Mood Indigo 2012

Like I said in the previous post, I went to IITB to witness their cultural festival this year (or previous year!!!). I had a heard a lot of stories, not only from my friends in IITB but also from others. I found a festival that can be astounding if you have the proper desire to participate and enjoy.

A train journey across India

After a very long time I traveled long distance by train again. I was visiting IIT Bombay for their cultural festival Mood Indigo. I took the Duronto Express from Howrah to Mumbai CST. Not much to talk about the train itself. I was hugely disappointed by the service, the Rajdhani’s are far superior in terms of food as well as service. I did make a few observations about my fellow passengers and that’s what I will write about in this article.

The Adventures Of Tintin (2011) – A Review

I have become largely cautious in my expectations from movies trying to recreate the magic of some of my most beloved characters, either from earlier movies or comics or story books, or cartoons. I have seen just too many fail and fail quite miserably. How many remember the the House of the Dead film. It completely killed off my love for the games. Ever since then I have never expected any thing great from such movies.

I actually liked the Final Fantasy Advent Children but then any non-initiated to the games will not understand the story much. I have experienced this first hand with my friends calling it nothing more than a CG south-indian flick. I had loved it, but then the first film although was a great film, made no sense to name it Final Fantasy when it had no connection to the games at all. They should have named that one Final Retribution or something.

So may be you can guess what I should have been expecting when I first heard a Tintin movie is going to be made.

My Photograph Book 1

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Education in India – Part 3

One other thing I want to draw from a recent friendly discussion is the notion of examination in India. People seem to find the hard exams useful and the relatively easy ones as useless. People seem to look down upon the AIEEE exam, saying that its too easy compared to IITJEE, so IITJEE is a real exam. Its true that looking from the general mentality of the people, most of whom want to go to the IITs, IITJEE is the real prize and they consider AIEEE only as a consolation for missing out on IITJEE. Its a sad situation in India, but not necessarily beyond repair. They are now talking about a joint exam for all government colleges in India, with it being an option for private institutions, and doing away with IITJEE and AIEEE completely. That is a fantastic idea and I think that it should be implemented right away. Public services is a big thing in India, with high flying students from all over the country wanting to get into the IAS. UPSC is one of the most coveted exams in India. I frankly admit that I do not know much about it, most of my knowledge comes from my recent discussion with some of my friends wanting to appear for the UPSC exam.

Why not to write about Feynman in the SOP?

            I wrote about Richard Feynman a few days back. It must have been pretty clear that I am very impressed by Feynman. He has had a huge impact on my life. I have loved reading about his pranks and adventures like most do, but I have also loved reading and hearing his lectures unlike many who just like to read the funny stories and think his lectures have no content. I have listened to his messenger lectures and I think must have inspired many into taking up physics. What more can you ask from a teacher. A teacher is there to guide and quite obviously that seems to work for his students as many have gone on the record saying he was one of the best teachers ever.

            I am presently applying for graduate studies in US universities and one thing that I was told by many, was not to include Richard Feynman in my SOP. They say it makes my application look like normal. Maybe that true, but removing Feynman from my life would take away one of the fundamental reasons why I love physics so much. I love its intricacies and yet the beauty that lies in simple laws take my breadth away. I have always liked Physics but I learned to love physics from Feynman. I once read this on a website . The author said that you need to have a better reason to go to graduate school than Feynman. I think he’s wrong. What are teachers for? why are the documentary films made on science and scientists? I think it is to inspire people to follow something. No common child begins by magical attraction to something, he is not born loving physics, or any other subject for that matter. Even Feynman was inducted into physics and questioning physical events by his father. His father served as his inspiration to love physics.

The Sagan Series – Part 1

The Sagan Series is a series of videos commissioned by NASA and created by Reid Gower. They talk of the challenges facing Man in reaching the space and looks back on the path we have taken and talks of the present situation. They are brilliant not only in the presentation but also in the pictures used. The BBC pictures used are all HD and the videos in all the HD glory are strikingly beautiful.

