Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Chirstmas
Merry Christmas to all of you! Today went to the church--the Afghan church, yes. A strange feeling occurred. When the priest conducting the mass asked us to observe silence and pray, a strange realization came over to me. It is primarily that I have been pretty much selfish all this time. I have been working hard trying to do good in my subject, making myself worth more to the others, being polite to my friends and others (and ignoring some people), trying to have fun---but all this is directed for me. When have I stopped thinking about me, and honestly worried for other people. I remember, that in schools when we would sign a lot of autograph books, I would write that my ambition in life was to be someone who could bring smiles on others faces. Where is all that? All a farce? Seems so; and I am not even remorseful, not even ashamed that all this brings me no closer to being an selfish arrogant person--the same repulsive animal that I think some others are. Try I will, but will I succeed? Will I leave my Saturday Christmas weekend, to go out and be a Santa Claus bringing gifts to under privileged children? Thats precisely where my hollowness lies!
the weekend like no other
I seem to have developed a penchant for declaring topics with the word weekend in them, but I am largely forced to do so by the content of such blogs, not mere exhibition. Anyway, the last weekend of November was --- a weekend like no other!
By and large, the plan was that we would be going to Ajanta-Ellora. Yes, after so many deserted thoughts, and discarded attempts, here was a reality! All through the middle of the week, I was busy applying and feeling cozy that the renormalization issues for the diffusion project had worked out. Thursday morning I didn't check the arXiv. I didn't come to know until Saumen-da told me. Our work was already out. Or so we thought! It wasn't long before we realized that whatever form the work had come out, wasn't the one we were aiming for. Thus, our analysis is still more or less, in the clear! But it is imperative that we complete it soon; other people are working on it.
And about Ellora and Ajanta--they were majestic and mystic; forlorn and extragavagant, but none more awe-inspiring than the Kailash Temple, an architectural feat to compete the best in the world. Built from top-down, it is carved from a single rock. So much genius, so much labour, and so much faith involved--it makes me shudder for a moment when I think about it.
It took us about a whole afternoon to cover the Kailash Temple, then after a lunch, we saw Aurangzeb's tomb and Bibi-ki-maqbara in the evening. The former was a very simple affair, with the Emperor having declared at some time that he would want to be buried like a common man, under the starry sky. The Bibi-ka-maqbara was hardly fascinating. An imitation of Taj Mahal, of course; but the designs and the carvings on it were also pretty mundane.
Next day was the time for the majestic Ajanta. All of them are carved on a horse-shoe shaped mountain flanking a deep gorge. They are mostly Buddhist, in contrast to Ellora which is mostly Hindu. Ajanta was bulit in the heyday of Buddhism in India. The colors and the paintings made in the caves are again, to say the least, finest of their kind in the world. I regret to see that they have deteriorated so. What they must have looked like when they were made, I cannot dare to dream about! We managed to cover all the caves, excepting cave 2, leaving time in the end to go up a sharp, steep cliff which offered a beautiful view of the caves on the other side from above.
The morning of the third day was spend in looking around the more important caves of Ellora. Some of the sculptures were so majestic and huge that it made me pause and wonder at the conception of beauty. You are invited to see my pictures in Picasa.
The afternoon was devoted to the Daulatabad fort, before the long ride home. The Fort is pretty big, and was famous for being impregnable. It was initially constructed by the rulers of Devgiri, and until treacherously taken by Ala-ud-din Khilji, stood proudly looking around. It was also the site that Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq tried to shift his capital to from Delhi. He was the one who called it Daulatabad. We took a guide to show us around the maze that was constructed to confound enemies who would have broken the last lines of defence through the moat into the heart of the fort. Totally rocking! What extreme defenses, what clever scheming to get rid of the enemies. In the pitch darkness of the maze, air would be blown to lure the armies to some spot, where hot oil would be poured on them.
The effectiveness of the trip was enhanced by the fact that we stayed in the Hotel Kailash, where the shooting of the film Kailashe Kelenkari took place. A Satyajit Ray book was shot by his son, Sandip Roy. The hotel is situated about 5 minutes walking distance from the entrance of the Kailash Temple; and from the lawn in front of our rooms one could see some of the far flung caves of Ellora. Being so far away from town the place was calm and quiet, free of noise and more importantly, light pollution!
I was also acquainted with the Lonely Planet series, since we went by the caves with proper references making a note of what was the interesting features to see. This is one value that I had not appreciated so much earlier--you see a place not only as a building but also as a symbol of what is represented there and its history. The light and sound show of Golconda fort was one such memorable experience 4 years back.
And yes, about long driving. I had never appreciated that before at all, since I had never done it before. No, I didn't drive. But since I sat beside the driver for quite a long time, I was instrumental to some extent in ensuring that he didn't feel sleepy by making small conversation, and much more importantly not falling asleep myself.
Together with the fact that our work was safe, this was a very nice trip!
