Journal Entries: Chopta-Rishikesh Trip

29/03/2015:

3:57 pm:

I am on train to Delhi. I am with a group of friends, everybody is sharing their experiences. I haven’t heard a story as interesting as the one which Divyanshu (Henceforth referred to as DC) has been telling! Such a mind-boggling experience, with all the drama! I secretly wish I had such a misadventure to tell stories about. But I am glad that I don’t have any!

30/03/2015:

2:29 am:

Damn this McAloo Tikki! I should never have eaten two. I knew I wouldn’t be able to digest them! Now I am sick. I have a full journey ahead and I just puked. Oh man! I don’t know how I am going to face the winding roads in the morning! At least I have one thing off my bucket list- vomiting on a train!

I cannot sleep. There are too many mosquitoes here and I think it is raining outside. I think I have a good reason to believe that this trip is ruined for me. I am not feeling good, we won’t be able to go trekking in the rain, nor will we be able to enjoy rafting. Let’s see what happens.

10:20 am:

We reached Haridwar in the morning. I think the train was late by an hour or so...maybe because of the rains! It was still raining when we got there. We have booked a 12 seater traveler (mini bus) and everybody is asleep. We had a good breakfast. I didn’t eat anything, as I am not sure how my stomach would react to these winding roads, especially after last night’s puking incident. I think Akhilesh has eaten more than he needed as he himself said that two parathas were more than enough. I hope he does not fall sick. Everybody else on the bus seems fine. DC, DTH, GPD, Plashi, Arnav, Aman, Chandak…They are having a good sleep. I am wide awake. I am dosing off, but the winding roads are not letting me. Every half a minute, there is a turn.   

11:18 am:

And just when I was about to go into a deep sleep, the bus stopped. Akhilesh has fallen sick. We still have six to eight hours to go and I think I am going to follow Akhilesh in an hour or three! I better get some sleep.

4:45pm:

We have reached ‘Ukhimath’. We are going to stay the night here. This seems like a small village. The accommodation is cheap here. It is nice that we decided to stop. I need to rest!

11:00 pm:

We had a good dinner. We met a trekker who informed us that there is too much ice up there and if it continues to rain, we better abandon the trek. He also taught us some tricks of the trade such as double wrapping polythene bags underneath and on our socks so that the legs don’t get wet by the snow. He said hand gloves are must. So we purchased gloves. The guy has scared the hell out of us when he told us some story of a guy who slipped. He said he didn’t have a metal stick to save him. And all the time I was thinking, ‘Man! I don’t want to die out there!’

Tomorrow is going to be adventurous. We hope to come across some snow. I have never trekked in snow before. I just hope that tomorrow it doesn’t rain.

31/03/2015:

7:03 am:

Today is a good day. There is not a trace of rainy clouds in the skies. I am able to see the Himalayas from the balcony. Hell! I am surrounded by Himalayan Mountains. The view from the balcony is so serene that I feel hypnotized. It feels as if I am in a company of something truly beautiful as well as dangerous.

8:00 am:

We are already late. We should have left earlier. The driver says that the weather changes after 12O’clock. It will take us another hour and a half to reach Chopta.

9:20 am:

We just stopped at a small village named ‘Baniyakund’ to have some breakfast and rent the snow boots.

Now in 10-15 minutes, we’ll reach Chopta.

9:53 am:

Finally, the trek begins!

8:30 pm:

I enjoyed a lot on that trek. We couldn’t reach the top because the weather suddenly turned from sunny to cloudy, even the guides who were with other groups shouted that we should go back. At one point of time, we weren't able to see the upper part because those clouds surrounded us. We thought if professional people are scared then there is something wrong! ‘The winter is coming!’

Anyways, I met a German guy who seemed like an interesting character. While we were making our climb, he was going downhill. We briefly interacted with him.

He asked us, “Is this your first time in the mountains?”

I answered, “Snow trekking for the first time. What about you?”

“I was born in the mountains!” Said he and down he went on a steep slide.

That conversation was pretty interesting, I thought.

We are currently staying at ‘Rudra Prayag’. There is Ganga (Ganges) flowing behind us. I am finding the constant roaring of the river to be somehow pleasing and so is us being surrounded by the mountains. Tomorrow morning, we leave for Rishikesh. Actually, there is a camp at about 30 kms from Rishikesh. We are going to stay there and then we are going to cover the rest of the distance by river. I am pretty excited about rafting. Let us see! I better sleep now.

