Mot Juste

While working on the media lab India initiative related efforts, I had a chance to have a one on one discussion with Dr. Govind Swarup today.  It was a magnificent experience to listen to such words of wisdom from a researcher like him  just before the commencement of my MIT life. Previously, I had been in touch with him regarding my capstone project, but unfortunately I did not work under his guidance since my interests were more inclined towards computer science than radio astronomy. However, it has always been an enlightening experience whenever he talked to us. I felt compelled to log in and write about his words from today’s discussion on my blog, so that I can come back to this text later and remind myself about what he said. I am sure others will also find his words useful. I have tried to reproduce the gyst of the discussion from what I remember.

“As you get ready for your studies at MIT, be aware of why you are going there, and also about what you are looking forward to do after that. Do not keep yourself restricted to work that you are doing. Go visit other labs around and ask your friends there, “Hey what are you working on?” Try and get a decent understanding of what others are working on even if they are working in totally different academic areas. Try developing a vision about where technology is heading and what society and even the country needs. Born in 1929 and currently 80 years old now, I still go back to NCRA and TIFR today to work on some of the top class problems. I am fortunate in the sense that I am still called for work at this age. I like to work because I am passionate about working on things that I can visualize, thereby making a greater impact on the technological scene here. I finished my PhD from Stanford in 3 years and 4 months. After that, I was a professor at Stanford. However, I returned to India in order to join TIFR. I had written to Bhabha and he called me saying ‘You can always join, you certainly have the caliber we require. It is not just about returning to your country; it is also more about grooming yourself as an individual who has a vision and passion to bring upon a change in the scene around. You can do this only when you have a very broad knowledge base and the attitude to look at it and think about it from a broader and bigger perspective. [He also talked about his associations with Dr. V. G . Bhide, Dr. Mashelkar and other Indian national figures and how all of them are trying to realize their vision through initiatives like a launch of IISERs]. Money is never going to be an issue. If you are good enough, it will come by as a byproduct of your work. In our days it was a different case, but your generation is lucky to be in a period of time when research is generously acknowledged and rewarded. So look at work from a holistic perspective than other trivialities like monetary gains and cushy job profiles. Wish you all the best.”’

There were many other important points he talked about during the otherwise random discussion, which I have not covered here. While I am not sure about where I will be working in 5 years and which profession I will be taking up, these words are certainly inspiring and an impetus for thinking on a grand scale. What I admired the most was his way of looking at careers with a bigger vision and wider impact rather than coming up with research outputs in specific research areas. Though he has already been credited for a lot of influential research results in radioastronomy and related areas, his hallmark has been the contribution he has made in bringing India on the global radio astronomy map – improving the country wide radio astronomy scenario and motivating people around him as well. He keeps on inspiring researchers from his labs, professors from the institute, industry leaders, and students to think on this line of thought.

Truly inspiring.

His profile from TIFR if you want to know more about him: http://www.ncra.tifr.res.in/gs/

Ok, It has been a long time (8 months!!!) since I posted anything here. And not that I have been busy, in fact I have been  enjoying the best vacation ever for the past 2 months and 2 more to go . There have been a few changes. Life has been good. I can sense a general feel good factor,  simultaneously also the awe of  ‘how can everything just go the way I wanted?’ (recall: Murphy’s law!)

I recently got the US visa and hence the so-called ‘pre-and-post-application process’ is  over. While reflecting back on the past 4 years spent in CoEP I have found a strange connection. And this post is going to be about that.

I was recently supposed to make a presentation’ about myself’ at the Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation’s Orientation Program. And we were told not to speak about things on our application for the scholarship or resume. So…what do you speak about when you are not allowed to speak about your achievements?…you speak about failures!

Yes! I made a 10-minute long presentation about my failures- and it was a nice experience. We never really get a chance to speak about our failures. I was totally excited at the prospect of being able to do that, especially because my life has been full of failures I did n’t even rehearse…I had so much material to talk about I talked about ” connecting dots”

Connecting Dots:

“You have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,” says Jobs. “You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”[Steve Jobs:Stanford Commencement Ceremony 2005]

Jobs believes that everything happens for a reason and although that reason may be hard to see at the time, sometimes you need to just sit back and have faith that things will work out in the end. Trusting your own decisions is often one of the most difficult but necessary and rewarding experiences.

So getting back to the point- I introspected and found that most of the things that happened while I was in CoEP were because of being the right person at the right time at the right place. Moreover, there is a strange connection of dots in the things that happened.

Going back to std 10th- I failed to clear the STS round for the NTS- while all the friends around, who were almost equally capable, got through- I was the only one left out. It then just started accumulating- like a pile. I wrote the Maths Olympiad exams and could n’t make it to the highest levels.  I spent 2 long years working hard for JEE and then again failed to clear the Mains  Chemistry cut off by 2 marks.  Then came KVPY- my project and research proposal- both were summarily rejected. Something was wrong. Everything I tried doing turned out to be a  failure.

July 25th- 2005- I entered CoEP. While I was struggling to get familiar with the new peer group around (32 out of 70 of my classmates were Board toppers from their respective regions-and obviously I was not!) there were people around who kept harping on the point that I am making a huge mistake by not repeating JEE. I don’t know why but I never really gave a second thought to my CoEP admission.  And it so turns out that it was perhaps the best  decision I ever made.

