Algebraic Groups

Some Tips to Travel in Mysore

2010-06-14T19:17:00.003+05:30

Yesterday a couple of us went for a day trip to Mysore. Here are some points which I want to share:

1. There are both AC and NonAC city buses from the city bus stand (at KR circle) to Chamundi Hill. These buses take you on the top and one can take the bus back as well. They are quite frequent.

2. Again from the city bus stand there are buses (no. 313 and 316) going to Srirangpattana and this takes you to all of the tourist places of Srirangpattana such as the famous temple of Sri rangnathasawamy, Tipu's palace, main bus stand, Dariya Daulta etc.

3. The city bus stand in Mysore is at one of the corners of the Mysore Palace (quite conveniently). It is not same as the main bus stand from where you get inter-city buses but is well connected by the city buses.

4. You can get a day pass (best to buy the AC one) and travel in any of the buses (even non AC one also). Currently it costs Rs. 50/- for a day.

Trek to Torana - Article written for KALPAA magazine

2010-05-24T09:33:00.001+05:30

Trek to Torana (July 2009):

The month of July is heavenly time for trekkers in the ghats and hills near Pune. It's one of the most luxurious things to do while living in Pune, you can pack your bag any time and go for a nice outing. The whole area is lush green once it starts raining and also temperature drops down. The numerous waterfalls add to the glorious adventures.

In one of the weekend 5-6 of us from IISER (me, Madhur, Akshaa, Rahul and couple of others; one of them to whom we named Rani Laxmibai because she always use to walk ahead at the front) decided to go for a trek at the Torana fort. This is one of the forts of great Maratha warrior Shivaji Maharaj. We started early morning at 5 AM and reached Swargate bus stand by 7AM. The bus to Velhe (the base village of Torna Fort) was at 7:30. We had breakfast in the Canteen at the bus stand. We had Poha, Misal and Idali for the breakfast, what a way to start our trip and hot tea. It was cloudy in the Pune but wasn't raining.

The bus took Satara highway and turned at Narsapur for the Velhe. Once we turned away from the highway the greenery all around us, pool of waters, small waterfalls and the fields being readied for sowing Maze...gosh! it was spellbinding and mesmerizing. Once we reached Velhe village we had another round of tea before starting our climb. It was cloudy and raining.

We crossed a small river (made up of rain water). Most of us went mad and we had a sole aim to go in the water and under one of the numerous waterfalls. However in spite of these distractions we started climbing. By now it started raining heavily. We wanted to take a different route instead of taking the usual route and in turn making our life a little more complicated. Due to rain it was more slippery and we realised that the following traditional route is the best way. After a flat climb for about 2 hours the route became steep. Thankfully on those part they had put iron rods to hold and made stairs. We reached on the top by 2 PM among heavy rain, though target was 12:30, thanks to the distractions due to numerous waterfalls on the way. We carried food for ourselves: Bread, Butter, Cake, some fruits and chocolates. Over many trips we have realised Chocolates and Choco are the best mood changers when you get tired. There is a temple on the top of the fort where we took shelter and had our lunch. Of course we were drenched and soaked in water and heavy wind made us feel shiver and cold. There were few huts of the local villagers where they sell traditional food and tea. We needed hot tea before we started climbing down.

We came down by 5 PM to the base village Velhe and after another round of refreshments we took bus back to Pune. It was one of the most memorable and adventurous trip (because of slippery ground) but a great satisfaction to see flora and fauna of the region.

Looking forward to many more trips and also participation from larger group of people.....

Kalpa - Reckong Peo

2009-05-19T12:09:00.002+05:30

I, alongwith my wife, went to a small trip to Himalayas. This time our destination was Kalpa south-east corner of Himanchal Pradesh. It is about 260 Km from Shimla, the capitol of HP. Major attraction to visit Kalpa (3000 mts) was the overwhelming view of Kailash Parbat (>6000 mts).

