write an application to Dean AP which will be forwarded by my supervisor and head of Physics department. After approval from Dean AP comes I need to write to Dean SA again forwarded by my supervisor and head of department for hostel room retention. I have hardly one week for all these, I just hope I will be able to get all these done.

4. I have the stupid NET exam on next Sunday that too in Pune, three hour journey from Bombay. Its unbelievable that CSIR-UGC don't consider a city like Bombay appropriate for conducting NET examination. I have to go to Pune one night before so that the next day I can reach the examination center on time.

5. There is no food in the hostel from 19th December and no canteen also. Gonna starve like hell :(
I just hope God (if He exists) will take me out of all these shits soon.

The Pain of being a nine point someone

I don't know what Chetan Bhagat has written in his first novel "five point someone"; I just know that the phrase five point someone refers to those IITians who has CPI (cumulative performance index) between 5 and 6. It's quite well-known the kind of depression an IITian suffer from when he or she fails to perform in the academic system as it was expected. This has led to many incidents in different IIT's where students chose the most extreme step to come out of this stress and depression. Recently in IIT Bombay, there was a suicide case by a student of 2nd year BTech programme. His poor performance in class is said to be the probable reason behind it. But why such students get admitted after all? Does not it mean that the IIT entrance system of admitting students to various programs have failed totally? Is there any huge gap between the admission criteria and the academic standards? I am not an expert to answer such questions. But I would like to mention one point that poor performance may not be the only reason behind depression. There are other reasons also which are overlooked most of the time. IIT system has many faults in it which can even make an academic topper feel depressed. I do not need to talk about anyone else. Myself is the best example. I have always been an academic topper till my BSc. During my MSc in IIT B also I was the second topper among the 2 year MSc as well as MSc-PhD dual degree students and could maintain a CPI of 9.15 at the end of two years. Unfortunately CPI is not everything which count in life. After I moved into research part of my MS-PhD dual degree course, my expectations, my motivations and my excitements started disappearing. The first blow came to me when my supervisor was appointed as dean in a different IIT, and he had to shift there temporarily and he is still there. Its one and half year till then he has not come back to his home institute and during this one and half year neither I have any publication with him nor any good progress in work has happened. May be I am not a very smart guy to do research through email discussions. Although I spent few months in that IIT where my supervisor is appointed as dean, I could not do much work since he hardly could give me time. That was quite natural since a dean has to do lots of non-academic things. The second and the most recent blow came when I got the news that my supervisor is going to Canada on sabbatical for one year. So I will be completing almost two and half years without any good research work by the end of 2010. Aren't these more than enough to bring too much depression and stress into life? The IIT system doesn't care what will happen to a PhD student if his/her supervisor is sent to some other place to do some no-academic things, it does not care what will happen to a student when a faculty goes on sabbatical for one year. IIT should give a thought about all these and should not run into a conclusion that only poor academic performance creates stress, depression among students.

Thanks to Media for creating too much hype about Swine flu ;)

Most of us are aware of the swine flu panic in India 2-3 months back. The panic was more because of media hype and not because of the death toll. Finally the government had to come in between media and public asking the media not to give too much publicity which may create chaos in public life. Although the media hype was for no good in the public interest, it however had a good effect in me. I was so scared that I started taking extra care. Suddenly, healthy and hygienic food became a priority in my life which I am afraid if were there in the past at all. Previously I used to miss breakfast almost everyday, but life after that has totally changed. I never miss breakfast nowadays, try to eat enough food no matter how bad the taste is. And the best thing was I quit smoking almost during that time. Although I did not see any link between swine flu and smoking, yet I did not want to take any risk and made sure that I don't consume anything which may be harmful. Now after completing three months without smoking, I feel that I don't have any interest in it. I don't know why I started smoking few years back, may be just for fun. I used to smoke during the most relaxing time in a day, contrary to others probably who smoke only when they get tensed. Although there was no need of smoking in my life, I just used to smoke casually and suddenly it became a kind of addiction. However it was not very bad as I never took more than one cigarette per day. Anyway I feel very happy today that I am not used to such a bad habit now. It really sucks! Thanks a lot again to the unwanted media hype :)

