IIT-K Experience

‘Advance workshop & Symposium on Stability Analysis of Differential Equations with Applications to Fluid Flow Problems’ was held at IIT Kanpur from 20^th March to 24^th March 2014. The target audience was postgraduate students and researchers. I am currently in my 3^rd year of mechanical engineering, but still I and my classmate Abhishek decided to attend the workshop, for the instabilities are something we wanted to learn about. Our professor mailed the organizer about us wanting to attend the workshop. They agreed quickly. It was all set.

And here comes the twist: at the end moment, we were seriously considering not to attend it, because of many reasons. First and foremost of them being it was held at IIT Kanpur, a 12 hour journey was the last thing I wanted to do just after my four day trip to Dhanaulti with my friends. The winding roads of Uttarakhand were yet to unwind in my brain and after returning to BITS Pilani campus after a tiring trip…boy, did I want to sleep in my room! Abhishek also had gone for a small picnic with his friends and he was not feeling well on that day. We decided not to go. I opened my account to send email to our professor who has taken so much effort for our accommodation at IIT Kanpur. But before mailing him, we had this weird thought to check the topics.

My friend Atif was at my room when we checked the list of topics. Oh, I forgot to mention that I had asked Atif to write an email to our professor, because he’s really good at these formal things.

Atif suggested me to attend this workshop, though I was not about to get any travelling allowance, I had no accommodation there and I was not to get a certificate of participation. But finally, I thought this damn workshop was worth it.

And there I was on the afternoon of 19^th of March on a train to Delhi!

From Delhi, we went to Kanpur via train which was four hours late! On the Anand Vihar Terminals, I had nothing to do for almost four hours. I was wise to take a novel with me. I sunk myself in a novel by Ayn Rand, ‘The Fountainhead’ and before I could know it, four hours were gone!

Finally the train arrived at 11 pm. We went to our seats. And just before I was going to sleep, in came a Sardar ji to our compartment. He was from Delhi itself and a typical Punjabi. He had a middle aged friend from Rajasthan with him. They had missed a previous train and were being adjusted in this one. On the birth opposite to ours was a man from Uttar Pradesh. (I don’t quite remember his native place.) Sardarji was quite talkative and became friendly with us in a minute. Here is an excerpt from our funny conversation with the stranger Sardarji on the train:

Sardarji: Do you guys have girlfriends?

Me and Abhishek: No.

Sardarji: What are you doing guys? I had three girlfriends when I was your age.

We: (Well, what could we possibly say in reply to above sentence? Just Smile!)

Sardarji: Once I was on a train with my friends and my girlfriend. We had two separate seats but we chose to sleep on one and all night we were cuddling and kissing each other. And our friends were like, (with his eyes opening wide, eyebrows stretched!)…Get a room dude! But we felt no need for that.

Me: So, what do you do?

Sardarji: I have a doble doctorate in medicine and I do private practice in Delhi. Coming to my story…where was I? Oh, the smooches...Ah! Old memories! But we were not supposed to be together. She ditched me because of some stupid reason.

(Abhishek wore his earphones. Now it was only me listening to his stories.)

Me: What happened? (Acting concerned)

Sardarji: Her mother happened. I was once showing her a temple and I said, “Here’s your Shiva temple!” That old woman almost court-martialed me over this statement! She thought I believed in cast system and religions. She counter-asked me, “Why is it MY temple? Is it not yours? Or are you too proud to be Sikh?”

And that was that for the night. Then Sardarji engaged into the discussion of Indian politics with the other men in our compartment.

When I woke up next morning, by then we were late by almost six hours. Workshop was to start at 9:30 am and we were never going to get there. Again, I was forced into a conversation on Indian politics and the corrupt system and what not!

After listening to a lot…a lot of twisted facts and prejudiced arguments, I was relieved to see the platform of Kanpur station.

Our professor was kind enough to provide us a contact of one of his previous master’s degree student who is pursuing a PhD in IIT Kanpur. That Dada (as I would call my elder brother in Marathi, my mother tongue) had already arranged a guest room for us at Hall No 8. We reached IIT-K at 10:30 am.

When we reached the conference room of Visitor’s Hostel, we found the workshop had already begun. The first lecture, ‘Introduction to Hydrodynamic Instabilities’ was in progress. But to our good-luck, nothing much had been covered. I dashed in with my trek-bag on my shoulders. There was a slight fuss, but as we assumed our seats, nobody bothered.

I hate to go late to anything. I don’t know why but I simply hate it. But in this case, I was helpless, even though it took me a couple of minutes to settle down.

Finally, I was able to concentrate. In the lunch-break, the organizer met us and asked us about our journey: A formal discussion indeed. He advised us to learn as much as we could.

At the end of the first day, exhausted by the constant journey, I threw myself on the bed. That Dada: the student of my professor was very jolly in nature. He refused to make us pay for the room. He paid for the guest room himself. ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ (Guest is equivalent to God, the meaning is Guest should be treated as God) is very ancient Sanskrit saying, which I experienced for the first time in my life. Sure, I have travelled to my relatives’ and many relatives have visited my family too on multiple occasions but we all knew each other. And here was a complete stranger, paying for my accommodation in a completely new place that I have never been to. On top of this, he also provided us extra bedding and his own mosquito-killer machine! It would seem humorous but judging by the mosquitoes in IIT-K, I would say that machine is something necessary for survival! He was the nicest stranger I have ever met! He was very down to earth, polite and helpful.

But I was in for more surprises. The next day, organizers asked us not to pay for our meals. They were able to convince the funding committee at least to fund our meals. On the third day, we were given a hint that we could also get a travelling allowance. The fourth day was the best! We were registered by the organizers. They agreed to give us certificates and T.A. both! Also, the lectures were going great and I was getting motivated to study the instabilities occurring in nature.

We used to roam around the campus of IIT-K on the evenings. IIT-K has open wi-fi on their campus. Dada also used to accompany us. I don’t know about Abhishek, but I befriended him quickly.

On the evening of fourth day, there was a send-off grub. This was the first ever formal grub I have ever attended. I was a little confused about how to act on such occasions. I will never forget that evening and the initial awkwardness that settled down to zero level eventually. We personally thanked organizers for all their support and encouragement.

Finally, on the last day, we got our certificates and T.A. We said goodby to Dada. It was an awesome experience after all. I got to know that there exist people in this world, like Dada who are very helpful to other people. I came to believe that if we act on things, everything falls right into the place. I met new people. I visited a new place. I learnt about a mindboggling phenomenon of instabilities.What else did I need?  

On the afternoon of 25^th March, I was back to BITS Pilani. Back to my stable state, after a small perturbation with a new story to tell!