We started off from Delhi on 7th May by Volvo bus of HRTC. One can book tickets for this online. See the web page of HRTC. We spend a couple of days in Shimla. First day we booked a car to go to Kufri and Fagu. It is a fantastic place. Next day we spend in Shimla. We went to The Ridge and The Mall. Visited Church and climbed all the way way up to Jakhu temple. The touts in Shimla spoil your mood all the time.

We took overnight bus from Shimla to Reckong Peo on 9th evening at 8PM. It was an ordinary HRTC bus which arrives at 5Am at Peo. The tickets for the buses starting from Shimla can be booked in advance. You can also see the schedule of buses between different places on the web site of HRTC. Though we made a mistake and when we booked the ticket at 6Pm about 2 hours in advance we got last row of the bus.

The journey was quite bumpy, the roads after Rampur is not good at all. Most of the time we were air-born. Though still I manage to sleep in middle of all this....amazing.....

Once we arrived in Peo we took a cab to Kalpa, uphill which costed Rs. 150/-. In day time from 7Am till 6PM there are regular maxicabs (12sitter small buses) plying between Kalpa and Peo (main market place not the bus stand) for Rs. 10/-. Upon arrival in Kalpa we were tired and decided to spend a day resting. We roamed around in the Kalpa village only. Needless to say that sitting just outside your hotel room itself gives you a full view of the Kailsh Hill and Shivling (a 79feet high vertical stone on the top of hill). The next day we hired a guide and decided to go on top of the hill where Kalpa is. Our guide told that there is a lake on the top of the hill and we can target that. The previous day it has rained so we will have plenty of snow on our hill as well. One of the aim to go to Himalaya is to at least touch the snow. Shimla, in recent time, doen't get any snowfall. Needless to say that once we climb uphill we will get much better view of the Kailsh Hill and other adjacent hills.

Now Kalpa is already close to 3000 mt and climbing further was going to take a lot of effort. We went up to where we were walking in snow, breath-taking views of Kailesh range hills, where trees end. But it was getting difficult for us to go further beyond and we were already tired. We decided to take rest there and head back to our village.

Next day we went to Kothi (downhill 3 kms from Peo) where they have temple of Durga and then went to Peo market. We came back to Kalpa in the afternoon and took a walk along the main road, in the Apple Orchard. It was an unforgettable trip........

Next day we were to head back to Delhi a long (10+10 hours) bus journey. We had fortunately bus to Shimla from Kalpa at 6:30AM which arrives in Shimla by 5PM. We had a lot of time to kill before we get 10Pm Volvo to Delhi. Good in some sense, it gives us some times to catch up with dinner and fresh Himalayan air for the last time. On the way back to Shimla from Kalpa there is dam construction work going on at Karcham. That was the reson why roads have gone bad because a lot of trucks were plying on that road. I have determined to go back to Kalpa and this time go further beyond up to Kaza. One wish which I have not been able to fulfill so far in all my trips to Himalaya is to see an Himalayan Lake......Last time when we went to Keylong we planned to go to see Chandrtal lake but could reach only up to Batal as the roads were not open and we were not equipped with enough sleeping facilities.

Moskova

2007-12-29T10:34:00.000+05:30

Last week (16-23 December 2007) I was in Moscow. I went there to attend a conference in the Independent University of Moscow.

Let me begin form beginning. When I wrote to organizers that I am interested in attending the conference little I know that it's going to be a bit of circus. From day one I got emails saying that they are not going to be able to arrange academic VISA and we will have to travel with Tourist VISA. There is nothing strange in it as it happens quite often for many other countries when you are traveling for short period. But the strange phenomena was that we had to get invitation letter form a travel agency and an approval form a hotel about our whole "tour". I mean we were told that we should never mention that we are going for academic purpose. Well, later I came to know that for the organizers this whole thing was big headache and now I sympathize with them.

At the end I had not too much of difficulty in getting VISA once all the papers were in order. The consulate wanted me to produce the original of the "tourist voucher" which, of course, took some time to arrive form Moscow.