01/04/2015:

11:20 pm:

We are staying at a camp. We enjoyed today. I think today was the least hectic day of the trip so far. We reached the camp at around 12:00 O’clock. We had lunch. Some of us took a bath in the Ganges and boy was that water icy! We also played volleyball in the afternoon.

While enjoying evening snacks, DC, GPD, Palshi, DTH, Arnav and I had an interesting discussion on parallels of North Korea and the novel 1984. I also told about the interesting documentary that I had seen which described how people from East Germany came up with ingenious ideas to cross the Berlin wall. We decided that when we get back to campus, we’ll study more about North Korea and its moral policies, for it seemed intriguing to us.

We then proceeded to play the game ‘Mafia’ in the light of two lanterns. The atmosphere was perfect. There were 9 of us, there was a tent above our heads, two lanterns were the only source of light there and the Ganges flowing in the background…That ‘Mafia’ will indeed remain memorable.

The weather has not disturbed the fun till now. Let us hope that it will be a sunny day tomorrow, for I want to enjoy rafting to its fullest.

02/03/2015:

3:13 pm:

Life, to me is made of two crucial parts: people worth being with and the experiences that we go through.

4:25 pm:

Rafting was indeed fun! I liked every second of it. Had I died out there, I would not have regretted it. But, at the same time, I was not planning on dying, because there is so much for me to learn.

4:30 pm:

Do not forget to blog this in its original format! Lets try out how this looks…Journal entries!

5:13 pm:

This picnic was one of the best experiences of my life so far. Not only because of the people, but the experiences I had have made it worth remembering. I did snow trekking, camping and river rafting for the first time in my life. I got to know new people. I also realized a few things about me. First, I do not like McAloo Tikki. Second, I realized that although I am nothing but a dust speck as compared to the scale of this Universe, I matter to some people: my parents and some of my friends. I came to know that I exist!

When I was floating in the Ganges, there was a moment when I was not connected to anything. I was just going with the flow. In that moment, I realized that the things that we run after in our lives are so trivial. Life is more than that. 

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Some snaps from the trip: Photos by Arnav Jain: (except for some of them)

   

TIFR-CAM Experience: Day 3 and 4

The last day of the conference opened with a talk by O. Pironneau. He is one of the greatest researchers in the field of numerics. He is also one of the developers of FreeFem++, the open source software that we used to run our simulations. His lecture was on how to model blood flow through arteries using computational fluid dynamics.  It was mainly about how to model fluid structure interaction using Finite Element Method. It was an amazing lecture. Frankly, he is a big-shot in the field. There were many great minds that were sitting there in that room. There were people from TIFR, IISc and IITs who are great researchers. Some of them had even taught SJM, e.g. Dr G.D.V. Gowda! There were PhD advisors of my mathematics teacher Dr Sangeeta (Dr A.K. Pani and Dr Neela Nataraj). And then, there was Pironneau. And in front of this crowd, Ruchir and I were going to present our work! It was indeed terrifying. But then, I thought about Feynman and all my worries went away!

There is a chapter in Feynman’s biography, “Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character. The chapter is titled ‘Monster Minds’. In that chapter, Feynman talks about his first seminar. He was going to give his first seminar in front of Pauli, Neumann and Einstein! He too was terrified, but as he went to the stage and started talking about his work and Physics, it didn’t matter to him as to whom he was addressing! The story is such an interesting one that I always think, if Feynman could survive in front of that crowd, I can survive anywhere! Feynman has made such a great impact on my lifestyle that I can only say that I decided to pursue my interests because of his stories. Simply speaking, he is my superhero and if I were to meet Feynman I would go to him and say, “Thank You!”

So, there I was, getting ready to give a talk about my undergraduate thesis in front of these ‘monster minds’! I was not scared at all. All I had to do was to explain them what I had done so far.

Our talk was scheduled at 5 O’clock. SJM gave a nice introduction about Group theoretic techniques that we had implemented. Then I talked about Turing patterns and the numerical simulations. Finally, Ruchir concluded the talk. Everyone there liked our presentation and people were really interested to know more about our work. After the talk, some professor congratulated me for the talk and said it was an interesting investigation. I thanked him for the encouragement. I later came to know that he was also a big-shot from IISc and had taught SJM when he was a student. Unfortunately, I don’t remember his name. Pironneau told us to complete the remaining task and he would be interested to see our results.