By and large, the plan was that we would be going to Ajanta-Ellora. Yes, after so many deserted thoughts, and discarded attempts, here was a reality! All through the middle of the week, I was busy applying and feeling cozy that the renormalization issues for the diffusion project had worked out. Thursday morning I didn't check the arXiv. I didn't come to know until Saumen-da told me. Our work was already out. Or so we thought! It wasn't long before we realized that whatever form the work had come out, wasn't the one we were aiming for. Thus, our analysis is still more or less, in the clear! But it is imperative that we complete it soon; other people are working on it.
And about Ellora and Ajanta--they were majestic and mystic; forlorn and extragavagant, but none more awe-inspiring than the Kailash Temple, an architectural feat to compete the best in the world. Built from top-down, it is carved from a single rock. So much genius, so much labour, and so much faith involved--it makes me shudder for a moment when I think about it.
It took us about a whole afternoon to cover the Kailash Temple, then after a lunch, we saw Aurangzeb's tomb and Bibi-ki-maqbara in the evening. The former was a very simple affair, with the Emperor having declared at some time that he would want to be buried like a common man, under the starry sky. The Bibi-ka-maqbara was hardly fascinating. An imitation of Taj Mahal, of course; but the designs and the carvings on it were also pretty mundane.
Next day was the time for the majestic Ajanta. All of them are carved on a horse-shoe shaped mountain flanking a deep gorge. They are mostly Buddhist, in contrast to Ellora which is mostly Hindu. Ajanta was bulit in the heyday of Buddhism in India. The colors and the paintings made in the caves are again, to say the least, finest of their kind in the world. I regret to see that they have deteriorated so. What they must have looked like when they were made, I cannot dare to dream about! We managed to cover all the caves, excepting cave 2, leaving time in the end to go up a sharp, steep cliff which offered a beautiful view of the caves on the other side from above.
The morning of the third day was spend in looking around the more important caves of Ellora. Some of the sculptures were so majestic and huge that it made me pause and wonder at the conception of beauty. You are invited to see my pictures in Picasa.
The afternoon was devoted to the Daulatabad fort, before the long ride home. The Fort is pretty big, and was famous for being impregnable. It was initially constructed by the rulers of Devgiri, and until treacherously taken by Ala-ud-din Khilji, stood proudly looking around. It was also the site that Mohammed-bin-Tughlaq tried to shift his capital to from Delhi. He was the one who called it Daulatabad. We took a guide to show us around the maze that was constructed to confound enemies who would have broken the last lines of defence through the moat into the heart of the fort. Totally rocking! What extreme defenses, what clever scheming to get rid of the enemies. In the pitch darkness of the maze, air would be blown to lure the armies to some spot, where hot oil would be poured on them.
The effectiveness of the trip was enhanced by the fact that we stayed in the Hotel Kailash, where the shooting of the film Kailashe Kelenkari took place. A Satyajit Ray book was shot by his son, Sandip Roy. The hotel is situated about 5 minutes walking distance from the entrance of the Kailash Temple; and from the lawn in front of our rooms one could see some of the far flung caves of Ellora. Being so far away from town the place was calm and quiet, free of noise and more importantly, light pollution!
I was also acquainted with the Lonely Planet series, since we went by the caves with proper references making a note of what was the interesting features to see. This is one value that I had not appreciated so much earlier--you see a place not only as a building but also as a symbol of what is represented there and its history. The light and sound show of Golconda fort was one such memorable experience 4 years back.
And yes, about long driving. I had never appreciated that before at all, since I had never done it before. No, I didn't drive. But since I sat beside the driver for quite a long time, I was instrumental to some extent in ensuring that he didn't feel sleepy by making small conversation, and much more importantly not falling asleep myself.
Together with the fact that our work was safe, this was a very nice trip!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Nuclear Physics and the non-relativistic conformal fixed point and all that!
Nuclear physics is sometimes considered to be a dead subject sometimes, by some people. I dont think that is the case. Its merely not fashionable for many people. And why not? Maybe it does not have high sounding terminology embedded in it. Anyway, in this entry I will try to argue that it is indeed interesting,--very interesting; and some very cool features can be seen in it. Since I am not a nuclear physicist, my description will be rudimentary.
Lets come to the concept of non-relativistic conformal field theories. Suppose you have a set of fermions interacting with each other. Then there is a phase shift associated with the incoming and outgoing fermion wavefunctions. Now imagine, that the interactions between the fermions can be tuned by tuning some coupling, say the magnetic field. For strong coupling, the fermions could be bound into fermions, while for arbitrary weak coupling they would form a Cooper-pair type bound state. The scattering length changes sign in these two phases, and at the point of transition it diverges, giving rise to universal physics. Thats the non-relativistic conformal fixed point I was referring to.
Now about the nuclear physics connection. The nucleon-nucleon (N-N) scattering length is of prime importance in nuclear physics. For real world, its small and negative for the pion phase shift in a particular channel. It is believed that tuning the quark mass would change the sign of the pion phase shift! The quark mass plays the role of the coupling in the previous example.