Finally I set off on 16th morning by Aeroflot to Moscow. It took about 6 hours form Delhi to reach Moscow. Since the time difference is just 2 and half an hour I did not feel much of jet-lag. In fact I felt uneasiness because I had to be awake throughout last night as the flight was early morning at 5 am. We finally descended on Moscow airport and I found that somebody is waiting for me at the airport to receive me. I thanked them as I did not know a single word of Russian and would have been an impossible task me to wander around myself on the day one.

All the time weather was gloomy with little sunshine in Moscow and temperature was something between -2 to 2, very unusual for people in Moscow. The locals were complaining a lot since its Christmas time and usually they have temperature between -10 to -6. They have sports based on snow like ice skating etc and now they don't know what to do in the vacation. You see, the effect of global warming could change the culture for ever.

The most thrilling part of my visit to Moscow, apart form the conference, was face to face with Lenin. The man who revolutionize the way we think or the way we live, he who changed the history, for better or for worse. Body of Lenin is still kept in a small building (for nearly 70 years now) near Red Square which anyone can visit. We had to bribe the policemen for it as we were late and there was a big queue. It's open for public in the morning 10 to 1 and we reached there about 12:30. We could jump ahead of the queue for 100 rubles each. I must say that the body is kept in very well condition. You could see the face of the man, that beard and his forehead and nod approvingly for the flash of history.

The Red Square and Kremlin are the central part of Moscow. One can roam around that place and spend a lot of money. I mean going to visit any museum or Kremlin costs 300 rubles (roughly 6 euros) each time for each person. I guess it's quite costly.
What strikes one in Moscow is it's big wide roads and identical buildings. Somebody said that the wide roads were made to stop people form protesting as it's difficult for public to close the road and easier for the authorities to reach there. No wonder it was a Soviet way...There's a newly built church near Kaptorinsky square. It's beautiful and huge with a dome of 50 kg gold. In the 18th century they had a church on the same place but soviets destroyed it and made a swimming pool on it. After soviet fell in 90's they rebuild the church again. The whole center area of Moscow is full of 18th and 19th century houses and at every step you witness history.

Moscow is really a beautiful and organized city. Whatever you say, there was something good about communists. You wonder whether it would have been possible to have wide roads, less pollution, the huge architectural buildings of Moscow State University (and similar ones total 8 of them), well organized Metro etc. How many cities are there in this world which are so well organized. I wonder....

Now it's time to tell few bad incidents which happened with people around me.

1. One of the Professor form US was roaming around in the Red Square area on one of the evenings. Suddenly a policeman came and asked for the Passport. This gentleman wasn't carrying Passport. So he offered the policeman to come with him to his hotel which was at 15 minutes walking distance. But the policeman refused and told him that he will have to go to the police station for inquiry. On insistence the policeman offered another way out "3000 rubles neither you report nor me". After a bit of bargaining they settled for 2000 rubles.

2. Me and one of my friends were walking around in Arbat Street. We ran out of the local cash so we wanted to get exchanged our euros/dollars. There are a lot of exchange places on that street. By this time we were confident and comfortable in Moscow. We go to one of the places and gave our currencies for the change. The Lady on the counter got the change and counted in front of us. We happily pocketed the change and left. After a couple of hours, when we went for dinner we realized that we were running out of cash. We started counting and found out that both of us were tricked and were given 1000 rubles less, each of us. Well, what can we do.....

3. This was an incident of pick pocket in the Metro. One of the gentleman attending the conference had pick pocket in Metro and lost quite a bit of money and passport.

Well! apart form these few incidents we did not face any problem. In fact, we found that most of the people were quite helpful. Finally I got back to India after a week with mostly pleasant memories.