Initially it was still the same old story at the beginning of my BTech. Up to second year, life was normal.

Then -something-happened.

I had learnt discrete math and fermat’s thm during my preps for maths olympiad (a place I had already failed at). I had attended a lecture on Cryptography at IUCAA on a  science day (the day on which our team miserably lost a school quiz comptn- another failure ). And I had gone through the De Moivre’s identity proof during my preps for JEE (JEE=another failure).

Strangely, all these 3 things combined together- led to a serendipitous algorithm design. Sometime in my Second year, I was doodling on my desk- and suddenly an idea clicked- to generalize Diffie Hellman using functional equations- and using De Moivre to form a key generation protocol. Tada! The tide turned.

Fortunately, my Dept Chair took the idea seriously and told me to convert into a paper-and then rest of the things just followed.

Thinking about it now- had I not had those utter failures- INMO, JEE and the IUCAA quiz – this serendipitous change would have never come my way.

There is some learning involved in every single failure. Only failures, accumulated together can some day, bring upon a change. Not that it has changed the equations upside down. I still am a pretty normal guy, but at least  now I am content that life has been going the way I always wanted. I am totally happy about it

“Everything happens for a reason and although that reason may be hard to see at the time, sometimes you need to just sit back and have faith that things will work out in the end. Trusting your own decisions is often one of the most difficult but necessary and rewarding experiences.”……….so true.

Prof. Nitin Narappanawar has been one of my mentors in my undergraduate life. I am pasting the mail that I wrote to him on the teacher’s day. These are the excerpts of what I feel about my guide, and friend philosopher.

[Prof. Nitin Narappanawar is Professor in Electrical Engineering, at the Dept of AESD,

International Institute of Information Technology (I Square IT), and has formerly taught me Engineering Math courses.]

Respected sir,

My greetings to you on teacher’s day. Unfortunately I am in IITB today and hence cannot come over to meet you so thought of mailing you. I do not want to let this sound as flattery but i feel it is important to let you know some of my thoughts. You have been my guide not only in academic curruclum but also in my personal life and in career plans. I think, the time spent in interesting and random discussions near the doorstep of the class on all possible topics (which is our usual practice ) was as important as the hours spent in learning M1, M2 M3 inside the class. I remember the rambling discussions you me and Neeraj used to have during the class. All those discussions have created an influence somewhere and somehow in my line of thought. I think having you around for guidance always made a difference. For example, people around are now realizing why crossing ‘9′  in CGPA is important. But they cannot work it out now as the GPAs have become far too heavier to change – something about which you warned me long ago and made me strive for 9+.

Most of my friends have told me that one often feels surprised to look at scribblings of own after a year or so, and amazed to see how eloquently [?] one has jotted down the thoughts with convincing examples, with the finesse of a seasoned writer. I was going through my Issues written during the days of GRE preparation and found this one which I had mailed Kapeesh for a feedback.Having a look at it after a year or so, it makes me doubt how I ever wrote such a cogent piece [Unfortunately my brain seems to have been programmed to interchangeably use peace and piece, and type the as 'teh'. I have given up trying for improvement on that front. ].Here it is, might help for those who are preparing for the AWA.

(I have pasted it here along with the typos I made in the initial draft )

After  dallying for long, I have finally updated my googlepage docket and have officially uploaded my resume on

http://rohit.pandharkar.googlepages.com/

“I am responsible. Although I may not be able to prevent the worst from happening, I am responsible for my attitude toward the inevitable misfortunes that darken life. Bad things do happen; how I respond to them defines my character and the quality of my life. I can choose to sit in perpetual sadness, immobilized by the gravity of my loss, or I can choose to rise from the pain and treasure the most precious gift I have – life itself.”

- Walter Anderson

While browsing through the May 2008 version of IEEE Spectrum, I came across this line” The UK Banks have made it mandatory for the customers who have been victims of Phishing to have had personal firewall and latest antivirus to be installed at the time of receipt of the phishing mail.”

The line indeed immediately creates a lot of questions in mind, as is it from the perspective of a service provider, a right move, to distrust all the customers seeking redressals for their phished banking accounts, and have them installed the latest security softwares as a preventive measure. While use of personal firewalls for safety is a different issue in its own, I would like to probe into the issue of refusing the liability to customers on part of the banks by showing a total lack of trust on n the cuistomers.I would rather prefer the banks to have a segregated treatment policy, which honors the esteemed customers who have had a respectable bank account history in terms of monetary magnitude as well as fidelity exhibited while repaying the loans. I certainly don’t not approve of this “at large” distrust policy showing distrust in ‘all’ the ciustomers and indicating that the bank is not at all ready to amortize for those who are in a way are affiliated to phishers “by not installing a personal firewall” (sic).  

Some times, pretending to be dumb, and praising others can help us. Period.

Finally, I have got the offical link to the Indian Express article that was published on Sept 18th.

And that was by no way other than simply: GOOGLING OUT Rohit Pandharkar.

All hail Google.

Google is the super-coolest search engine that can ever exist

Here it goes for the record:

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Engineering-his-future/218006/

“Once upon a while, Eavesdropper decided he is going to change into a totally different person.”- Rachel Schafer.

One may wonder, what the above sentence signifies. To drop a hint, let me say “Eavesdropper is the E in cryptography.”.