I am not yet aware of the implications of this interesting phenomena, but I do intend to find out.
True, I have glossed over the details, but I will add a more complete picture as and when I get it.
Lets come to the concept of non-relativistic conformal field theories. Suppose you have a set of fermions interacting with each other. Then there is a phase shift associated with the incoming and outgoing fermion wavefunctions. Now imagine, that the interactions between the fermions can be tuned by tuning some coupling, say the magnetic field. For strong coupling, the fermions could be bound into fermions, while for arbitrary weak coupling they would form a Cooper-pair type bound state. The scattering length changes sign in these two phases, and at the point of transition it diverges, giving rise to universal physics. Thats the non-relativistic conformal fixed point I was referring to.
Now about the nuclear physics connection. The nucleon-nucleon (N-N) scattering length is of prime importance in nuclear physics. For real world, its small and negative for the pion phase shift in a particular channel. It is believed that tuning the quark mass would change the sign of the pion phase shift! The quark mass plays the role of the coupling in the previous example.
I am not yet aware of the implications of this interesting phenomena, but I do intend to find out.
True, I have glossed over the details, but I will add a more complete picture as and when I get it.
Monday, November 29, 2010
While the renormalization issue in the Diffusion coefficient seems to have been sorted out to a large extent. my efforts at reweighting still seems to be unsuccessful. I refuse to believe that in a SU(2) theory I can't reweight beta's that differ by 0.02 from each other, whether in the confined or in the deconfined phase! The smearing business is coming out more or less okay: while I am not doing anything obviously wrong, I may not be doing enough to improve the results.
Today ran about 5.5 rounds in the Kohli stadium. Quite an achievement for me!
And what is going to happen about the screening-mass paper? And post-doc positions? Really, most annoying, not to know!
Today ran about 5.5 rounds in the Kohli stadium. Quite an achievement for me!
And what is going to happen about the screening-mass paper? And post-doc positions? Really, most annoying, not to know!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Ground and Scattering states
One of the things that I gained a bit more understanding of during the course of this Nuclear conference that is going on now is the issue of the scattering and bound states, which I am going to say here in a very hand-waving way.
The point is the issue that the S-matrix of a QFT that you calculate on the lattice is very different from the one that in continuum. For sure. But then, how can we get information about the continuum S-matrix. The seminal work of Luscher showed how this can be done. He argued this information lies in how the energy levels scale. If it is a bound state then there is scaling by exp(-m*L) where m is the mass of the bound state and L the lattice size. On the other hand, if it is a scattering state then it will scale by 1/L^3. Thus, a S-matrix with only poles gives the information about the full spectrum of the continuum theory with both the bound and scattering states. There's some bit about the momentum dependence of the phase shifts that come in somewhere, but I dont know that yet. Will hopefully learn that while doing this project with Nilmani, Anyi and Shailesh.
Another nice movie: Udaan. Watched it yesterday. Somehow it resonated with me for obious reasons. If only I could get free like that right now. But alas, no! Only an ominous patience for me.
The point is the issue that the S-matrix of a QFT that you calculate on the lattice is very different from the one that in continuum. For sure. But then, how can we get information about the continuum S-matrix. The seminal work of Luscher showed how this can be done. He argued this information lies in how the energy levels scale. If it is a bound state then there is scaling by exp(-m*L) where m is the mass of the bound state and L the lattice size. On the other hand, if it is a scattering state then it will scale by 1/L^3. Thus, a S-matrix with only poles gives the information about the full spectrum of the continuum theory with both the bound and scattering states. There's some bit about the momentum dependence of the phase shifts that come in somewhere, but I dont know that yet. Will hopefully learn that while doing this project with Nilmani, Anyi and Shailesh.
Another nice movie: Udaan. Watched it yesterday. Somehow it resonated with me for obious reasons. If only I could get free like that right now. But alas, no! Only an ominous patience for me.
Monday, November 22, 2010
the Harry Potter weekend
Saw the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow (the first part). A reasonable movie with nice sceneries that tried to remind me of the LOTR, with some success. This seemed to be a faithful reproduction of the book. But enjoyed it a lot!
Most of the weekend was spend doing rather useless work on making the web-page for a nearly finished project, and making tables in tex. Throw in a couple of fine lectures by Evgeny Epelbaum on the Chiral Effective Field theories, and there you have my entire schedule. The lecture was saturday was mostly on EFT with pions, which I have an idea of and could mostly follow. But on sunday, he described EFT for nucleons by integrating out the pion degrees of freedom: the procedure seemed very interesting, but I was unable to follow most of it. There is some effective range expansion that needs to be understood.
The lectures on Efimov effect also seemed very interesting---much to the extent of trying something in one of the projects I am doing!
Looking forward for a small break soon. Will let know if everything goes well.
