Koszonom, Budapest!

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 experience of Eastern Europe and Danube next, and a bit of socio-economic commentary reserved later for the most patient readers!

 -x-x-x-x-x-x-

The European Nonlinear Dynamics Conference at Budapest, Hungary was a constant matter of my Google searches since late November. It started with searching the list of experts attending the conference, few presenting what are called ‘plenary’ talks and few organized sessions of presentation called ‘minisymposia’. Often, that is the juncture when you know that there are lot more big names working in your broad field (Nonlinear Dynamics, in my case) than what you have been thinking all these days! And so, obviously, part of you gets hooked up to the prospect of listening, chatting and befriending these people at one go! (If you are an ardent travel buff, another part of you would have already been overwhelmed by the dreams of cruising along Danube, trekking (!?) along hills on the Buda side of Budapest and lot more. Sadly, that not being my case, these became subject of my, again, Google searches only by late March.)

Once that phase crosses and the deadline for ‘abstract’ sets in, panic too sets in. After all, what to present in front of these people?! After a bit of haggling your old ideas and results, something meaningful emerges and you manage to write a two page of technical prose, promising- at least- a part of the moon.

Beyond that, your nerves get soothed. You have a hunch that the abstract would be anyway accepted, and start planning ahead. Post eventual acceptance of abstract, obtaining visa and booking the mandatory Air India tickets, your day of journey finally comes! With lot of butterflies in your stomach- few procrastinating about your presentation and few dreading the foreign cuisine awaiting you- you finally set sails (well, not literally!).

 

Having attended a few conferences earlier back in India itself, there was enough hint as to how the conference would be. The customary pre-registration, often-sparsely attended parallel sessions of presentations, well attended plenary talks, sumptuous  lunches, networking over tea- all were largely as one with prior conference experience would expect. One exception was the promptness with which the sessions happened, hardly starting a minute later or ending a minute earlier! Adding to that I could sense a bit more of earnest, sincere attendance- which was surprisingly substantial, almost always. The venue, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, itself was quite an old one- having been associated with a few Nobel laureates (including Eugene Wigner!) it proudly flaunted. Having come from a vast, sprawling IIT Madras campus, BUTE looked a bit little and compact- but with majestic, century old buildings overlooking river Danube.

Within a hour of the conference ice-breaker session (plethora of food spread across the central hall – three fourths, though, unpalatable to my unfortunate tongue), you could see a microcosm of  entire mankind! From Australia to Americas, Japan to Brazil, a wide range of nationalities could be seen at one go! The only common link between these diverse people was science, which often was also the only language they all understood!

The night before my presentation reminded me of the nights before my school board exams. After a series of low intensity panic attacks spread over day and night, one finally decides that all that one can do is try not to mess things up and keep it simple. A couple of moderate presentations before yours give you a subtle arrogance that yours would be at least better than these. And then, would come a presentation from a speaker you had rarely heard about- often of your same age and academic qualification- whose talk would be really sublime. Self-doubt sinks in, you wonder whether you deserve your place here – among many other  parallel thoughts crowding your mind. By the time your turn comes, you are almost pale, and heavily tired. Well, these are a bit of exaggeration- after a few conferences, as in my case, you know how good & bad you will perform and can keep yourself a bit composed. Once I started my presentation, it was nothing but a Duronto express run, eventually stopping for audience questions. It’s interesting as well unnerving to see the audience react to your presentation. Most of crowd looks confused and shocked, a few completely uncaring for your existence, and  a few others completely engrossed into your presentation slides. A few among the last group eventually asked questions- they were really erudite and renowned researchers whom I had read, idolized but never seen earlier.  The Q&A session went off like a rapid fire quiz, with answers- irrespective of whether were correct or sensible- being shot back the moment the question ended. Often, in these presentations, you really understand what you had overlooked- some assumptions implicit in the technical methods you use, some issues which you knew they existed but pretended as if they were trivial, and the extra rigour with which you could have done your own research work. Polite appreciations often follow these presentations, but one ends up wondering whether they were really due- honest, heartfelt observations- or mere formalities. Finally, I could sense that I had finished my  primary job of the visit- fairly well- and would no longer need to speak in front of an audience with prying minds! I could cheer myself up, thinking that my job was to let the experts of the world know what we do back home and that was accomplished- no matter what impression it left on their minds. (A day later, as I could interact personally with two of the experts and obtain their feedback- my spirit returned! A silent joy and satisfaction erupted when they showed complete familiarity with my work and discussed its pros and cons candidly.)

As this cloud passed, my mind was a bit clearer- as all that was left was to listen to people and pick their brains as much as possible. After all, a conference is as much to listen to others as to speak! Well, the difficulty in this lies in the fact that most of the talks are on subject  you scarcely are aware of, or are not very keen at. Adding to this, some talks become a bit dreary that you inevitably lose focus. With half a mind wanting to partake as much as possible from the conference and other half  wandering everywhere else, it needs a bit of leashing your own mind to stay attentive to the talks. There were a surprisingly wide range of topics covered, from what is called as ‘synchronization’- a hugely popular topic meaning what it literally means, i.e. two things falling in sync with each other- to  autonomous robots! In many cases, you would be left admiring either the wide extent of efforts put by the research groups in rigourously examining a problem. In other cases, you would get inspired the originality and freshness of the ideas some of these speaker proposed. On an average, I could sense that most of these speakers were earnest in their research effort, had excellent knowledge base in their institutions to lean on, great facilities made to appear greater due to their efforts to squeeze maximal use out of them, and robust collaborations. Adding to that was the mathematical prowess of many of them, especially the Europeans. Interestingly, with a little diligence, one could distinguish the difference in the research style between the different groups- the Russians with their intensely mathematical, little abstract, works, continental Europeans with their work on fundamental questions, analytical tools etc., the British and Americans with their largely practicality driven work and so on! 

