Playing with electrons

I am looking to starting my career in India by next summer as a faculty member in some institute, preferably in the April-July window. So I would like to pen down very briefly, my experience in this process so far. I finished my PhD quite recently (August 2013) and started looking for faculty positions in India a couple of months before graduation. So I decided not to work in the USA, a very bold move indeed. As of now, I am working as a post-doc in the same group where I did my PhD, finishing some pending work and trying to get some papers published before I heed back to India next year. I decided not to go for industry in USA because I believe I am not made for industry. Working during some fixed schedule such as 9 am-6 pm from Monday to Friday with a week’s vacation in a year, staying too far from family – doesn’t work for me. I love my independence, and freedom to work on my own, and the ability to buy groceries together with my dad in Golaghat (Assam) or to go and hug my s...

A friend of mine told me yesterday that, if suppose the government declares (or makes a law) that a person who is a ch****a (or, in idiot/stupid, a douche bag), will be given Rs. 5 lacs with no questions asked, then what will happen ? He said - "Tab main bhi boloonga ki main ch****a (idiot) hoon, mujhe bhi Rs. 5 lacs chahiye" [ I also an idiot, I need Rs. 5 lacs too ]. Of course, almost everyone will try to prove himself/herself as ch****a (idiot) so as to get those free 5 lacs rupees, and people will fight to get themselves certified as ch****a (idiot). The number of ch****a (idiot) people in India will increase, and eventually India will be full of certified ch****a (idiot) people. I had a hearty laugh ! Makes perfect sense !

Once a day, I close my eyes for few minutes and try to imagine that I am leaving my body and floating in the air as I leave my apartment and see from above. Then I imagine that at a very fast pace, I am leaving the earth’s atmosphere and viewing the whole of planet earth from space, with the sun in the distant background against a dark space. Then I move one step ahead and imagine leaving the solar system as I see the earth becoming smaller and smaller in size and start seeing the Mars and Jupiter zoom across my view. Finally I imagine seeing the solar system from a distance, with the sun barely visible. Then I let my imagination make me travel at unphysical speeds to distant stars, to another part of our Milky Way galaxy. I imagine seeing countless stars and supernovae remnants from a distance, and I ‘choose’ to imagine a random star amongst them. I let my mind take me to near that unknown and random star, and just imagine that it’s got a set of very different kinds of planets aro...

During my recent trip to India, I found it rather surprising (in a bad way) that the weather in Bangalore was very repulsive! Bangalore has been known to offer a pleasant and nice weather, even during summers. If it tends to get hotter, an evening shower cools it off. I had myself experienced it in 2008 when I had stayed there for six months. This time however, the temperature touched 38 0 C (or about 104-106 0 F) and humidity was very high. Local people whined about how this year was the first time since 1984 that such a severe weather was hitting Bangalore even in early April. The reason wasn’t too difficult to gauge. The number of tall apartment complexes has arisen exponentially. Almost everywhere around the city, these super tall buildings have filled up all the otherwise empty spaces, and are offering 2 bedroom apartments at ridiculous prices [somewhere around Rs. 2 crore (~ $ 400000 USD) or so depending on the location, to my knowledge]. This is an insanely high amount of ...

When a PhD student is nearing completion of his/her PhD, the worries, concerns and dilemma pertaining to a post-doc start to loom.  This situation is strongly dependent on the broad area of PhD and also on the specific area within a particular discipline. For instance, to my knowledge and observation, PhD graduates in basic sciences such as physics or mathematics mostly or usually do one or more post-docs, while PhD graduates from say Electrical or Computer Science Engineering usually bypass the post-doc stage - not all such engineering PhDs, but mostly. For instance, if we randomly pick up 100 fresh PhD graduates in Physics or Mathematics, and 100 fresh PhD graduates in Electrical/Computer Engineering, what how would the statistics look like with regard to the percentage of graduates going for post-doc in physics/math vs. those in electrical/computer engineering? I do not have the statistics with me to claim anything, but based on my observation and interaction in the last 4....

Sometimes I wonder - if 'it' were not there, how would things be like today? 'It' is any one of the few technological or engineering breakthroughs that have shaped our present world. Or, perhaps who knows, 'it' killed some other invention or engineering wonder which could have shaped our present world in a totally different manner, may be in an even 'better' way. For, when 'it' quickly gained widespread use and kick-started a market worth millions or billions of dollars, then things like industry, government, taxation, market, etc. come into picture and nobody really wants a change that could hinder the now-smooth functioning market and day-to-day life. Nobody prefers that. Rather, the drive on research and innovation is to keep pushing the frontiers of the existing technology and engineering marvels in incremental steps, training the bright minds in such pursuits and perhaps totally killing a pure 'out of the box' thought process. Aft...

I am writing this short and quick post being unable to contain the sheer amazement I had had last night. It has completely baffled me, and doesn't seem humanly possible, at least from my experience.  The cold outside is brutal, or rather, was more brutal yesterday than today. Although the actual temperature was consistently around -10 to -14 degree celcius, but the nasty wind blowing at 25-30 km/hour makes one's skin perceives an even colder temperature, often referred to as the 'feels like temperature' as can be seen in weather.com ... it was 'feels like -17 to -20 degree celcius' outside (weather.com). It was punishingly cold without any exaggeration. I had lost my nice gloves a few days ago (stupid me!), and thus I was forced to carry the carry-out bag from Raising Canes with my bare hand sans gloves at 1 am in the night. I used each of my hands alternately to hold the bag for a 30-second period for the 5-min walking distance while keeping the other hand ...

I am approximately four years and four months into my PhD and expecting to graduate sometime this year, most likely in the second half which will make it a five-year PhD. Like any other PhD student, I will not hesitate to say that the last 4+ years have been a tremendously enriching and learning experience for me not only in research but also in my personal life. Turns out I have gradually matured, most sharply in 2012, with respect to being able to manage myself better, says my room-mate of 4-years who witnessed my transition first-hand. As with any typical PhD path, there have been much more (and repeated) failures and disappointments than successes, and it has been a continuous test of my ability to sustain the enthusiasm and focus in spite of painful failures, but as the saying goes: A minute’s success pays off for years of failures . I am a typical PhD student in most respects. However, the thing which makes my PhD a little not-so-typical one is that, I am the first st...