Most of the weekend was spend doing rather useless work on making the web-page for a nearly finished project, and making tables in tex. Throw in a couple of fine lectures by Evgeny Epelbaum on the Chiral Effective Field theories, and there you have my entire schedule. The lecture was saturday was mostly on EFT with pions, which I have an idea of and could mostly follow. But on sunday, he described EFT for nucleons by integrating out the pion degrees of freedom: the procedure seemed very interesting, but I was unable to follow most of it. There is some effective range expansion that needs to be understood.
The lectures on Efimov effect also seemed very interesting---much to the extent of trying something in one of the projects I am doing!
Looking forward for a small break soon. Will let know if everything goes well.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Ramona and Beezus
If it does happen that you are feeling down and depressed, that sick feeling inside your stomach that refuses to manifest, Ramona and Beezus could go some way to comforting you. Nothing like Bridge to Teribithia, this one simply focuses on the lives of two sisters in mid-Western America and the people that matter to them. I went on waiting for something great to happen, some exciting and out of the place adventure to happen, but none did. It was ordinary, far too ordinary. But it wasn't until the end that I realized that among the ordinary was really hidden something extraordinary. The movie was timeless and placeless: you could have set the plot to be somewhere else and at some period of time, and yet it would be as good. Had I been in any other mood, I would have been ecstatic when the movie ended. I was too upset over something, but this movie went far to lift my spirits.
Of course, I have seen lots of movies better than this, but this had some quality to it that clicked at the right point of time at the right situation.
Of course, I have seen lots of movies better than this, but this had some quality to it that clicked at the right point of time at the right situation.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Hello after a long time
Quite a long time has passed: the QCD conference at the University of Calcutta is over (thankfully my talk went well!), the Durga Pujas have come and passed and so has my visit to home. I have finished watching most of the South Park episodes, which I think is a great achievement by itself! Have started applications for Post-Doc positions. Work going on for several projects! A rather strenuous time for me!
Will try to write more soon.
Will try to write more soon.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Dreams, deliriums and one-night stands
The story of what I went through in the past two days, would include all the above three words: a one-night's (more precisely two) stand that brought free dreams and deliriums.
It all originated in the wicked desire that I had on Sunday to have pizza. Having seen nobody in the office with whom I could have dinner; and deciding to catch up with the jogging, I decided to order a pizza at night. It was a medium sized pizza from Smokin Joe's, along with an assorted garlic bread and a coke---an amount which I have had before at times, and succeeded admirably.
This time however, it proved to be somewhat heavy--causing me get up at 2 different occasions in Sunday night seeking cold water to quell a parched mouth. Not to speak of the intermittent vampire dreams that I had.
Monday woke up late with an extremely heavy stomach that counseled my reason not to go ahead to the office, but simply sleep more and pass the day.
But just had biscuits and soup only, since the stomach was still heavy and a visit to the loo hadn't helped. By night, I was becoming scared of the apathy to work that was being generated--I felt that that I didn't go to the office for no reason.
If the night before was just dreams, this night deliriums took over. I went to the loo about once every one-and-a-half hour to extreme excretions of foul smelling liquid stuff. By early morning, this had turned to gas and mucus, but it still didn't stop. I couldn't rehydrate myself with water, since that chose to come out as my back-ward excreta with mucus within 5 minutes. And in between these visits to the loo, was trying to sleep, but of course without the least fraction of success. Kept on being in deliriums---punctuated by intervals of watching movies to pass the time. The only respite in all this, was that I online on skype with babun-da and that was doing wonders.
By early morning, I was so weak and faint headed that I'd just toss and turn in my bed relentlessly, sometimes going down to sleep on the floor, until the next wave of stomach pain sent me rushing to the loo.
Hah, what a night! Didn't get a single wink of sleep. In the morning, somehow managed to drag myself to the canteen to have a toast and jam with sweet black tea. Have been safe since then!
What a night's stand!
It all originated in the wicked desire that I had on Sunday to have pizza. Having seen nobody in the office with whom I could have dinner; and deciding to catch up with the jogging, I decided to order a pizza at night. It was a medium sized pizza from Smokin Joe's, along with an assorted garlic bread and a coke---an amount which I have had before at times, and succeeded admirably.
This time however, it proved to be somewhat heavy--causing me get up at 2 different occasions in Sunday night seeking cold water to quell a parched mouth. Not to speak of the intermittent vampire dreams that I had.
Monday woke up late with an extremely heavy stomach that counseled my reason not to go ahead to the office, but simply sleep more and pass the day.
But just had biscuits and soup only, since the stomach was still heavy and a visit to the loo hadn't helped. By night, I was becoming scared of the apathy to work that was being generated--I felt that that I didn't go to the office for no reason.
