15 lessons of research I learnt

1. Honesty is the best policy. Respectful science comes from ethical research.



2. If you like something, you will spend your maximum time on it.

3.Never accept anything without questioning. Asking questions to yourself and others is the

foundation of research. Once you ask a question (trivial or otherwise), knowing the answer

should be your responsibility.

4.Action speaks more than words, and every action begins with a thought. Spending time

on focussed thinking is WORTH EVERY SECOND.



5.Writing : research :: water : earth. Next to IDEAS, COMMUNICATION is the most

important weapon for a scientist. Think clear, talk clear, write clear.



6. Stay organized. I realized that it makes your life easier, and in the long-run will lead to

greater productivity. It is always better to have a to-do list. Do not allow your ideas to

drift away from yourself, make a note of them.



7.Little drops of water make a mighty ocean. To begin with, all scientific projects seems to

be laaaaarge and time consuming. So, take things one at a time, work through it with

great attention and no haste. As Aesop said little by little does the trick.



8. Keep your mind open. This is easier said than done. Read across scientific disciplines.

Discuss with people from other scientific backgrounds. Explain concepts to yourself and

others.



9.Set sensible short term goals which are in phase with your long term goals. Dedicate

greater time for focussed work.



10.Go to the masters. If you need to understand some concept, study the related work from

the person who originally did it. You will get a clear picture.



11. Never stop studying books. Research is not just studying papers.

12. As a part of your research, do some work for your own amusement. Some great discoveries

have happened this way, and many people have made careers this way !



13.If somebody does not agree with your thought, know the logic behind the disagreement. If

it is sensible and scientific, accept and incorporate it. If not, make a note of it, and forget

it.

 14. Relying on intelligence alone to pull things off at the last minute may work for a while,

but, generally speaking, at research level, it does not. Most of the times, hard workers

OUT-THINK intelligent people, by their constant effort.



15. Rehearse, revise, re-think and REJOICE your work. These are building blocks of confidence.

Ponder

Every thought is born in a quest,

a delightful pursuit to understand;

every thought is a peaceful conquest,

guided by the reason’s command.

How I ponder day in and day out,

and try to unveil the nature ?

How I fight this elevated bout,

to construct a thoughtful future ?

Every quest is a clouded mist

where mind penetrates to scatter back;

a mighty thought is a Pascal of fist

entering the fight with a subtle attack.

A great sailing thought has its great equal:

and we adore this as the ‘ocean of labour’;

Latter is the process, former its sequel,

meeting each other at an intellectual harbour.

SKY

Eleven at night,

I look at the heavens;

glitter fills my sight

with angles and demons.

I ask a star,

what’s your kind ?

it twinkles beyond par,

asking me to find.

I sight the Betelgeuse,

the glowing red gaint;

it’s resting at peace

like an elevated saint.

I look out for Sirius,

the queen of white dwarfs;

her looks are mysterious

with electrons as her scarfs.

Now, I search the invisible,

I search the event horizon,

I fail to sight the incredible,

to realize Einstein’s reason.

Should I thank my eye,

for this spectacular show ?

or should I thank the sky

for her ever lasting glow ?

The Rain Dance

I view the water beyond a picket fence,

waiting for the lovely rain to commence;

grayish clouds slowly emerge,

bidding adieu for the sun to submerge.

The river I see is a silky flow,

her surface reflects a silver glow;

trickling rain drops begin the dance,

by writing a poetry on nature’s romance.

Every drop bounces on its back,

as an elliptic pearl with a transparent sac;

gravity pulls the bouncing drop,

to enter the river’s heart right from the top.

Until the clouds and silky river exist,

dance of the rain will continue to persist;

I am a mere spectator of this wonder called ‘rain’,

it awes me to view it time and again.

India vs Europe vs USA

My personal views on research in 3 countries/continents –

DISCLAIMER: the list is by no means a comprehensive one

India

Pros:

1) Open source learning, good interaction among students

2) Urge to perform, understand and good awareness

3) People with good theoretical understanding

4) Low cost methods to do high-end research – enriches creativity

Cons:

1) Time consuming, not highly focused

2) Lack of good education in experiments

3) Not many get opportunity to do research

4) Not many are interested in research – ‘software company: big buck’ attitude

Europe

Pros:

1) Desire to understand a problem in depth, significant time spent on a problem

2) Research in groups, sharing of knowledge and resources, big projects

3) Technically superior than US and India, especially in high end instrumentation

4) Emphasis on conferences and proceeding

Cons:

1) Sometimes lack of drive and urgency - 9 to 5 attitude

2) Multiple languages

3) Pro-European preferences in positions

4) Hierarchy, high taxes

USA

Pros:

1) Magnificent drive among students and Profs

2) Group meetings – task driven meeting, deadlines etc.

