To the readers, if any, of this humble blog, many wishes for a Happy New Year.
I am off the airwaves until next year and so I will bid goodbye with these two wonderful
poems by Badri Raina which I read many years ago, and recently obtained hard copies
from my brother-in-law Ajay Ranjan Singh, his colleague. It is very acid and is not
for the faint-hearted, but gives one something to think about. It sums up what reams of
printed pages published in the Frontline and EPW cannot, atleast in my humble opinion.
-------------------
Hippopotamus
-------------------
The new Indian middle class
is full of pelf and prayer;
it ogles at the fop in front,
and quarantines its rear.
The new Indian middle class
is full of potato chip;
it hogs away at restaurant,
but is careful with the tip.
The new Indian middle class
means business every way;
it will have the atom bomb,
whatever you may say.
The new Indian middle class
is cross at population;
it simply cannot undersatnd
why people live in the nation.
The new Indian middle class
is bored by argument;
argumnet so upsets
its vacuous content.
The new Indian middle class
connects with tradition;
it often needs to fly abroad
to propagate that fashion.
The new Indian middle class
is a hippopotamus;
it fattens on protected feed,
and yawns at politics.
-------------------------------
Hippopotamus revisited
-------------------------------
The new Indian middle class
is into Channel V,
where V stands for vertifo
and viscerality.
The new Indian middle class
drives to disco tune,
It sees nothing upon the road
except its good fortune.
The new Indian middle class
is full of stock and share;
it packs globalised machismo
in Philips underwear.
The new Indian middle class
is Pentium perfect;
Its E-Mail carries latest news
of when and where to eat.
The new Indian middle class
is glued to one-dayer;
it despises Parliament
but is buoyed by Tendulkar.
The new Indian middle class
marries in farm houses,
where poor relations never reach,
and whisky drowns all grouses.
The new Indian middle class
is too busy wot visit;
when parents lie in ICU
Archies Card does it.
The new Indian middle class
uses language like hammer,
it has no use for critical thought,
nuance, complexity, grammar.
The new Indian middle class
will surely take us far,
from hauteur, humbug, heartlessness
to bloody civil war.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Ball-point pen
Over at Nanopolitan my friend Abi had this intersesting post on the space-pen giving links a story in Scientific American. I found a more down-to-earth (so to speak) story on the ball-point pen that appeared recently on BBC quite fascinating. Which always brings to me to the question as to why in the history of our country (atleast the recent history) we have been so short on innovations, small or great?
Monday, December 11, 2006
Captain Mulla
As a kid, I had been in the NCC and had heard the story of
the sinking of the INS Khukri. An officer had told us briefly
about Captian M. N. Mulla who went down with the
ship. I had never heard of him since, and today's Hindu
carried a story on the 35th anniversary of its sinking and
how this hero went down with his ship. Very touching.
I often wonder about how about country treats its armed
forces. Indeed, it is kept in an unpleasant situation of keeping
the union through the AFSP Act., etc., which are all laws
passed by civilian Governments. Yet, so little is really known
about its activities, its heroes, etc.. I have often wondered
why it took the BJP Government (and not so many earlier
ones) to promote Arjan Singh to Marshal of the Air Force.
Comments are welcome on this subject.
the sinking of the INS Khukri. An officer had told us briefly
about Captian M. N. Mulla who went down with the
ship. I had never heard of him since, and today's Hindu
carried a story on the 35th anniversary of its sinking and
how this hero went down with his ship. Very touching.
I often wonder about how about country treats its armed
forces. Indeed, it is kept in an unpleasant situation of keeping
the union through the AFSP Act., etc., which are all laws
passed by civilian Governments. Yet, so little is really known
about its activities, its heroes, etc.. I have often wondered
why it took the BJP Government (and not so many earlier
ones) to promote Arjan Singh to Marshal of the Air Force.
Comments are welcome on this subject.