Physics as a Profession

I have no idea how far I would be able to go by opting research in physics as my profession. But the important thing is that life is really peaceful now. I know tough days are ahead. Its just the starting of my research career. I happens very rarely that people get a chance to work with some coolmax Prof like my supervisor is. I am working with him for almost two years. Starting with Friedmann cosmology, I have learned QFT, standard model of particle physics, Left-Right Symmetric Model(LRSM) , Supersymmetry(SUSY) basics as well as different SUSY models under him. Currently I am working on the SUSY left-right model and its collider/cosmological signatures. This model is basically an extension of the Standard Model where we incorporate two extra symmetries: Left-Right Symmetry and Supersymmetry. Details of the work will be posted later...

My Life : A Chaotic Journey

I know the time is yet to come when I will be able to write something about my life. Still a long way to go. Being confused about what to post I thought lets start something very personal..my journey till date. It was started at Bogajon Satra, a village in Assam, India. The flowchart along the direction of time would be like
Bogajon-->Guwahati-->New Delhi-->Mumbai-->Munich-->Mumbai
I would like to call various points in my life as genuine phase transitions. The place where I was born people were not literate enough to know what IIT(Indian Institute of Technology)'s are, what Scientific Research is etc etc. Rather they always appreciated power and money. Naturally it also went into my mind. Whenever people asked me what my aim was (or is!!!) I replied instantaneously "Deputy Commissioner". People really appreciated that. At the same time I also knew one thing that Physics and Mathematics are the two subjects which were most fascinating for me although I was unaware of the fact that people can build their career with such subjects only. Then I thought I would do BSc with Physics/Mathematics and then would appear Civil Service examination.
After finishing my class X, I came to Guwahati (the capital city of Assam) to pursue my XI-XII.There I got to know about institutes like IIT, IIM etc. and realized that there are lots of things as well as institutes. Although due to financial problem I could not take some good coaching for the IIT-JEE'2003 still I gave it an unsuccessful attempt. I wanted to get admitted into the Integrated MSc course in Physics in IITK. But after the failure in JEE, I went to New Delhi and joined the BSc programme in Physics (University of Delhi).I spent my days there with people from Bihar as well as UP and naturally got more motivated towards Civil Services examination as you may know Students from Bihar, UP in Delhi mostly prepare for Civil Services.But at the same time I knew that I was losing interst in the kinds of life a civil-servant has to live..something like very busy, tensed, disciplined etc etc. More importantly the bloody politicians politicize the civil servants in such a way that they have to tune into the frequency set by the politicians.These were very unacceptable for me.But since my family always insisted me in doing that I somehow made up my mind to do it.But after I came to IIT Bombay to pursue my Post-Graduation somehow I completely lost my interests in those civil-services etc etc.Life in academics seems the most peaceful for me now. I feel as if I would be a student throughout my life. I know how good it feels to be a student...& now I knw how better it feels when we come to know that the remaining life will not be anything different(upto first order approximations) from a student life.
During my stay in Delhi I used to travel by 2nd class railway compartment whenever I ran out of money or did not get reservations in sleeper class. It was horrible to travel for 38 hours by 2nd class Indian Railway. I went like this three times from New Delhi to Guwahati. If you have ever seen people trying to board in the 2nd class compartment you would certainly realize how brave I was to go like this..:P
And luckily enough few months back I got an opportunity to travel by international airlines like AIR FRANCE when I went to Germany for 3 months. I was visiting Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics,Garching. I had an unbelievable experience out there. Specially for the people in my village I became like an "ideal" . For the people who never saw a railway station traveling by airlines is something really big. Anyway when I went to my home after coming back from Europe most of my childhood friends who are now rickshaw driver, shop owner, some educated but unemployed like most people came to know my experience. I cant say how I felt at that moment. I know its difficult to adjust with so different kinds of people at a time; people from Europe, Bombay, Delhi & then from my village. But somehow I manage to handle this...I miss them so much.I hope I would be able to remain as good as before to all of my friends and siblings.
Its 3 years now in Bombay and noting much is happening in life here. I am just waiting for the day when I will get my degree from IITB and fly away.....After most of my MSc friends left the insti its really boring to stay here..May God take me out from here soon....