3) Result oriented – ‘come what may we need to do’ attitude, thrust on applications

4) Competition – ‘do it before someone does’ attitude, if you are good, you thrive…

Cons:

1) Money, money, money – it’s a rat race for funding

2) anti open source – capitalistic view point

3) Indian and Chinese students used as cheap labor

4) ‘Black box’ attitude towards instruments

Book

He opens a leaf in the book of his mind

to read the words with a new insight;

soothing colours strike and unbind

creating a thought of new delight.

Chapters begin in a new page

to enriches the content of thought,

it opens the doors of a minding sage

inviting knowledge to be sought.

Every word is poetry in itself

making the reader spellbound;

phone of harmony crawls to engulf

in the music of creative sound.

Lines begin in words,

words begin in letters;

flowing as water towards

the ocean of thoughtful jitters.

Every word has a meaning,

meaning which dives deep;

it rejuvenates in the morning

after a breathless mystic sleep.

Oh ! ‘light’

I seem to breathe a fresh breath of air,

as the ‘light’ enlightens my thought;

my thoughts are devoid of any despair,

as the ‘light’ rejuvenates my heart.

I feel the ‘light’ with glowing warmth,

the warmth brightening my candle mind;

it slowly melts my feeling froth,

to bring a thought of different kind.

Oh ! ‘light’ I see you even in darkness,

in the abyss of my neural sea;

I see you in the caring kindness,

unveiling my pigeon-mind free.

I am flying, flying high

to reach the ever-glowing ‘light’;

I see the invisible in your eye,

making every look a worthy sight.

Lady Gandhi

During my M.Sc., I had the pleasure of meeting a Burmese researcher in the Physics department of Bangalore University who was then working towards her Ph.D. Her name was Dr. Yee Yee Oo. Apart from being a fun loving person who researched with great dedication, she was also deeply worried about the current affairs of her country. When ever we used to have an informal discussion about non-scientific issues, she always talked about the struggle of people against military rule. She described how women had to take extra effort to pursue their careers, and how the support they obtained were minimal. But always she showed a positive attitude towards life, and she was deeply influenced and inspired by her country woman Aung San Suu Kyi. She loved India very much, and always told me that we are one of the most fortunate people on earth. I always thought this as an exaggeration, but now I realize that it is not.

Freedom is one of the most important aspects of human life. With freedom comes responsibility, and hence a way of thoughtful expression. If this expression of mind is subdued, then basic human instincts are perturbed, and may lead to ‘man made’ catastrophes. There are few countries around the world where common freedom, which is oblivious in most of the democratic countries, is under severe threat. One such country is Burma, which shares its border with India, and one person in that country who is leading a non-violent struggle against the military rule is Madam Aung San Suu Kyi. Her story of struggle is truly astonishing, and she continues to fight for democratic freedom against an all pervasive Burmese military. She remains separated from her children who presently stay in UK, and it was sad that the Burmese military did not even allow her to meet Michael Aris, her husband who died due to cancer in 1999. She remains under house arrest in Burma, and lately has been charged by the Burmese military which has extended her confinement. It is rare in history to come across a person like Aung San Suu Kyi, as she has sacrificed her personal life to uplift her people. Though she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent democratic movement in Burma, she has not received the complete support of the world, which is unfortunate. Her struggle continues even today, and it is indeed amazing how this lady is taking mammoth efforts to fight for peace and freedom. I salute her courage.

According to me, she is the Lady Gandhi of the present world, and has inspired many people including me to cherish and respect the freedom we enjoy. Now I quietly sit back and think how important it was for Dr. Yee Yee Oo, when she said freedom is priceless, but to obtain it we have to pay a large price….I hope Burma will attain peace and freedom.

Flowing pearl

Gleaming innocence whispers a call

to brighten its future on a benighted path;

those eyes speak with a furtive haul

unveiling the grief at the aftermath.

Sorrow turns into a flowing pearl

undulating towards the abstruse sea;

it seeks affection with a motherly curl

to reach the depth of lasting glee.

This journey is lonely in its nascence,

but shall not continue all the way;

it may outlast moments and perseverance,

but shall always yield to a creative play.