If the night before was just dreams, this night deliriums took over. I went to the loo about once every one-and-a-half hour to extreme excretions of foul smelling liquid stuff. By early morning, this had turned to gas and mucus, but it still didn't stop. I couldn't rehydrate myself with water, since that chose to come out as my back-ward excreta with mucus within 5 minutes. And in between these visits to the loo, was trying to sleep, but of course without the least fraction of success. Kept on being in deliriums---punctuated by intervals of watching movies to pass the time. The only respite in all this, was that I online on skype with babun-da and that was doing wonders.
By early morning, I was so weak and faint headed that I'd just toss and turn in my bed relentlessly, sometimes going down to sleep on the floor, until the next wave of stomach pain sent me rushing to the loo.
Hah, what a night! Didn't get a single wink of sleep. In the morning, somehow managed to drag myself to the canteen to have a toast and jam with sweet black tea. Have been safe since then!
What a night's stand!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Miss Marple
What have I been doing all these time? Besides working, that is. Why reading Miss Marple. Why her all of a sudden? Don't exactly know. But the settings, the plots and the characters suddenly seemed so nice and appealing, that I couldn't resist for long. And of course there was the fact that at some point of time, I was really bored with my work, my surroundings and my circumstances.
Anyway, sometime into this period I decided that I will read up all the Miss Marple that Christie ever wrote and that's what I have been doing, sometimes recklessly neglecting my work. Very foolhardy, I suppose.
I have finished most of the books--the only ones that are left are: A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's hotel and the Sleeping Murders. The question that naturally rises are which books I have liked and why? So, one of the issues that I realized is that Christie has reused several of her plots from time to time: many of the plots that she has toyed with in the "The Tuesday Murder club" has been reused in her later novels. Nonetheless, I must say that the books that I found to be pure genius are : The Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger and A Murder is Announced. The plot is considerably more intricate in the first and the last ones than the middle, but the middle one compensates in terms of atmosphere. I shouldn't miss out 4:50 from Paddington--that's sheer brilliance as well. Among the next best are : The Body in the Library, Nemesis, The Mirror Crack'd, A Pocket Full of Rye, and others. I wouldn't put anything in the third rank! :)
In the midst of all this, I also quickly read Ken Follett's Code to Zero. Of course, he was superbly brilliant in his The Eye of the Needle, so much so that I would have compared him with Forsyth, but then Code to Zero is a huge fall from the position. Sure the action is taut, but I find that the plot is terribly weak sometimes. I ask myself again and again if the US were really so lax in their security measures in the 1958 as he describes. I mean, even the events that Forsyth describe take place in London and/or the UK, but they seem more believable. It course remains that Ken Follett tried a romantic quadrangle in the latter book and not in the Eye of the Needle. Nearly the whole plot in Code to Zero is based on the romantic plot 15 years ago from the time when the story takes place and somehow this makes the plot pretty unsteady, according to my opinion.
Anyway--way too much of this! I must go back to working!
Anyway, sometime into this period I decided that I will read up all the Miss Marple that Christie ever wrote and that's what I have been doing, sometimes recklessly neglecting my work. Very foolhardy, I suppose.
I have finished most of the books--the only ones that are left are: A Caribbean Mystery, At Bertram's hotel and the Sleeping Murders. The question that naturally rises are which books I have liked and why? So, one of the issues that I realized is that Christie has reused several of her plots from time to time: many of the plots that she has toyed with in the "The Tuesday Murder club" has been reused in her later novels. Nonetheless, I must say that the books that I found to be pure genius are : The Murder at the Vicarage, The Moving Finger and A Murder is Announced. The plot is considerably more intricate in the first and the last ones than the middle, but the middle one compensates in terms of atmosphere. I shouldn't miss out 4:50 from Paddington--that's sheer brilliance as well. Among the next best are : The Body in the Library, Nemesis, The Mirror Crack'd, A Pocket Full of Rye, and others. I wouldn't put anything in the third rank! :)
In the midst of all this, I also quickly read Ken Follett's Code to Zero. Of course, he was superbly brilliant in his The Eye of the Needle, so much so that I would have compared him with Forsyth, but then Code to Zero is a huge fall from the position. Sure the action is taut, but I find that the plot is terribly weak sometimes. I ask myself again and again if the US were really so lax in their security measures in the 1958 as he describes. I mean, even the events that Forsyth describe take place in London and/or the UK, but they seem more believable. It course remains that Ken Follett tried a romantic quadrangle in the latter book and not in the Eye of the Needle. Nearly the whole plot in Code to Zero is based on the romantic plot 15 years ago from the time when the story takes place and somehow this makes the plot pretty unsteady, according to my opinion.
Anyway--way too much of this! I must go back to working!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Had this focaccia bread today. For details look up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focaccia. Hell, that was wondeful. Might have had this in Italy, but if so don't remember it quite so well. But the one that I got from Theobroma was just heavenly. (The use of contrasting adjectives for the same object is purposeful.) The olives were wonderful and the smell enticing, even though this was cold. I wonder what it will be like when served hot! Mind blowing.