Coonoor-Queen of Hills

2007-10-01T16:17:00.000+05:30

Coonoor-Queen of Hills

Last weekend some of us, myself, Nick and Kate, decided to spend weekends in Coonoor/Ooty. We left Chennai on Thursday night by Nilgiri Express. Due to a little error I had booked tickets up to Coimbatore only. Actually one can take this train
all the way up to Mettupalayam. Anyway, we reached Coimbatore in the morning at
5. We took bus to Coonoor, three hour journey through Nilgiri hills, all the way up in the hills. We were positively looking forward to this trip and a quiet weekend away from the heat of Chennai. We parked ourselves in the hotel Vivek's Tourist Home, in the upper Cooonoor. We had breakfast and set ourself on a little trip. It was clear to us that we are not interested in merely sight-seeing, you know, traveling in bus trips all the day long and spending few minutes actually on the spot. On my suggestion we decided to go to Lam's rock walking. It's breathtaking and scenic walk through beautiful Nilgiris. To start with we first went to the Sim's park actually a botanical garden in Coonoor. Then we walked to Lam's rock, 7 km. All the way you come across huge trees and tea-plantation.

We spent some time there and watched the beautiful valley while sun was playing hide and seek. It was a bit of misty weather with a little shower in between. Then we thought of walking to Dolphin's nose and take the city bus back in the evening 5:30 (last bus is at 7). We walked up to a village and felt tired to walk further 5 km to the Dolphin's nose. We were about to ditch our plan and we got a jeep going to that place. Immediately we jumped in to it. We spent about half an hour there on the Dolphin's nose, enjoyed the scenery around which overlooks the Catherine waterfall. Now we had to catch the bus which one gets a bit up hill. The bus doesn't come all the way there. We started to run back, cutting across Tea-Gardens, all the way up hill. As soon as we arrived at the bus stand a passing by car offered us lift. We thanked them and gladly accepted the offer. After few minutes we saw the bus going to that place.

Next day, on Saturday we decided to go to Ooty and take a trip in the forest of Nilgiri. The most ironic thing is that if you mention the word Trekking, people give you nasty looks, as if they have never heard of the word. The Nilgiri hills are amazing place for trekking, hiking and even walks in forest and country side. But the travelers and visitors to Ooty and Coonoor, specially Indian visitors are quite infamous. They all belong to "honey-moon class" who just go for sight-seeing trips, leave a lot of litters around and do a bit of shouting and screaming. But don't be discouraged. In Ooty we contacted a guide, named Mike through lonely planet guide, and he let us see what is Ooty all about. Since we reached Ooty by noon time only, arriving there by the train, Nilgiri Passenger, starting form Coonoor at 10:30, we had only half day left to do a bit of walking in the country side and add to it the rain in the afternoon. What we saw in the afternoon was breathtaking beauty of Nilgiri forests not very far from Ooty, right there in the backyard, the hills overlooking the town. We visited a couple of lakes in the forest and were completely thrilled with the promises of Mike of a forest trip, camping and hiking in the deep forest. But that has to be at some other time as the rainy season and bad weather is not good for doing those stuff. By night we were back in Coonoor by bus which are in a planety from Ooty, every 15 minutes till 11 in the night.

On the third day, last day of our trip, we decided to go hiking on one of the nearest hills. Of course we hardly got any encouraging support from locals. We just decided that we will go on the top of one of the hills which is beside Sims' park. There seem to be half way a village and tea plantations. It took about one and half an hour to climb on that hill. There was a temple on the top of the hill. Along our climb we met many locals and inquired about how to reach on the top. On top we had a wonderful view of Coonoor. We were among clouds which were passing from one side of hill to the other side. It was just a awesome scene and the whole thing just so picturesque.

In the evening we took a bus back to Metuppalayam and caught or train back to the dusty, polluted, stinking city Chennai.

Here you can see the photographs of our trip.