A thought on ‘the thought’

Albert Einstein mentioned somewhere that ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. I think communicating ones imagination effectively is as much important as the imagination itself. The job is only half done if either of the aforementioned is neglected. One of the most important thing which give rise to the birth of an idea is the ability to wonder. Wonder, according to some philosophers, is a logical outcome of ignorance, and it is purely up to an individual to construct a thought through ‘a wonder’ and further venture into it at various depths. This venturing again depends on interests, and interest further depends on how your thoughts have been influenced before. As you may observe, the process of wonder and thought is cyclic in nature. But thinking, according to me, is a non-linear process. Most of the times, thinking is like constructing a building with in your mind, where its bricks are piled from different sources within the mind itself. So if you are trying to understand something, it is never that you grasp a point without taking a round about path; and many a times, you realize the shortest path to an idea only after you have seen the complete evolution of an idea itself. Another important aspect is that the birth of a thought need not always arise from silent pondering, but also can emerge from an argument over an issue with an external source; here I presume the source to be a human being, a book, an image, or any of the information which can be detected via the five senses. Surprisingly, new ideas do evolve as and when we communicate a thought. When I say ‘communicate’, I mean, not only I put forth a thought to the outer world, but also I should be grasping an idea into my mind from an external resource, and this communication can be duplex, i.e., it can occur simultaneously. My personal experience is that every time when I communicate a thought, my understanding of it improves, no matter whether I have done this before or not. This also provides me an opportunity to get a feedback from the source with which I argue up on the same thought. So this brings me to the concept of ‘argument’. Now, imagine a world where every human being agreed with each other on everything. That would be a dull one, isn’t it? The essence of communication is to effectively exchange thoughts between two minds. When this exchange occurs, the thought might interfere either constructively or otherwise. The highest level of attainment in thinking is to agree to disagree. This is a mechanism where you grasp an idea, and when you realize that it destructively interferes with your pre-conceived notion on the same concept, then you create a different space in your mind, where you store the though of the external source. This, in a sense, is like enlarging your memory space on the computer hard disk, where you still maintain your old data, but you create new space for the new data, no matter whether you use the new data or not. Why should a mind agree to disagree ? This is like asking why a coin should have two faces. In most of the arguments which a mind involves itself, it comes across a new concept. At that moment, it immediately compares it with its own database, and if the new concept is in phase with the old one, it constructively interferes and ‘yields’ to make a belief stronger, where as, if it is out of phase, instead of destructively interfering, it takes in the thought and stores it. This storage is what we see as tolerance, control, resistance of mind etc., and is a more complicated process than yielding to a thought.

     In this blog, I have just tried to highlight the complications in understanding the process of thought. Countless philosophers are pondering about it, so it is worthwhile for us to give a thought on ‘the thought’….after all everybody is a philosopher in their own sense….

Satyameva Jayathe ?

Come 16^th May09, world’s largest democracy, hopefully, will have a new government. Although, the 5^th phase of the polling is due on Wednesday, the result of 15^th Lok Sabha election in India looks to be a chaotic mix of numbers. I regret that I lost a chance to vote this time, and I wish people away from India could vote remotely, which would have been a very satisfying thing. However, having keenly followed the campaigns and manifesto of all the parties via internet, it seems to me that no crook is better than the other. The social, political and economical issues of the nation are the fundamental basis on which the elections should have been fought, but seeing the way each party is pitted against the other, I feel that the rubber has never met the road. One of the really disgusting stances I came across while studying these parties’ manifestoes was that none of them have revealed their post-poll coalition strategies or alliances. I beg to ask the following question – are they taking Indian public for a toss? With what confidence do these parties seek trust and vote of the people whom they are willing to represent? Most debates or interviews I came across during this time never gave me a clear picture about the parties’ agenda to solve the current problems. None of them seems to be interested in discussing major issues which hampers the condition of laymen.

                One of the interesting comparisons I like to make is the hype around the prime ministerial candidate just like the American presidential candidature. If at all the Indian media is trying to play the capitalist game of their American counterpart, they don’t realize that there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. India is vast and has humongous variety, which makes it a special democracy; it’s better that media does not give too much emphasis to a single candidature, as coalition government is what seems to be a foreseeable, albeit undesirable result. Another interesting comparison between election campaign in India and USA is the emphasis thrust upon universities. Most of the US presidential debates were held in universities, where as in India we hardly saw any of the candidates visiting colleges, leave aside universities. It is high time that our Indian politicians realize that catering to the needs of youth will fetch them more votes, than providing liquor and notes to the already bribed artificial audience.

In retrospect, it is important to remember that it’s not the size of the dog in fight, but the size of the fight in dog which fetches the glory; and lets hope that the fight is for the right cause…let SATYAMEVA  JAYATHE !

humbled

Thrive, thrive and thrive;

humans vociferously resonate,

enslaved to conquer and survive,

their thoughts ignite to detonate.

They herald a belligerent tone

to unveil the encrypted nature;

operoseness fractures any stone

to construct a magnanimous future.

Their freedom is in flight,

a flight to reach infinity;

but they fail to reach despite

their enthralled capability.

They thrive again and fail,

but never give up the pursuit,

they wipe their tears and hail

to rejuvenate the dispute;

If only sapiens could fly,

their covetousness ceases to be bounded,

so nature humbles their supply,

to keep the humans grounded !