The first video “The Frontier is Everywhere” talks of the frontier of challenges facing humans and that has faced us in the many generation we have passed. When we used to be hunters and foragers it was very easy to discover new things, the frontier was everywhere. Today we seem to be asking the question whether we should venture into space and question whether we are capable enough. “We who cannot even put our own planetary home in order, riven with rivalries and hatred, are we to venture into space” begs a moment of thought, indeed we have a lot of troubles on earth, why should we go looking for more outside, why spend so much on space when so many are dying of hunger and dying in the hands of terrorists. We are an adaptable species and we will change, we are changing now. “By the time we are ready to settle the nearest planetary systems we would have changed. Time would have changed us, our necessities and even our hatred of each other would have changed us. It will not be we who go to the stars, it will be a species very much like us, but with more of our strengths and fewer of our weaknesses, more confident, far-seeing, capable and prudent. Despite our failings, despite our fallibilities we humans are capable of greatness.” – This is my favorite line in the entire video. It gives you hope and courage to do what’s necessary knowing that in the end, the fate is not for us to decide. We are great and need not question our abilities, we only need to sort out our priorities.

The videos are must see. I will be writing about the emotions that the videos instill in me in the future but for now, you should go see the videos.

Education in India – Part 2

Its difficult in India to dream big. Almost everyone around you expect you to play safe. This becomes even more frustrating when even your teachers tell you to keep backup options. I know it only makes logical sense to make backup plans, but that also means you are wasting precious energy towards other things when you should be doing something else. Let me tell you the applications for MS/PHD in US are not easy, even though the steps may seem easy enough. You have to take a hard look at your profile and see how you can improve your profile and experience at every point of time. It takes considerable preparation to start the process. Then there are the SOPs and CVs to write. They require considerable extent of self-searching and self-discovery otherwise it never comes out right. There are a considerable load of other things but may be I’ll write about that some other day. The thing is it is time consuming and takes a fair bit of effort. Its difficult to do this as well as preparing for GATE/CAT when I don’t really want to do an MBA or study M.Tech in India. It feels like wasted time. But I have been literally inundated with shocks, exclamations and amazement when I tell people I have not applied for either GATE or CAT or XAT or MAT or whatever other exams you may think of. I AM NOT INTERESTED.

The Magic of Feynman

Richard Feynman was a genius. No, not in my words but in the words of Hans Bethe, himself a Nobel laureate in Physics. He called Feynman a magician. He said “There are two types of genius. Ordinary geniuses do great things, but they leave you room to believe that you could do the same if only you worked hard enough. Then there are magicians, and you can have no idea how they do it. Feynman was a magician.” Richard P. Feynman can easily be counted among the most influential scientists, most important personalities of the 21st century, and indeed one of the best teachers ever to have graced the human race. Maybe the reader can already ascertain my fascination with Feynman. (Which in no small part also extends to the fact that I was born the very same year he died)

I used to be apprehensive about a science career and so very easily conformed to my parents wishes to become an engineer. (I only kind of had two choices – doctor or engineer). Thankfully during my second year in undergraduate school, one night I was bored (which used to happen a lot during the initial years) and decided to trawl through the vast collection of e-books that I had collected previously. By pure chance I settled on a curiously titled book called “Surely you are joking Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a curious character”. The title seemed odd and the name Feynman stood out, I had heard it before although I had no recollection as to where. I was just looking to kill time, but as I read on about radios and resorts, of MIT and Princeton, I was hooked. I didn’t stop reading till next afternoon ( I did go to the bathroom and had the meals), I even dropped class. It was incredible, how a person could have so much fun in his life and yet find enough time to significantly alter how a subject is perceived.

Science Vs Religion

I am myself non-religious but I would not define myself as an atheist. I am more in the realm of agnostics. I am not going to describe my religious views today however – maybe some other day. Today I am going to write about the seemingly eternal battle between religion and science. I should establish the reason why I am suddenly interested in writing on this topic. I recently saw a documentary film about Intelligent Creation and Evolution – BBC Horizon Season 1 episode. Its not a recent video but is a popular one, and I recently saw it and it made me think. So here goes.