Goodbye Lausanne

The time has come to bid `au revoir' or `auf wiedersehen' to Lausanne again. It was a very nice visit, made nice by friends and the atmosphere here. This is what I wrote to Prof. Pramod Rastogi who helps co-ordinate the ISBRI programme under which I visited here.

I am writing to you to thank you and the officers, especially Dr. Barbara Baumann for facilitating my visit to the EPFL under the aegis of the ISBRI. I
had first heard of this from my colleague, Prof. V. Venkatraman who had also visited EPFL a couple of years ago. My enquries to you and Dr. Baumann were
met with enthusiastic replies. I was also very happy that the application procedure was transparent and clear and was conducted in a very professional
manner. I sent a pdf file with the proposal and my curriculum vitae, and in a couple of months I had a positive reply. I sought a prepartory period of
some months which was also approved. I am pleased to inform you that I have now spent most of my planned one month at EPFL in a very productive manner.
I must also record my thanks to Prof. Shaposhnikov for his hospitality and that of the members of the group here. I hope that it would be possible to
visit again in future.

It is worth recording here that the atmosphere that is prevalent at the EPFL is one of the greatest professionalism. The work facilities are outstanding
and it would be hard to imagine how things could be better. In fact, it is this kind of hassle free atmosphere that makes a visit to Switzerland
particularly welcome for many of us from India. I found the time spent here, free of my usual administrative work and other routine matters, to be of
utmost satisfaction. Besides the collaborative work at the EPFL, I was also able to work on other research problems profiting from the hassle free
atmosphere that I referred to earlier.

As you are aware, I have deep ties with Switzerland, having spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow, of which two were actually in Lausanne itself.
I am happy to renew these ties as well, although the members of the erstwhile Institute of Theoretical Physics are now retired. This bond between people
who have once worked here and the country of Switzerland itself is of value and it would be great if an instrument like the ISBRI were to play a role in
strengthening such ties.

Of course for Anita and me Lausanne will always have a special place. But now it is time to head back home...