Amongst these, the plenary talks were the standout. Listening to a fluent, contentwise rich and elegant talk by Prof. Gaeten Kerschen- whose paper was among the first I worked on in 2010- was exhilarating. So was a flawless exposition by Prof. George Haller on his upcoming analytical tool. It was also fun to know a few tidbits and anecdotes about these researchers- that Prof. Haller was born in Hungary before moving elsewhere, stories about how the conference was conceived first by the stalwarts of 20^th century including the famous nonlinear dynamicist Balthazar Van der Pol and how different renowned researchers organized it over years. Quirky facts about how the conference- European Nonlinear Dynamics Conference- came to be known as ENOC- were interesting. By the end of conference, I knew who was who in the field of Nonlinear Dynamics, what current broad trends are, who collaborates with whom and so on. In a non-technical sense, I could also see how most of these researchers didn’t show the rigid seriousness you expect of top scientists, but were rather relaxed, fun loving and casual.  

 -x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Enough of the conference, right? Well, moving to outdoor component of the trip, the conference organizers organized a trip to the Audi factory in Gyor, a hundred odd kilometers away from Budapest. A long, bus trip- admiring a 7-8 km long, disciplined, traffic jam- notwithstanding, the Audi assembly line was worth every bit. Being a civil engineer, with scarce fascination towards automobiles, I was almost like a child in a fair- admiring the magnificence without understanding it much! Nevertheless, seeing the cars getting formed from a skeletal stage to a sleek complete form at one go and roll out for trials straight away from the bodyshop was scintillating. Equally interesting was observation of the labourers taking a  break from work, looking as tough and unhappy as many labourers back in India.

Budapest, on its own, has a 19^th century ambience spread across the city- from the bridges across Danube to the magnificient buildings of downtown to the old metro lines with vintage trains. Admirably, the classical architecture gels well with a modern transport system overground and an urban, quintessentially western European culture prevalent among the citizens. As any other Indian, the disciplined traffic was the first thing that caught my eyes- and the respect and space pedestrians get on roads is, frankly speaking, unimaginable back home! And when you are in awe this way, there comes an occasional outlier, zipping fast across the signal to overtake a pedestrian or a pedestrian running across a road oblivious of the oncoming car. Just like this, in many ways Budapest has a tiny, chaotic, Indian touch stuck amidst a European sophistication!

As much as I have heard about European cities, Budapest too has umpteen restaurants and cafes spread across the wide blacktopped roads and narrow tiled alleys. Slowly coming to life in the afternoons, these become public hotspots by the evening, which is sunlit till about 9 PM! The quiet, dignified yet stern countenance of the crowd in the metros in the morning and the casual atmosphere in the night were studies in contrast. With ample public spaces and a population small by Asian standards, Budapest has space for people to casually relax- so much so that an entire Elizabeth bridge was proscribed for vehicular traffic for a day to let people occupy and unwind!

A non-vegetarian’s delight, the cuisine was a too cold-hearted towards a vegetarian like me. With a bit of patient investigation (especially in case of the main course and desserts) and dollops of fruits, juices, coffee/tea and corn flakes, I could survive- remaining a vegetarian. A cursory knowledge of common Hungarian words saved many a times in this regard- with Hungarians largely being uncomfortable with English! 

As a parting remark, I have to mention the striking contrast between India and the west, as also the subtle similarities beneath. Having stepped out India for the first time, it was obviously feeling as if you are in a pretty different world. Well, with TV and Internet around, one is not completely shocked seeing the West as we have been fed with tons of photos, videos and movies on them as we grew up. Still, the remarkably organized functional cities, largely disciplined people, eerie silence in most places -including crowded trains and shopping streets- things are pretty different. The central place for the individual in the lifestyle- contrary to complete subsuming of the individual by the society in India, though I love it- is also quite obvious.  Hungary not being an economic behemoth like UK or Germany was quite obvious on the streets- the Budapest city is no New York or London where you are left startled by seeing the affluence. A country emerging from  throes of communism and embrace the far West (if I could call it so)- learning English gradually- Budapest is certainly not as pompous, as multicultural or diverse as other Western metropolis we know. A modern society, with shades of tradition visible scattered- it is also reasonably affluent, yet with it own share of beggars at railway stations and frauds in shopping centres. This is not unlike back home in India! In a more positive sense, one could see that nationality, culture and prosperity changes the way people greet, eat, work and live but it hardly changes how they feel. I could see little kids behaving exactly as an Indian kid would do- quite raw, unpolished, oblivious of the customs of the society and noisy too! The adults, on the other hand, have trained themselves to be different- with a polite and dignified, but extremely conscious, little affected, way of behaving. The only moment I could clearly see their natural instinct came out was when they were playing or managing their kids- the warmth between the parents and children was no different from what I see around me in India! I could also note that the bottom half of the society- the mechanics smoking and chatting on streetsides, the sweepers, shopkeepers in the city markets, railway attendants etc.- were as raw, some indifferent and gloomy and others kind and amiable, unsophisticated and simple- much like Indians! To judge a society with a few hours of observation may not be an ideal one, but I believe I could sense the essence of the urban lifestyle in Budapest.

To sum up, without much further ado, the conference, as much as the city, was a fresh experience. And well, I was doubly happy coming back home- having sourced kilograms of chocolates pretty cheap in the market halls of Budapest! Koszonom, Budapest!