Amusing/Pleasant observations at IITK#6 : Pictures!

I have been meaning to share these for some time. Some circumstances have made it possible tonight. It is my intention to click some more, nice ones, while I am still here and share them. 

These were clicked during this year's summers while returning from my lab office room at night. 

My bicycle. Parked at Structural Engineering laboratory's entrance.

In front of lab.

 The newly constructed corridor connecting ACES building's and the faculty building's ground-floor.

 Western Lab Extension building as seen from ACES building's entrance.

Western Labs. 

The stillness and aloofness.

These were clicked around the same time of the year.

Views from New Core Labs' top floor's balconies.

As you enter the academic area from Hall 2 gate.

 Views from 6th floor of Faculty Building.

Library's fountains.

[I remember reaching library earlier than its opening time that day]

The following were clicked on a rainy day in my hostel's premises.

These last series of pictures are from my hostel premises as well, clicked quite recently, early morning, thanks to a queer schedule of waking up at around 5 A.M. that I had adopted then (and I so wish it happens again..!!). I was returning to my room after jogging when I noticed this plant having many of the flowers in various stages of blooming.

I hope the readers found them pleasant.

Amusing/Pleasant observations at IITK #5

Saw this on one of the entrance pillars as I was entering the library just now:

I remember having an earnest desire to help screen such documentaries for the campus people a couple of years back, but due to some reasons couldn't see it through. Afterwards, gradually, I resigned inwardly and gave up on it.

So, seeing this made me smile. Perhaps I was too pessimistic and thus underestimated our UG students' interest in matters not relevant to their immediate professional goals! Although, I think the number of people turning up for these documentaries would be the true indicator of their interest in such matters, assuming there's nothing more urgent to hold them back (e.g. quizzes, end-sems, etc.) or that they already haven't watched them or intend to, in future. No matter. To me, the fact that some group of people decided to take this initiative is in itself a shining star of optimism. :-)

Amusing/Pleasant observations at IITK #4

Free time is a luxury for at least those who are not mired deep into their doctoral research work! 

For the same reasons as stated frequently before, I am making this short entry in a hurry.

Yesterday was a unusually strange day. I think from morning itself, while I was on my way to the academic area, I started noticing that many of the students' faces/ physiques/expressions etc. resembled with those who were around me when I was a UG student. Later in the evening, while performing the exam-invigilation duty as part of my teaching-assistant job of a departmental course, I again made similar observations with the (>100) students taking the exam!

Before sleeping I realized that because I have been in this place for so many years now, I have been exposed to lot many new faces than others. And if it is true that in a sufficiently large sample size of homo sapiens this property is to be expected, then it's not all together a weird experience. Also I have read that our brains are hard-wired to recognize human faces, like most other species as well, I guess.

I wonder if someone else has had same experience.

Oh, there's a guy in my hostel who I think resembles me.

PhD Memoirs#6 : On writing a paper - got to know myself better

As the readers may have guessed I have initiated the process of 'writing a paper' - my first one. If you are curious to know, I am currently into 5th year of my doctoral program. I am mentioning this because I think it will be of consolation to many readers who happen to find themselves in a situation where they haven't been able to come up with a paper after 2 years into their PhD program. And I will let you know once (IF at all) it gets accepted by some (hopefully decent) journal, which will probably give even more relief.

Anyway, I will cut to the chase as I am really not in an enthusiastic mood to write an entry. But like before I suffer from a suspicion that this particular post may never materialize if I don't write it now. 

The paper that I am thinking of writing is based on the work mentioned in my first three PhD Memoirs (don't worry if you haven't read them, you can still follow this). For it to be publishable, naturally it must satisfy one key requirement (among others) - it should be original work. So, it makes sense to first investigate whether the work being undertaken with the objective of publishing in future has been done before or not, right? Of course, this investigation can consume quite some time and effort, nevertheless it is necessary. Moreover, this is important as the results of this investigation appear in the 'Introduction' section of the paper. It can even be argued that this is a fundamental and logical step which dictates how to proceed with research, which topic to research on, etc.

As irrational as it may seem I didn't complete this step thoroughly then before embarking on the work that I now wish to get published. And so, with my fingers crossed, I have lately been searching online academic repositories for articles dealing with my (hopefully not!!) or similar work.

