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.