Random Thoughts - positive

2007-06-12T14:15:00.000+05:30

it is the day, for which I have waited for so long, my moment of glory, my part of the share. it takes a hell lot of preparation, i won't let it slip. I am going to be prepared... put in extra hours everyday. yep feeling good. you know it by instinct when you are well prepared... when things co-ordinate well... you move swiftly and all part of your body co-ordinate as if they are just going to multiply not just add, you know! The rhythm. So finally the day has come. I have to analyze it, the strong points and the weak points of myself and the opponent also. After all it's so integral part of the life, specially when it comes to the TOP. you are equally better or rather equally worse but anything extra might give you an edge. you know your opponent has put in same amount of effort, only thing is that you want to make sure that you are not behind. I just pray to God that my brain should be working. That is the only thing which helps in crisis. You know! this is the first thing which switches off when you require it the most.

I double-checked my preparation, i don't want to leave a single stone unturned. We are good friends. We chat everyday and talk about our preparations. We observe things and tell each other. We are competitive but not cheat. For last few days I have been observing him and making mental note about his weaknesses and strong points. I guess, he was doing the same. It's all fare in a Game. You challenge it openly, after all it's not just physical thing. It's all there in your mind. I wasn't able to decide about my strategy. His weak points were really risky for me. To attack or to defend. We both are aggressive but the thing is that I don't have to over do it. It's the question who breaks first. Finally i decided in favor of defense with aggression which keeps your brain working. That's what I need in the beginning. Once it gets going it becomes much easier to settle down in a kind of, rhythm.

Well things never go according to plan. I was becoming too defensive. We came at a point where we both halted. I knew whoever comes out first will win the race. I knew it was test of my character. But thank God! my brain was working. I cut it short and I knew things are going to be in my favor. It was very satisfying. These are those moments for which you live.

Plenty of job opportunities in Mathematics

2007-06-12T13:41:00.000+05:30

Plenty of job opportunities in Mathematics:

Just now I finished my PhD in Mathematics and it's natural to be worried about job opportunities. Specially in India where still research is considered to be very low profile profession and largely people end up in teaching. Though I have come across some of the best students coming to this profession and, well, question largely remains how many of them continue in India. In recent times Government of India, particularly, Department of Atomic Energy, has become wise and decided to start many new research institutes and educational institutes.

I am mostly concerned here with my interest of getting jobs right now and in coming 5-7 years. I presume cv with PhD in Maths (with a bias towards pure Mathematics (nonsense!)) with some research creditability and a couple of years of post-doc experience.

Research Institutes in India:

1. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
2. Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
3. Harish-Chandra research Institute, Allahabad
4. Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore
5. Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai
6. Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore.
7. Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
8. Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi

Teaching and Research Institutes

1. Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Mumbai
2. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
3. Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai
4. Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
5. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
6. Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata
7. JawaharLal Nehru University, Delhi
8. National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswaer
9. Bombay University
10. Central University Hyderabad

Mumbai Locals

2007-03-17T11:25:00.000+05:30

Mumbai Locals -- race against time

Yes! it's Mumbai local trains, the life-line of this city. You could literally feel it and visibly see it when you are around there at peek hours. Of course, Mumbai would stop breathing without it. Here I am going to put one or two escapade I had with local trains. It's a love-and-hate story. Pointless to tell that if you really want to ever experience infinity please get in one of the locals at it's peek hours.

I live at the wrong (thankfully it's right end, south Mumbai) end of the city and hence most of the time I travel in the opposite direction to the mainland crowd. Once I went to IIT Mumbai (north of the city) to attend a lecture and was returning back in the evening. I got in one of the locals at Kanjurmarg and was peacefully sitting with both legs stretched out (a rare phenomena). After a long day I was tired and took a nap. I started dreaming. I saw people shouting, running all over, in fact many of them were flying over others. It was a scene from "star wars" where traffic is in 3- dimension. Oops...somebody just whistle-passed over my head. Suddenly I felt a push and woke up and what I see that it wasn't a dream. It's reality and a lot of people are confused and looking at me with questioning glances. I suddenly realised that I have reached VT station (the last stop where I had to get down). And it was the big crowd who was fighting to get in the train who were making this noise and were trying to run over each other. I got up and walked out. Almost immediately train started moving.

