VigNaattru

Well, why tell something new when somebody has told it better? Richard Feynman in his inimitable "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!" says the following (Feynman was invited to speak to Brazilian teachers and to suggest measures to improve science teaching)- Then I say, “The main purpose of my talk is to demonstrate to you that no science is being taught in Brazil!” I can see them stir, thinking, “What? No science? This is absolutely crazy! We have all these classes.” So I tell them that one of the first things to strike me when I came to Brazil was to see elementary school kids in bookstores, buying physics books. There are so many kids learning physics in Brazil, beginning much earlier than kids do in the United States, that it’s amazing you don’t find many physicists in Brazil— why is that? So many kids working so hard, and nothing comes of it! Then I gave the analogy of a Greek scholar who loves the Greek language, who knows that in his c...

A visit to a foreign country is always special. And when it is your first visit abroad, it automatically becomes memorable! What more, when it is the first time you speak technical stuff in front of expert, completely non-Indian, people- it is even more special to you! And well, when you don’t have to spend out of your pocket for this, isn’t it truly wonderful! A conference trip abroad, in my case, was special more so for the last reason- the unintended generosity of unknown taxpayers enabled me to fly across Eurasia, step into a foreign university and present a part of my work in front of a sizeable, learned audience. Such trips leave you small lessons, in addition to some mandatory networking which is the prime motive of these conferences, which are worth sharing. After all, a lakh and odd rupees spent on a person’s trip should be worth more than his own benefitting, right! So, here we go- a bit of conference experience first, and a short traveller’s expe...

A common question that most people- friends, family and acquaintances - shoot at PhD students is   “ How long would you keep studying?” How one responds back depends on how quick-witted and thick-skinned one is. One could reply “ Well, technically I am not studying- I am a scholar and I just do research which is no way different from a regular job” . Of course, one would be laughing within   oneself, though keeping a straight face, while saying this! Else, one could earn some bits of sympathy by lamenting back how PhD seems to be an endless journey, how you uncertain or clueless he/she is as to when it will, eventually, end. Worse, one might even confess that you are more uncertain on the job prospects once it ends, than about getting PhD itself! A PhD looks tantalizingly promising for many aspirants- at least for the fact that they would get a cool new prefix to their names and get public rights to brag their (presumed) expertise in their field. Other way aroun...

If you have 'passion' for something, it means you haven't really pushed yourself hard enough to see its dark side. You haven't tasted failure. You think you're good at something, so you really like it. You like the feeling of being good at something. That's 'passion'. Doing a PhD makes you taste failure. A lot of it. You realize that you aren't actually good at said area. You realize that you are actually really, really bad at it. No matter how much 'passion' you thought you had, one day you are going to clutch at your hair and (with genuine passion this time) cry out "I HATE THIS." The 'passion' that you thought you had now reveals itself to be the biggest lie you were ever told (by yourself). 'Passion' is not an indicator of whether you should do a PhD. It is an indicator of how much you are wallowed in your comfort zone. It is an indicator of how flat you are about to fall on your face. You sho...