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Becoming a professional physicist
So here are my thoughts on how to go about trying to become
a professional physicist. Now you may be wondering why BA
is qualified to write about this, especially when there is an
article on becoming a good theoretical physicist
by none other than Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft. [ As usual I found
the link from this article from my friend Abi's blog Nanopolitan.]
The reasons are of course spurred by the discussions we have on
students and the supposedly declining quality of students and
so on and so forth, topic which occupy so much of our time
which could otherwise be meaningfully spent, including
of course writing more articles on blogs. But jokes apart,
let me spell out why I think I should put down my thoughts
on this subject. Now any serious student of physics is well
advised to read 't Hooft's article on this subject. He lays down
completely what is the basic minimum that a person hoping
to have a career in theoretical physics should know. Also, one
has to give some advice to students entering the subject in India.
I think 't Hooft's advice pretty much universal. The main point
is that the students who think that they are lacking the background
should, after reading his article, identify the subjects where their
weaknesses lie and go about fixing the weaknesses.
Now how did I, a student of Chemical Engineering in the 1980's make
the transition? Undoubtedly a very risky decision to have taken, having
taken it, I did set about it quite methodically. I registered for 3 courses
of the M. Sc in physics program and went through the course work
meticulously. There was no internet those days, and no advice from
't Hooft. So I wrote to some American Univesities for their course
booklets, both undergraduate and graduate course description, and
basically drew mental Venn diagrams and isolated those course which
defined a basic minimum. Many long hours were spent in the IIT Madras
library looking up textbooks spelt out in those course booklets and
simply sitting down and working out missing steps and learning
the basics. I think that this technique was very useful for someone
who was not supremely gifted, but was willing to sit down and
learn things. [Of course you may ask why I did not get the course
booklet from IIT Kanpur, but it just did not occur to me. Perhaps their
5 year M. Sc. program course contents were superior to the result
of the mental Venn diagrams that I used.] I must also emphasize
that one great skill I did learn from the B. Tech. at IIT Madras was
problem solving, a skill that is useful whether one goes in physics,
managements, finance, computer science, IAS or what have you.
Acknowledgements are also due to the kind advice, help and
encouragement of my teachers there, Profs. V. Balakrishnan,
G. Rangarajan and the late Prof. S. Swaminathan. Prof. M. S. Ananth
who is now director of IIT Madras was also very encouraging of
my decision and was great to talk to.
I, of course, was not the only one to have taken this risky path; mighty
seniors like Ganapathy Murthy now at Kentucky, Uma Sankar at
IIT Bombay, Arun K. Gupta who went to Caltech, and some what
junior folks including Ramesh Abhiraman who went to Yale,
Anand Subburaman who went to Syracuse, Suresh Govindarajan
now at IIT Madras, Vasant Natarajan a colleague across in
Dept. of Physics at IISc also charted this course. It would be interesting
to know how they made their transitions.
The moral of this story is that if this worked for me, it will work
for anyone. In other words, today if we get students from perceived
weak backgrounds, and if they were to put themselves with some
assistance through such a grind, they would as well as any one who
today is a professional physicist. Such professional physicists, and
for that matter scientists and engineeres are the need of the hour
for the country. This formula will work also for those who will not
be able to go to the elite programs of the IISERs and the integrated
M. Sc. programs of Mysore University and University of Hyderabad.
a professional physicist. Now you may be wondering why BA
is qualified to write about this, especially when there is an
article on becoming a good theoretical physicist
by none other than Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft. [ As usual I found
the link from this article from my friend Abi's blog Nanopolitan.]
The reasons are of course spurred by the discussions we have on
students and the supposedly declining quality of students and
so on and so forth, topic which occupy so much of our time
which could otherwise be meaningfully spent, including
of course writing more articles on blogs. But jokes apart,
let me spell out why I think I should put down my thoughts
on this subject. Now any serious student of physics is well
advised to read 't Hooft's article on this subject. He lays down
completely what is the basic minimum that a person hoping
to have a career in theoretical physics should know. Also, one
has to give some advice to students entering the subject in India.