It was nice to go out, even if completely by myself. I still didn't feel like having those there, so I carried them back home. But at least, I would have been more disappointed if I had stayed back at TIFR and did nothing. Anyway, I was expecting the streets to be crowded due to Ganesh Chathurthi and Eid, but thankfully it was rather empty. So no additional troubles! Also, this time didn't go to Muhammed Ali Road. Missed the kababs and the sweets. Damn!
Sometimes, I get tired of this life in TIFR. A fresh beginning somewhere else? but then, --- for how long? and then?
It was nice to go out, even if completely by myself. I still didn't feel like having those there, so I carried them back home. But at least, I would have been more disappointed if I had stayed back at TIFR and did nothing. Anyway, I was expecting the streets to be crowded due to Ganesh Chathurthi and Eid, but thankfully it was rather empty. So no additional troubles! Also, this time didn't go to Muhammed Ali Road. Missed the kababs and the sweets. Damn!
Sometimes, I get tired of this life in TIFR. A fresh beginning somewhere else? but then, --- for how long? and then?
Thursday, September 09, 2010
Friday, September 03, 2010
Every time I try to cut myself out of the emotional shackles, I end up getting more and more hopelessly entangled in them. Damn, why did I ever start writing my Diary? Do you think that I didn't do that I'd be as I am today? That'll require another lifetime to find out----with the exact same initial conditions. Nah, too much of a bother, forget it!
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Yogurts and the Quantum World
Hah! --a bizarre impossible connection you'd say. Not really, hear me out! When I was visiting Les Houches, attending a school devoted to Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics devoted to studying the quantum world in much more detail, there were lots of things that would make our life fun. One of those was the yogurts and diary products from DANONE, some diary brand.
Today, while coming back from the bank, I saw an advertisement of DANONE. Here in India! India is fast becoming a market to expand into.
Well, what a weak link! But I had to mention this. Why exactly it caused me such an excitement when I saw the ad, I can't exactly express. Maybe my country and its people being courted by foreign companies to sell their product? Pride? Or folly that we have to depend on them, still? I wish I knew!
Today, while coming back from the bank, I saw an advertisement of DANONE. Here in India! India is fast becoming a market to expand into.
Well, what a weak link! But I had to mention this. Why exactly it caused me such an excitement when I saw the ad, I can't exactly express. Maybe my country and its people being courted by foreign companies to sell their product? Pride? Or folly that we have to depend on them, still? I wish I knew!
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The Spending Spree in India
Recently, as most people have noticed, the Indian economy has experienced a boom, with a lot of good and bad effects. To sustain this growth, a spending spree seems inevitable. Let me tell you how I actually experienced it.
There is this travel company called Make My Trip, a pretty well known company in India. I had used this to book some air tickets previously. But, suddenly, a month ago they suddenly offered me a package--for which I had to a pay a service charge of about 7000, and in return they gave me several discount vouchers. They did explain all the terms and conditions--or as much of them as they thought would not put me off in accepting the offer. I was a bit sceptical and so were some of the people I consulted with. But it seemed an interesting thing to experiment with. So I have accepted the offer. The entire package gives you a lot of discounts, but it also necessiates that you spend a lot more than you planned to! I knew all this, but the real challenge to me is how to get the most by spending the least. Lets see how it goes--I have about an year.
But this is indeed what goes on all the time--everywhere---the entire credit system based on the Credit and Debit cards promises you more benefits the more you use them. The more you spend. The more debt you incur.
No longer a scary thought; but a reality to deal with!
There is this travel company called Make My Trip, a pretty well known company in India. I had used this to book some air tickets previously. But, suddenly, a month ago they suddenly offered me a package--for which I had to a pay a service charge of about 7000, and in return they gave me several discount vouchers. They did explain all the terms and conditions--or as much of them as they thought would not put me off in accepting the offer. I was a bit sceptical and so were some of the people I consulted with. But it seemed an interesting thing to experiment with. So I have accepted the offer. The entire package gives you a lot of discounts, but it also necessiates that you spend a lot more than you planned to! I knew all this, but the real challenge to me is how to get the most by spending the least. Lets see how it goes--I have about an year.
But this is indeed what goes on all the time--everywhere---the entire credit system based on the Credit and Debit cards promises you more benefits the more you use them. The more you spend. The more debt you incur.