The second time I was to go to Nasik to one of my relatives place. I had reservation from VT and was to take the train at 4:30 pm. I started from my place about 3:30 and reached VT by 4. I thought I will have a coffee and then I will get in the train as I already had a reservation. Suddenly I hear an announcement saying that some trains which usually start form VT will be starting from Dadar for next few days. I immediately ran to the inquiry counter where there was already a big crowd howling. I saw the list of the trains which were cut to start from Dadar. It included my train also. What should I do? I had hardly 20 minutes time. I ran to local ticket counter where there was a big queue. I got in the queue and got the ticket to Dadar. I reached the local platform and got in the train. Very soon the train started and also I came to know that it was a fast local. I was quite happy that I will reach in time. Now the Dadar stop coes. I see a big crowd waiting outside on the platform. I was ready to jump out but as soon as the train stoped the crowd from outside started pushing in. Since there were hardly people to get out I had no support to push out and get out. Finally I couldn't get out. Now it was fast local it wouldn't stop before several stations. It struck to me that I can go to Kurla and catch the train from there. I could get out at Kurla station. The main line station is a bit far there and one has to take an autorickshaw. I reach the main line station and found out that the train doesn't stop there at all. Now I was in soup. I get back to local station and thought that I will chase up to some next stop, may be up to Thane. The next local which came for that direction was so crowded that I couldn't get in. I guess it was problem that I was carrying a bag also else normally I can manage things. What can I do? I took local back to Dadar and decided to check if the train is late only then I can get it. But it has gone in time. I called my relatives and told the story and apologised that I am not coming there. I got back to my house, a bit frustrated. Still I don't know to whom to blame for all this. What would have happened to those people who were not from Mumbai and were suppose to take the train?

Air-Deccan (beware of pick-pockets)

2007-03-14T21:49:00.000+05:30

Air-Deccan -- beware of pick-pockets

In recent times the aviation industry has seen a flood of new air-lines. By God! no doubt they are very competitive and offer no-frill tickets. The consumer is having good time and what not....even an ordinary middle class man can fly, not just dream about it.

Recently I flew by Air-Deccan twice and had a loads of experiences. This is not to say that other competing airlines are better.

I had booked ticket from Kolkata to Mumbai by Air-Deccan and was flying on 12th March 2007 at 7:30 pm. I reached airport at 6:15 pm only and happily got security check done of my baggages and proceeded to the air-deccan counter. I produced my print-out ticket to the person on counter for check-in. After a minute of showing his finger-speed-on-keyboard bang came the reply," Sir, your name is not there in our database". I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. I had always heard of stories like they cancel flights without notice etc. but never heard of this kind of story. I meekly asked,"then what should I do?" He pointed me towards Air-Deccan office and asked me to go there. I went to the office. As soon as I enter in the office I see there are two people arguing with each other at full volume in bengali (no prizes for guessing the volume??). One of them was Air-Deccan executive and other a costumer. Since I understand Bengali soon I guessed what was going on. The costumer in question has similar case as mine. After 5 minutes when there argument got over the executive asked me what is my problem. There were 7-10 people, all costumers, who were all in similar situation and witnessing that heavy argument. The reason given by the executive was that recently they had upgrading of there computers and hence they suffered some data loss.

Anyway he consoled us and told that he is going to try to accommodate us in Jet-Airways. In no time another person appeared on scene. He has completely differnt problem. He was to go by 7:30pm flight to Chennai. But the flight left at 3:15pm only. Now what he should do. The executive told that they send an SMS to everyone about rescheduling of the flight and it's not there fault if he did not get the message.

Well after a little bit of nervous moments finally he could pull out our case. Jet-airways 8:25 flight has 36 vacant seats and they accommodated us.

This is really wearied thing. In the competition of low-cost they have started over-booking. That's what is my guess. It was no case of data loss or anything. It's really non-sense because when we book tickets we pay full money in advance. Hence we should be booked a seat immediately. After this incident I have decided never to fly by air-deccan.

