Random Thoughts

Attending a conference abroad is so painful because of all the paper work one has to do to get a visa and to obtain some grant money. But, it does not end with the conference itself, as one has to then come back and submit all the bills, which is another set of paperwork. And, this I realize now is more troublesome of the two. I went to a conference in Jan 2013 and submitted the bills in Feb 2013. It is now June and I am yet to get the grant money that was promised to me by DST. First, they don't have the basic coutesy to send an acknowledgment email to the the claimant who has sent all the original documents by post. And, this is a major drawback and you get all worried coz a large sum is at stake. Second, when you try calling them at the phone number that they have provided in your grant letter, they never pick it up! Half the time you get a busy tone, which I am sure is because they have set the reciever down coz they do not want to be "disturbed" for exactl...

Dated: 27th Jan 2013 I have now come to an end of my two week trip, a trip that was so packed that I missed the entire Australian Open (anyone who knows me will realize that's quite a big deal!). As soon as you land, you immediately know that you have landed in USA, as there is Obama's face peering at you from every TV screen and every poster at the airport. There is also the debate about gun laws going on in every news channel. And, when you step out of the airport, the traffic is going the opposite way, and when you go to any burger place for a bite, you watch NBA basketball when just the day before you were watching cricket while eating your burger at the same Mc Donald's burger joint. I am not saying anything new here. Everybody knows these things, but, these are things that nevertheless strike you as different as soon as you land. The things that really strike you if you're coming from India are: 1. The cars greatly outnumber people and in any c...

Sports sometimes creates stories that seem so perfect. The second Sunday of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships marked Federer’s return as a Grand Slam champion, one that had eluded him for more than two years and a reclaim to the No.1 position in the ATP rankings. Besides being a personal triumph, this day also witnessed a rewriting of history as with this title Federer now equalled Pete Sampras’ record of winning the most Wimbledon titles (7 in all) and being No. 1 for the maximum number of weeks (286 weeks). It all seems so perfect, creating a story as if it was meant to be and was destined to happen, all because he hadn’t won a Slam in a long time and now he was due. It makes you feel that Federer was a mere player in the Grand scheme of things for whom things were prewritten and he just had to be there to be carried over by the wave. But then, beneath this beautiful story lies the resilience of that same player who made it all happen. It is this remarkable character that makes Ro...

Roland Garros 2011 saw Federer come into the tournament not as one of the favorites for the first time. It saw Federer come in as World No. 3, pretty much away from the limelight. This time, it was Djokovic who received all the attention and Nadal who was under the scanner for not having had a good enough season by his standards. And, this time, Federer was thrown questions about all the other players, when its usually the other way around. They said Federer can no longer defeat any of the top players. They said it is the end of the Federer-Nadal rivalry. They said Djokovic is the new guy in the mix, and he will now replace Federer in the greatest rivalry that tennis has seen. But, Federer went about his business quietly, not bothering about what anyone else was saying. And indeed, he reached the semifinals quite easily. Djokovic, on the other hand, was constantly under media limelight. He was the "in form" guy and therefore, the tournament favorite. He was on a 42 match win...

Your first time out of your country is a very special experience. It opens up a whole new facet of life before you. You want to just absorb everything that you see. My first (and, hopefully not the last) trip abroad was to Italy. I took in everything-the people, the place, the beautiful statues, piazzas, churches, castles, the food. Well, one has invariable read about all this already. But, when you experience it firsthand, it is something else!  TRIESTE: I was put up at ICTP in Trieste. And, the first thing you notice about Trieste is its calm blue sea. I took many walks along the sea shore, and when you're there, you feel there is no place else where you want to be. You can just sit and stare at the sea for hours. You see sea gulls gliding over or just sitting on the huge rocks, you see the ducks swimming about on the shallow waters next to the shore, you see someone sitting calmly with a fishing rod in one hand and a book in another, you see schools of small fish and jelly fi...

It was late one night and I was trying to sleep for quite some time, but to no avail. I then got bored of trying and decided to do something to kill time till I felt sleepy. Well, what I did was nothing constructive. I just made a list of a few things I like and dislike on campus. Here they are:   What I don’t like: The fact that some people watch those stupid regressive soap operas and those highly melodramatic reality shows that run on our Indian cable channels. It is the last kind of entertainment that I would personally have. I’d prefer anything to these, even sitting idle (though that rarely happens). The fact that people (not all) on campus know whether or not Deepika Padukone is back dating Ranbir Kapoor, but not for eg. that 76 CRPF jawans were brutally massacred by Maoists in Chhattisgarh. Basically, the fact that many people on campus follow only page 3 news, but hardly know what is going on in and around the world. They are living in a small world of their own,...

Note: This is my second post on this topic. You can find Part I here. I wrote this 5 years ago, but it was lying in my drafts all this while. My impulse got the better of me today, mostly because I haven't posted anything in a while and got desperate. So here I am posting it, finally! What has really induced me into writing this post is the fact that one of my closest friends has recently got engaged to be married. Well the wedding -which is going to be an arranged marriage by the way- is still a few months away and so this is exactly the time when all interesting things happen. So then, let me begin from the beginning. The initial period (right after both families agree to the marriage) is the period of anxiety. Will he or won't he call! Each day is a long wait for that elusive phone call from the boy, to the point of frustration. This is when all theories are concocted... the boy himself may not be interested in the marriage and has acceded to it to please his...