I think 't Hooft's advice pretty much universal. The main point
is that the students who think that they are lacking the background
should, after reading his article, identify the subjects where their
weaknesses lie and go about fixing the weaknesses.
Now how did I, a student of Chemical Engineering in the 1980's make
the transition? Undoubtedly a very risky decision to have taken, having
taken it, I did set about it quite methodically. I registered for 3 courses
of the M. Sc in physics program and went through the course work
meticulously. There was no internet those days, and no advice from
't Hooft. So I wrote to some American Univesities for their course
booklets, both undergraduate and graduate course description, and
basically drew mental Venn diagrams and isolated those course which
defined a basic minimum. Many long hours were spent in the IIT Madras
library looking up textbooks spelt out in those course booklets and
simply sitting down and working out missing steps and learning
the basics. I think that this technique was very useful for someone
who was not supremely gifted, but was willing to sit down and
learn things. [Of course you may ask why I did not get the course
booklet from IIT Kanpur, but it just did not occur to me. Perhaps their
5 year M. Sc. program course contents were superior to the result
of the mental Venn diagrams that I used.] I must also emphasize
that one great skill I did learn from the B. Tech. at IIT Madras was
problem solving, a skill that is useful whether one goes in physics,
managements, finance, computer science, IAS or what have you.
Acknowledgements are also due to the kind advice, help and
encouragement of my teachers there, Profs. V. Balakrishnan,
G. Rangarajan and the late Prof. S. Swaminathan. Prof. M. S. Ananth
who is now director of IIT Madras was also very encouraging of
my decision and was great to talk to.
I, of course, was not the only one to have taken this risky path; mighty
seniors like Ganapathy Murthy now at Kentucky, Uma Sankar at
IIT Bombay, Arun K. Gupta who went to Caltech, and some what
junior folks including Ramesh Abhiraman who went to Yale,
Anand Subburaman who went to Syracuse, Suresh Govindarajan
now at IIT Madras, Vasant Natarajan a colleague across in
Dept. of Physics at IISc also charted this course. It would be interesting
to know how they made their transitions.
The moral of this story is that if this worked for me, it will work
for anyone. In other words, today if we get students from perceived
weak backgrounds, and if they were to put themselves with some
assistance through such a grind, they would as well as any one who
today is a professional physicist. Such professional physicists, and
for that matter scientists and engineeres are the need of the hour
for the country. This formula will work also for those who will not
be able to go to the elite programs of the IISERs and the integrated
M. Sc. programs of Mysore University and University of Hyderabad.
Quote from Andre Weil
At lunch, we were, as always, talking about students
and problems in teaching courses and the perceived
lack of response and interest from students, etc..
This subject could easily be in the category of
the 'Zendejas brothers' (source unknown: heard it
only from the authoritative source Abi at lunch),
in other words, easily a winning candidate
for the bore of the year award. However, coincidentally
I ran into the following quote yesterday from Andre Weil
the famous mathematician in an article on the
Mathematics Curriculum,"The American student...suffers
under some severe handicaps,...Apart from his lack of
earlier training in mathematics...,he suffers chiefly
from his lack of training in the fundamental skills ---
reading, writing and speaking...". I hope to write
on the subject of overcoming this handicap (I should
know, I suppose (?!)) to find a career in physics.
Now I have to rush off to a seminar.
and problems in teaching courses and the perceived
lack of response and interest from students, etc..
This subject could easily be in the category of
the 'Zendejas brothers' (source unknown: heard it
only from the authoritative source Abi at lunch),
in other words, easily a winning candidate
for the bore of the year award. However, coincidentally
I ran into the following quote yesterday from Andre Weil
the famous mathematician in an article on the
Mathematics Curriculum,"The American student...suffers
under some severe handicaps,...Apart from his lack of
earlier training in mathematics...,he suffers chiefly
from his lack of training in the fundamental skills ---
reading, writing and speaking...". I hope to write
on the subject of overcoming this handicap (I should
know, I suppose (?!)) to find a career in physics.