Another time when I was flying by air-deccan before the above incident, that was my first time by air-deccan, I saw a big queue and people fighting with each other to get in first. Apparently Air-deccan provides free seating arrangement, i.e., you can sit anywhere you wish. There is no seat number allotted with boarding pass. This is utter ridiculous and nonsense as it doesn't save anything. They allot a number to each ticket anyway which could be seat number very well. That's when I thought soon there will be a notice inside aircraft saying "beware of pick-pockets".

I want to go back to school...........

2006-12-01T17:08:00.000+05:30

I want to go back to school...........

On 28th Nov. 2006 the Children's Academy was holding Science Exhibition by school kids.
There were two categories junior category where kids upto class VII participated and the senior category where kids from class VIII to XII were involved.
Me and one of my colleague G.K. Padmashree from Physics Department were invited to be on the panel of judges for respective categories.

The Children's Academy is in Kandavali east and we had to start quite early in the morning at 7:30 to be there in time, i.e., 9 am. That's quite early by our standard. We had one and half an hour journey. Fortunately we were arranged AC equipped car and it was quite comfortable. We were there in time. After getting introduced to teachers and principal of the school we were given breakfast. I must say that I became quite nostalgic after seeing so many kids. In last several years I have hardly been to any school. Though on many occasions I have interacted with kids but it was for the first time in my long memory that I was there in a school among kids who were shouting, running here and there, teachers telling them to mind their manners, uniforms and above all that enthusiasm... oh! I love it. It's then and there I thought that I should go back to school!!

Well ! after a round of introduction with other guests we came to the business. We were provided sheets and were suppose to go around and look at projects of each kid and interact with them and give marks. There were about 60 projects I had to see with another two judges who were much elder and more experienced than me. My other two companion judges were senior teachers from other schools. Let me describe a bit of the location where we were. Children's Academy is a five story building. And in almost all rooms there were exhibition displayed by kids. It was open for anyone to visit. We were specially invited to choose best projects who will be given prizes and best two of them will be send to Mumbai level and in turn at state level competition.

I had a lot of enthusiasm in me in the beginning. Most of the kids were quite smart and it was real fun talking to them and asking questions. But of course, there wasn't enough time and besides my over enthusiasm might turn some of them nervous, I had to be careful. Some of the best moments I can recall were as follows. There were two kids who had idea about handling excess water on the tracks of Mumbai Local Trains. Their idea was to raise the track by a foot and put pipes all over to get the water some where else which one can use in turn after purification. It was really nicely done project and the model was very well made. On other occasion somebody wanted to reduce pollution near four-sided-ways (chauraha) by digging small holes on the roads and putting a fan under ground to suck pollution in. Really a nice idea.....
There were a lot of people worried about farmers committing suicide. It wasn't a really nice feeling to hear repeatedly that so many farmers commit suicide. They had a really some beautiful ideas about how to use a particular crop to make various things and earn more money.
I must accept that I had really tough time as I do not understand Marathi very well and there were a lot of kids who were speaking marathi. Though they understand hindi and I could ask questions to them in hindi and of course I could read there posters. On one similar occasion when they finished there presentation I turned to ask some question. Bang came the reply "bataya to tha abhi na!" it was my turn to be embarrassed.

One should appreciate the enthusiasm of teachers and children. Though it looks to me that most of the projects are made by teachers and ultimately it turns out that it is a test of skill of teachers. This should not happen. I do not know how this can be discouraged. Now it has become a prestige issue for the schools to get prizes in such exhibition. I hope that children will be allowed to think on there own, come up with really some brilliant ideas which in turn will be great for our country. Many times one could see that children have mug up the speech. But of course, at such an early stage one can not expect too much form children. The participation of teachers is must. I am only worried about the issue whether it really benefits kids in mass.