No longer a scary thought; but a reality to deal with!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
It was a cloudy day, and we were there in some sort of a huge stadium. Not these modern stadiums you see in the movies, but in a pretty old fashioned one where the benches were made of wood. I don't exactly remember what game was being played, but I remember the moment when everything suddenly stopped and there was a great commotion in the skies. A huge object has started approaching us, the stadium. It was there in a sudden flurry, and before you could start wondering what it was--it revealed itself to be a huge spaceship. Pretty huge, I'd say, but I can't give you the exact dimensions. It was alien. How did I know it? I don't know, but somehow all of us were sure that it was an alien ship, though there was nothing in the make to suggest it to be so. And we didn't panic. We didn't try to run away. We just sat there, in wonder, gaping at the huge shape in front of us, that was slightly wobbling as it was trying to maintain it's height in the sky. And then, from nowhere, this other large ship appeared in the stadium, which was, by now I had realized, was far from being circular. It was like a curved runway, but made of earth. If the Earth was expecting to fight the aliens with this ship then it was going to be a poor job. The Earth-ship was equally unobtrusive as the alien one, but it was smaller in shape and more wobbly on the ground than the alien one was in the sky. But it made up to the sky--and then suddenly a flurry of smaller ships appeared on the runway and started taking off. We all waited and watched in wonder what would happen--what the Earth to offer, more? And then I suddenly asked myself, why do we have to fight? Why can't we ask these people, or however shaped they were, what they wanted? I imagined that there should be a helicopter in white, waving white flags going to the alien ship. But what if the aliens didn't know the meaning of white? What if they blew the helicopter up thinking it was a sign of aggression?
I was kept wondering. I don't know what happened next, since I think I woke up at that point. If you want to know what happened next, you could try going to sleep after watching the movie, "Race to the witch mountain", and maybe you'll get the same dream I had, or a much more interesting one. Anyway, that's one of the reasons I have trouble in getting up once I fall asleep. So many dreams, so many stories. I yet have to upload my photos and/or tell you about the trip to Lattice and Extreme QCD.
I was kept wondering. I don't know what happened next, since I think I woke up at that point. If you want to know what happened next, you could try going to sleep after watching the movie, "Race to the witch mountain", and maybe you'll get the same dream I had, or a much more interesting one. Anyway, that's one of the reasons I have trouble in getting up once I fall asleep. So many dreams, so many stories. I yet have to upload my photos and/or tell you about the trip to Lattice and Extreme QCD.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
A tryst with VISA
There, there--hello again! Tryst with VISA-s can be very irritating; as I am sure people who apply to the US already know. But even then small countries, trying to cook up austerity drives to reduce their national deficits, can be so nettling at times! Anyway I am not trying to make general statements here about big things; but I am trying to point out a small case which exemplifies some general features on a much puny scale. Okay so here's my story.
I am going to travel to Italy and Germany for some conferences and both organizers have graciously provided me with all possible documents to help me get my VISA. But of course, the problem with the Italian consulate was that the person sitting with the phone (who was unfortunately an Indian) thought it was too much to listen to what I had to say--all he could happily say was---Go the the VFS and get rid of us. Okay, I decided, that is probably the best instead of wasting my time. But then it turned out that the great VFS, whose job is to provide information on what type of VISA to provide drew a complete bank look at my covering letter. "Sorry sir",---they very politely told me,"we have to send your application to the Consulate to decide on the type of VISA"--etc etc. You cannot imagine the feelings I had after I had travelled to that place wasting so much of my time and money and in the unbearable heat. So what do I do? Nothing, but meekly go back again the next day! And what do they do then---accept the form as it is--and now all because the Consulate has told them. What a big fallacy! And why, because some stupid Indian guy at the Consulate had thought it was beneath his status to talk to the ordinary public. Maybe, I should write a proper letter of complaint to the Consul General.
But anyway---sometimes I wonder whats the point--in today's world, it is the first of the many VISA related frustrations that I am probably going to have! :( !
I am going to travel to Italy and Germany for some conferences and both organizers have graciously provided me with all possible documents to help me get my VISA. But of course, the problem with the Italian consulate was that the person sitting with the phone (who was unfortunately an Indian) thought it was too much to listen to what I had to say--all he could happily say was---Go the the VFS and get rid of us. Okay, I decided, that is probably the best instead of wasting my time. But then it turned out that the great VFS, whose job is to provide information on what type of VISA to provide drew a complete bank look at my covering letter. "Sorry sir",---they very politely told me,"we have to send your application to the Consulate to decide on the type of VISA"--etc etc. You cannot imagine the feelings I had after I had travelled to that place wasting so much of my time and money and in the unbearable heat. So what do I do? Nothing, but meekly go back again the next day! And what do they do then---accept the form as it is--and now all because the Consulate has told them. What a big fallacy! And why, because some stupid Indian guy at the Consulate had thought it was beneath his status to talk to the ordinary public. Maybe, I should write a proper letter of complaint to the Consul General.
But anyway---sometimes I wonder whats the point--in today's world, it is the first of the many VISA related frustrations that I am probably going to have! :( !