I have used the word 'thoroughly' above since I am now indeed doing it thoroughly and realize that previously I didn't.

Perhaps I shouldn't but I find it funny. You see, several months ago I was quite desperate and anxious to get a breakthrough in being able to find a mathematical technique to solve one aspect of my particular research problem. I eventually succeeded in discovering one. For the sake of verifying my understanding of it, I then applied it to solve an already solved problem- similar to but not exactly mine - that had been been done using another (non-comprehensible to me) technique. But after many attempts, to my immense disappointment, I failed to replicate those results. Later on I discovered that the results of that work are actually incorrect and that my understanding of the technique is flawless. And I committed my first fatal mistake at this point. 

I was so overcome by excitement upon the discovery of finding the correct analytical solution to that problem that I didn't bother to investigate thoroughly whether others had also succeeded in doing that. After doing a small survey I falsely believed and fantasized that the correctly obtained solution to that problem would also be publishable, in addition to the solution to my particular research problem. Had I investigated thoroughly, like I am doing now, it might have put the achievement in proper context. And perhaps I might have discovered some more (possibly simpler or more interesting) techniques of solving the class of problems to which my particular research problem belongs - all of which I am discovering now.. 

I think I knew then that I was proceeding in a non-systematic manner but the phases of mental exhaustion prevented me from facing its consequences. And I find it funny to see how, finally, the task of writing a paper is making it possible for me to engage in a thorough, objective and dispassionate search for similar and already-published work in a more or less effortless manner.

Fortunately it seems things will still probably work out for me. But I have learned a vital lesson and hope so did the prospective graduate student readers.

Additionally, I think my experience is probably generalizable to our species - we hesitate to look for evidence which may falsify our beliefs and or weaken our hopes.

Oh dear Asimov

Oh dear Asimov,

You have electrified my jaded soul!

What started as an innocent exploration

Is almost turning into an obsession –

To read everything that your brilliant mind has penned,

To devour your stories of space/time travel and smart aliens!

Why?

Because there is a magic in your way of communicating!

You explain the awesomeness of the Universe in a way that is so stimulating!

Now, this budding addiction

Is naturally accompanied by a trepidation.

You see,

I am doing PhD.

And I can’t help but foresee

That the consequences of t­hese activities

May not be salutary!

For instance,

Today I went to the library

Hoping to set straight my priorities.

But alas, I failed in my mission!

And instead discovered some of your books of non-fiction!

Sigh!

For the time-being I feel helpless.

My mind is possessed, I confess!

I hope that reading and thinking about the Universe

Will eventually not interfere much with my PhD research.

And that I will look back at these escapades

Without too much of regret,

But rather in a nostalgic way

By realizing that I didn’t forget

What it was like to be a child,

Who sought answers and explanations

For things as simple as the peculiar color of the sky

To as intriguing as what led to the Universe’ creation.

PhD Memoirs #5 : Not just about PhD

This entry is a little different from the rest. Just a moment ago I realized that in all my previous entries the chief focus has been on the research element of my studies and all the mentioned struggles seem to be technical in nature. However, after doing some bit of thinking I realized that many of us also sometimes undergo some phases of trials/anxiety/moroseness etc. which add to the already existing violent magma erupting from the research volcoano. And I wish to confess that it's happened with me too. 

Mentioned below is a write-up I wrote while going through one such phase, about 1-2 months back. 

Before you read it I wish to inform you that I am quite all right now and truly reflect the enthusiastic mood of PhD Memoirs #4. It's just that I had earlier thought of keeping this to myself but I guess I am now okay with sharing it. The hope that people going through a hard time may be able to identify themselves with my situation and hence hopefully draw some inspiration to hold on and not give up, has finally won over my hesitation to reveal some dim areas about my personal life. 

By the way, I understand that there would be many readers who probably won't face such situations and hence probably this blog post may not be suitable for them. If you feel that way, you can skip reading this further but you are always welcome to come back to this post in case you do find yourself in (hopefully, mild!) trouble. 

It hit him again - the phase of mildly violent confusion. Some events of the day had triggered it again. And this time it was as intense as it had been some time back. For the past couple of weeks he had managed to avoid thinking about past events and even today, after the ‘events’, he had remained calm and not let his mind overanalyze them. But by evening he felt his mind’s fortress slowly getting reduced to rubble, brick by brick, by the very cannon balls that he had himself hidden in some dark dungeon, which he realized was ultimately vulnerable to being discovered by an army of such ‘events’.