So, everything went great! But there is still work that needs to be done and I am planning to do it after mid-February, once I am done with the entrance exams.

On 20^th Decemeber, Abhishek was going to leave Bangalore. Ruchir and I dropped him to his bus stop and three of us also had dinner there. It was a rooftop restaurant with traditional Andhra food. Abhishek and I had shared a nice chicken dish while Ruchir went for sea food. It was indeed delicious and most importantly, not too spicy. At 10 pm or so, Ruchir and I returned to TIFR-CAM. SJM had already gone in the evening after our presentation. He was going to participate in midnight marathon which was going to be held that night. For the record, I must confess that SJM is really energetic. Remember that he had stayed up till 3 O’clock, attended the whole conference and then that guy was going to run 22 kilometers the same night and all this was without any rest.

The next day, 21^st of December was the last day of my Bangalore trip. Ruchir went to meet one of his relatives who live in Bangalore, while I went on to meet my BITS seniors. I first went to JNCASR and met Anupam, our martial arts captain. He was the one who taught me many things about martial arts. He is currently doing Research Assistantship at JNCASR. We roamed around the campus and drank coffee. He had some exam and had to leave.

After that, I went to NCBS to meet Shilpa, one my seniors who is doing her undergraduate thesis there. I also met Tejas Pande there. We all had lunch together. One thing is for sure, NCBS has nice food! One of their friends, Elsa, who is also a Research Assistant there, joined us.  After lunch, we went to sports complex. While Tejas played foosball, Shilpa, Elsa and I played carom. Tejas also joined us after some time. It was indeed fun.

Then catching a shuttle for IISc, I was supposed to get down at Mekhari circle. But I didn’t know where to get off, so I asked the guy sitting next to me to tell me when to get off. We got to talking and that guy turned out to be pretty cool. He had no hurry to apply for PhD. He said, “I am still discovering my love for the subject. Getting a PhD and getting a job as soon as possible is typical thinking. That doesn’t work with me.” Actually, what he was saying made a lot of sense.

He also told me about a device that he had made to measure carbon dioxide. He had reached to the conclusion that, Carbon dioxide in atmosphere of Bangalore is more than double the amount of that if someone exhales in your mouth. As we were talking about the pollution, I talked about the Kumbh Mela and about the saints that visit my hometown, Nasik and pollute the river. To this, his reply was some of the Sadhus are not phony. So I asked him, “How do you know? I think all of them pollute the river.” To my surprise, he knew that because he had wandered around with those Sadhus for a couple of months and also had smoked with them! He was an interesting character.

He told me where to get off and where to go. I reached the Bangalore City Junction well before time. While I was waiting for my train, I met a flock of Buddhist monks who were travelling to Hubli, a city in Karnataka.

I came back home on 22^nd morning and hence ended my trip to Bangalore. 

TIFR-CAM Experience: Day 1 and 2

Recently, I along with my thesis advisor and mentor Dr Sai Jagan Mohan sir (henceforth referred by his popular acronym, SJM) and one of my closest friends Ruchir Dwivedi gave a conference talk at TIFR-CAM, Bangalore. This post is the crux of all the experiences I had in that amazing city.

‘Conference on Computational PDE, Finite Element Meet 2014’ was to begin on 18^th of December 2014. I reached Bangalore on 17^th of December. Since we had submitted our work late, the organizers were unable to accommodate us inside the campus. But fortunately, my mentor’s sister lives in Bangalore. So he had arranged for Ruchir and me to stay at his sister’s place.

I reached Bangalore around 11:30 am. I was completely new to the city. The majestic or formally the Kempegauda bus stand is right in front of the Bangalore city junction railway station. I had no idea how to reach the given address. On top of that, I have no hint about how to interpret Kannada, the vernacular of Karnataka. But most of the people understand Hindi and English and they were helpful. I found the enquiry counter easily and the lady there told me how to reach my destination. I took a bus from there to the house of SJM’s sister. It took me a couple of hours to reach there through the insanely clumsy traffic of Bangalore.

When I reached there, my mentor’s sister, along with her husband was gone out of station for some professional meeting. But SJM’s mother was there and she let me in.