Monday, May 24, 2010
24+15
This was an interesting week for me..and extremely intense. There have been only several stints in my life when I have been so intensively involved. One thing was to make the SU3 program running; which I guess I already have described before. The other thing was finishing the rewriting of the draft of the paper on the screening masses. I managed to polish the paper quite a bit and also managed to write quite a few somethings on the introduction, and modify nearly all the figures. On the whole I think it looks quite nice! :) But let us see how much of the modifications I still have to do. The 24 + 15 in the title refers to the 24 hours of work it took on the paper followed by the 15 hours of sleep I needed to refresh myself.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Links and more
Yes, links and more...that was that was keeping my time occupied for the last few days. I did the upgrading for SU2 to SU3 and with some occasional help. But it was as rewarding as it was hectic! It really was ecstatic feeling that I had when I got correct results. Now I feel nice: I have experiencing in programming from scratch all scalar theories (Z2, O(N) models) and gauge theories (SU2,SU3) with a host of updating procedures! To me, quite an expeirence and expertise.
But this is only the beginning of the things that I have to finish before the month is over. Yes, let me go back...
But this is only the beginning of the things that I have to finish before the month is over. Yes, let me go back...
Monday, May 17, 2010
Hunting for treasure
This is the first time I am trying to put some topic into my post. This essentially meant to focus something important that happened to me during the time in between the posts and doesn't necessarily mean that the post will be about the topic exclusively.
Well anyway, although the treasure hunt was important for me, since I was playing this time with a lot of friends, we lost by about a minute. It might be of interest that the winning team took about 40 minutes to decide that the sequence 3 14 15 ... has anything at all to do with the fabled $\pi$. But it was fun and it was tiring.
Back, I have a lot of catch up to do despite the fact that I worked pretty hard yesterday. The SU3 prog is coming up from the SU2 one; and am trying to think the correct tuning for the multilevel process. I was told that the optimum no of sublattice averaging in the latter case might go up to thousands but I didn't appreciate it properly until I saw the Koma et al paper that does the same. That does bring up the question where are we going to get so much time? Another thing that was pointed out, was that could we do any calculation in the strong coupling limit of the theory? Well, it is time I tried to understand the Laine et al paper much more seriously.
Well anyway, although the treasure hunt was important for me, since I was playing this time with a lot of friends, we lost by about a minute. It might be of interest that the winning team took about 40 minutes to decide that the sequence 3 14 15 ... has anything at all to do with the fabled $\pi$. But it was fun and it was tiring.
Back, I have a lot of catch up to do despite the fact that I worked pretty hard yesterday. The SU3 prog is coming up from the SU2 one; and am trying to think the correct tuning for the multilevel process. I was told that the optimum no of sublattice averaging in the latter case might go up to thousands but I didn't appreciate it properly until I saw the Koma et al paper that does the same. That does bring up the question where are we going to get so much time? Another thing that was pointed out, was that could we do any calculation in the strong coupling limit of the theory? Well, it is time I tried to understand the Laine et al paper much more seriously.
Sunday, May 09, 2010
Have been away to Kolkata last week. On work. Therefore no time for play. Yes. Honestly, I mean it. But on the whole it was pretty enjoyable! Of course, the absence of Internet was pretty frustrating and the experience of getting absolutely drenched in the local storm "kalbaisakhi" was superb. However was anxious all the time because the tickets had not been bought, neither the registration not the hotel booking was done. By the way all this is for the LATTICE conference, to which I will be most probably going this time. South Calcutta seemed pretty much changed:beautification projects all around! The South City mall was big and nice, but not as great as some of the malls you can see in Bombay.
And yes, got to see a lot of wonderful sights from the plane. The sight of Bombay, as the plane was taking off----that of the Worli sea link was particularly wonderful. The roads were tubelights of light! So was Calcutta while getting down. It seemed so "cute"! While coming back, the most remarkable were that of the Western Ghats: you can make out where the ranges start, grow taller, some parts of the plateau sandwiched in between the mountains, and finally the mountains giving way to the narrow valley and finally the sea----mesmerising. You could see deep gorges when the river is in the mountain and ox-bow lakes as it is moving on a flat land: geography should be taught on the air like this!
Working hard on the Diffusion coefficient. Need to see how much the multilevel improves over the standard result.
And yes, got to see a lot of wonderful sights from the plane. The sight of Bombay, as the plane was taking off----that of the Worli sea link was particularly wonderful. The roads were tubelights of light! So was Calcutta while getting down. It seemed so "cute"! While coming back, the most remarkable were that of the Western Ghats: you can make out where the ranges start, grow taller, some parts of the plateau sandwiched in between the mountains, and finally the mountains giving way to the narrow valley and finally the sea----mesmerising. You could see deep gorges when the river is in the mountain and ox-bow lakes as it is moving on a flat land: geography should be taught on the air like this!
Working hard on the Diffusion coefficient. Need to see how much the multilevel improves over the standard result.
Friday, April 23, 2010
A very tiring set of three days: you wont even imagine what we have to put up through at times! Want to attend the lattice conference and am breaking my head over getting the funds. Have written so many e-mails and have looked up so many different schedules; that if this thing doesnt come off in one piece, I'll probably blow up!
No physics for so many days. No physics posts till now. Very frustrating, indeed!
No physics for so many days. No physics posts till now. Very frustrating, indeed!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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