Now I have to rush off to a seminar.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Requiem
On Blogbharti I found the link to this unspeakable horror.
The only requiem I want to offer the victims is silence.
The only requiem I want to offer the victims is silence.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Popular articles by yours truly
Due to popular demand (popular defined as one request
more than none), I am posting links to my articles aimed
at popularizing science through publications in
Resonance, Journal of Science Education and in
Current Science, which among other things is
something like a forum to discuss science policy
in the country.
The first attempt was a 2 part article co-authored with 3
summer students, J. Meeraa, Seema Sharma and Bharti Sharma,
and Ritesh K. Singh who at that time was a beginning
student in our department. This was on 'discrete symmetries'
in particle physics, which also explained in some length the
ideas of particle physics. The two parts are here and here.
The next was a report on the stunning results from
the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, which was published in
both Current Science and Resonance, authored with Ritesh.
Since they are identical, I link the article to the Current
Science version with certain minor errors pointed in this
erratum.
Then came an article on the 2002 Nobel Prize award to
neutrino pioneers Davis and Koshiba of which I am
sole author.
After a long break the enterprise was revived
in 2005 when a summer student Ekta Makhija wanted to
know what pentaquarks were all about. To answer this
question, I commissioned her, myself and K. Shivaraj to answer
the question. This very tough exercise led to 2 articles
in Resonance and Current Science on the subject.
Note that they are very different, and here is the
link for the Current Science article and
the Resonance article .
This year, along with 2 summer students Chitra Gautham
and Aquila Mavalankar, and Shivaraj and Alka Upadhyay
we started out to explain to the world at large what the
current status of some neutrino experiments were. We
later approached my friend S. Uma Sankar at IIT Bombay
to join us in this enterprise, which has led to a rather
impressive (even if I may say so myself) publication in
Current Science on the subject. The link is given
here.
I guess this does not really fit here, but anyway, I will
put it down. I gave a set of lectures
on Grand Unification at an international school in Kathmandu in 1997,
and it is featured at the reviews section on the Official
Superstring Theory Web-site right here.
more than none), I am posting links to my articles aimed
at popularizing science through publications in
Resonance, Journal of Science Education and in
Current Science, which among other things is
something like a forum to discuss science policy
in the country.
The first attempt was a 2 part article co-authored with 3
summer students, J. Meeraa, Seema Sharma and Bharti Sharma,
and Ritesh K. Singh who at that time was a beginning
student in our department. This was on 'discrete symmetries'
in particle physics, which also explained in some length the
ideas of particle physics. The two parts are here and here.
The next was a report on the stunning results from
the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, which was published in
both Current Science and Resonance, authored with Ritesh.
Since they are identical, I link the article to the Current
Science version with certain minor errors pointed in this
erratum.
Then came an article on the 2002 Nobel Prize award to
neutrino pioneers Davis and Koshiba of which I am
sole author.
After a long break the enterprise was revived
in 2005 when a summer student Ekta Makhija wanted to
know what pentaquarks were all about. To answer this
question, I commissioned her, myself and K. Shivaraj to answer
the question. This very tough exercise led to 2 articles
in Resonance and Current Science on the subject.
Note that they are very different, and here is the
link for the Current Science article and
the Resonance article .
This year, along with 2 summer students Chitra Gautham
and Aquila Mavalankar, and Shivaraj and Alka Upadhyay
we started out to explain to the world at large what the
current status of some neutrino experiments were. We
later approached my friend S. Uma Sankar at IIT Bombay
to join us in this enterprise, which has led to a rather
impressive (even if I may say so myself) publication in
Current Science on the subject. The link is given
here.
I guess this does not really fit here, but anyway, I will
put it down. I gave a set of lectures
on Grand Unification at an international school in Kathmandu in 1997,
and it is featured at the reviews section on the Official
Superstring Theory Web-site right here.
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