SJM and Ruchir’s flight from New Delhi was delayed due to the fog in the atmosphere. They almost took an extra hour to reach Bangalore. Before they arrived, I must confess I felt a little awkward. But it was refreshing to talk to Sir’s mother. I also talked to her grandchildren. Luckily, there was a Rubik’s cube and they didn’t know how to solve it. So I taught them how to solve a Rubik’s cube.

I must confess a fun-fact. Well, it is slightly embarrassing but the truth is that I learned Rubik’s cube just to impress girls. I know it is stupid, but that was the only motivation for me to continue learning it! I thought it looks cool and I learnt it simply to get admiration from the opposite sex! And so far, I haven’t impressed a single girl with it! Personally, I would have never learned those algorithms and because of the fact that I haven’t been able to impress any girl with it, I sometimes feel it was a waste of time.

But that day, when I completed the cube, I could see that small boy looking curiously at the cube, for he thought it was incredibly cool! And that is how my knowledge of how to solve Rubik’s cube helped me, to get over the initial awkwardness with some stranger.

Once Sir and Ruchir arrived, we went for a walk and talked about various subjects. Mainly, we talked about the city. We went to a nearby mall in the evening and while going there, we were talking about the Finite Element Method. A car almost hit my mentor, for he was lost in the conversation! In the evening, his sister and her husband came back from Mysore and we chatted for a while. They are nice people. SJM’s sister told us stories about sir from their childhood, how he used to help her in her studies and how she used to hate those study sessions! All in all, it was fun!

The next day, we got up early in the morning at 6:00 and using city buses, we managed to reach TIFR-CAM at around 8:10 am. We had a breakfast and registration there and the conference started at 9:00 am as planned. There were talks by mathematicians, engineers and PhD Students from all over the country. The students were predominantly from TIFR or IISc Bangalore. Some of the talks were really nice, where some were too advanced for me. One my friends from BITS Pilani, Abhishek Kumar was also attending the conference. We met a lot of amazing people and more or less everyone there was nice enough to talk to us, the undergraduate students! The food was great and the conference was going as planned. Our presentation was last on the last day of the conference. So we had enough time. Ruchir and I also got accommodation there at TIFR and the organizers were helpful to us.

At the end of the first day, once the conference ended at 5:30 pm, four of us, Sir, Ruchir, Abhishek and I caught a shuttle to IISc Bangalore. We were going there to meet one of our seniors from BITS Pilani, Rohit Varghese. I hadn’t met him before, but he seemed like a cool guy. He had a car with him. We talked about many different subjects. We went to Subway Sandwich just outside IISc and then went to Corner House. Corner House is a famous chain of ice-cream shops in Bangalore and they have this special dish which they title: ‘Death by Chocolate’! SJM challenged me to eat one full bowl of ‘death by chocolate’ and I accepted the challenge. But then, Rohit intervened and warned me about it, for it is humongous to eat, especially when you are not hungry. So Abhishek stepped up. Together, we finished that whole bowl of ‘Death by Chocolate’ and boy was I in for stomach pain! Rohit dropped us somewhere near Hebbal, the central location from where buses go all over the city. We got a bus to SJM’s sister’s house and hence ended the first day of the conference.

TIFR-CAM

Abhishek and I (I don't know what we were talking about! Ruchir is such a weird guy, he didn't even tell us that he was taking a pic! 

Death by Chocolate!

On the second day, we acquired our allotted room which was room no. 311 at TIFR-CAM. The second day was also good. Last year Abhishek and I had done a study project in mathematics department under the guidance of a new professor Dr Sangeeta Yadav. On the second day, we attended a lecture by her PhD advisor! It was indeed a good feeling to see him referring to her publications!

SJM stayed in our room on 19^th December as we had not yet prepared our presentation. We had some slides here and there, and I had all the codes with me, but that needed to be arranged in a proper manner. We had already decided that we were not going to be vague about any of our statements in the presentation. As we were presenting in front of a crowd full of mathematicians, we had to be crisp in the statements that we were going to make. We had divided our work in subparts. SJM was handling the part of presentation related to Group Theory. Ruchir and I were handling the part related to numerical implementation in FreeFem++ and MATLAB.  It took us 2 O’clock in the morning to finish with the presentation. SJM stayed for up for one more hour in order to compile everything in nice format.