After some time, when he realized that everything was uncertain and there was nothing practical that he was capable of doing to remove the uncertainties, he grew tired of it and tried to recall the good arguments that made him stop over-thinking the matter. Yes, he recalled that whatever that was happening was likely a result of some kind of neurological disorder in the brain that people having gone through similar circumstances become victims of, the dominant characteristics of it being (1) uncontrollable, repeated playing of the disturbing memories in his mind’s television (2) delusional nurturing of hopes built on (quite likely) inaccurate interpretation of trifle events. 

I need to give myself more time for things to get normal again, he thought or at least hoped that was the case. He realized there were some work-related urgent deadlines to be met. Maybe tomorrow if I fully immerse myself in my work, things will get normal again, he thought. Before sleeping he decided to repeatedly remind himself of his decision to focus exclusively on his work the next day. After doing that he went to sleep.

To say that I got over this phase easily would be a lie. But I eventually did. I suppose it won't do much good to mention what all things helped me get over it since I guess it depends on situation to situation but I think there are a few general things which helped:

1) Realizing that despite our best imaginations we really can never know how things will turn out in the future, and hence it's quite possible that we may find ourselves in a better position than the current one. 

It's turned out that way for me.

2) Embracing reality though perhaps with a lot of inconvenience. This also means trying to assess the situation as objectively as possible.

3) Gradually thinking less and less about yourself . It humbles one to realize that there are people far worse off than you are.

4) Seeking help from friends/family when it becomes too unbearable to handle it on one's own.

Huh! Man... this post's turned out to be like one of those 'self-help' articles most of which I dislike a lot and try to stay away from! But as I mentioned, I thought it was important to make the readers aware that all graduate students are also human beings who live in a complex social environment and thus, likely experience problems that other normal people do as well. And I hope that they don't feel alone when they do.

PhD Memoirs #4

It’s been a while, I know, but I have assuredly been working on my thesis (with randomly distributed short/long phases of inactivity, of course). Just 2 days back I got all my analytical results matched with those obtained using 007’s method but only after again going through a phase of appreciable turmoil. Fortunately, my previous experience gave me a much better reason to not lose hope and to hold my ground in the battle! Consequently, I again experienced a nice sense of achievement after I got this positive outcome. I wish I could describe the full details here but I am feeling pretty tired right now. Moreover that would probably make this uninteresting for the readers which I suspect aren’t many as it is.

By the way, this morning I gave a presentation before my thesis committee members summarizing the work done during the current semester (which is about to end in about a week from now). And I have a bad habit (probably like many others) of not pulling my socks up well before the deadline so that the past week has been very hectic for me.. The presentation went fine, by the way. But now the road ahead resembles the long highway-type in a desert – one cannot spot the end-point while gazing as far as one can. I have certain ideas as to what things to focus on presently and I hope my intuition works in my favor.

Oh, I would like to mention that I have resumed my table tennis practice in the evenings and I think it has made a lot of difference as to the general mood I find myself in. Also, towards the end of my French course I became good friends with a classmate and my social life’s become much more dynamic (relatively speaking) since then. These two factors have probably contributed significantly towards the progress I have been able to make during the current semester. And so I wish to convey my gratitude to (1) my classmate, for making my stay much more exciting and interesting in ways I can’t describe well due to my little background in human psychology and (2) my dad, for encouraging me to play TT early on which turned out to be a very valuable asset and helped me have an enjoyable stay at IITK during my undergraduate, and now graduate, studies!

Oh, one more update – this semester I started reading science-fiction novels!! And I really enjoyed all those I have read till now:

‘The Invisible Man’ ; ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’ ; ‘The Time Machine’ by H. G. Wells

‘Nightfall’ (short story) ; ‘The Gods Themselves’ by Isaac Asimov (this guy is just brilliant – came to know him from this article: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/07/isaac-asimov-bill-moyers-education-science-religion/)

And I plan to read many more during this summer! In fact, I have been thinking of writing a post exclusively on this but I thought of mentioning it here since I think this activity has also been helpful in keeping my mind fertile and my brain's neurons in a state of heightened entropy. 

Okay, more updates later.