This year there was a new topic introduced on Mathematical Modelling. I was really curious to know what all are there. It was really disappointing to see very smallnumber of entries where there were some models to explain geometry such as circle and angles etc. Well! I myself can not say exactly what I expected but it is really a big issue. Later several teachers asked me what can one do on this topic. Though I wasn't prepared for such a question but I manage to tell them a few things which are quite deep surprising facts. I posed this problem to my colleagues here at my work place but they were also dumb-founded. I believe it is really big issue and one should take some step to help out. It is really a chance for us to spread mathematics everywhere and make it popular. I hope I will do something in this direction.

At the end we finished off by 6 pm and came back to TIFR. On the way we stopped by for dinner. In all it was really a great day.

Random Thoughts - Negative

2006-11-19T01:04:00.000+05:30

well! no, I do understand why do people write....... write blogs.
How often you pass in your life with lows, I mean really low. you are supposedly at one of the best place in the business but what the hell man....it's just sucking things out of you. Is there any point in shouting at someone or on yourself... I guess it's not going to help, hell! How often you make a decision and it goes wrong... I mean literally wrong and you curse yourself for it. You come with some high expectations at a place and it lets you down like, like what...it happens all at the same all the time specially when you were wishing to have a bit of luck. you wonder about people who were born with luck. It's unfair...why it's so. Why people are not given equal chance in this world at least a fair chance......there is something wrong, seriously wrong...what is it? or is it that you don't have it in you and you are living in false glory. Why don't we respect people, human being. what is the purpose....looks to me we are just racing on a track where credit is given on the basis that to how many of them you pull down.....

Good lord! it's all again. why do you struggle always. you think that you want to live happy life on this earth. but from where the hell this little creature of doubt creeps in? it always gets on your nerves. people around are smart...they are that's what they think .O really! they think so. beat the hell out of them. it's nature.... what? they are meant to be beaten up. but I guess everyone is insecure....that's right. the more insecure they are the more they show off?

Kashid beach - turned in adventure

2006-11-06T21:38:00.000+05:30

Last Sunday, 5th November 2006, we went to Kashid beach.
We got up at 5 in the morning and met below my apartment building. We were four of us, myself, Zack, Arati and Alok, all in mood to spend a full day in water under clear sky. Zack would take his bicycle with him. He would ride his bicycle and we would take bus/cab to the points. We reached Gate Way of India at 6:30 and took first ferry to Mandawa from where a bus will take us to Alibag. It was a pleasant one hour journey in sea and got to see sunrise (which happens very rarely). It was nice and fresh feeling with pleasant wind. We reached Alibag at 8 where we met Zack, who had come cycling from Mandawa, and had breakfast. We took a bus to Kashid roughly 25 kms from there again Zack cycled down there. We were on the beach by 11. We took half an hour rest as Zack was tired after one and half an hour of cycling and all of us had narial-pani (coconut water). It's really very nice, clean beach above all less crowded. The main road passes just over there and the other side of the road is hilly reigon and here you have white sand and clear water. What next ! we changed in our swimming cloaths and jumped into the water. Only Zack knew swimming but fun knows no boundaries. We were literally there in the water for about 2 hours, playing with football which I had carried with me. Sun has come out quite strongly, so we had to came out. We sat there on the beach till 3:30 as it would have been difficult to travel besides it was pleasant there on the beach. We ate some snacks which we had carried with us and ordered for bread and eggs. There's no eating place over there. We got back to Alibag at 5. First we planned to go out to a fort in Alibag (not really only remains are there) but later we ended up just taking rest and eating there in one of the restaurants.

We planned to take last ferry back at 6:45 from Mandawa for which we would take a bus at 6. Zack went ahead with his cycle and we were waiting for the bus. Suddenly we were told that the bus ic cancelled as the ferry trip is cancelled because of bad weather, though sky was clear over there. Now we were left with only one option to take the bus to Mumbai which takes five long hours and is quite exhausting. Anyway we had no other choice but where is Zack. Since he wouldn't know the ferry is cancelled untill he reaches there. We decided to wait for him. It was 6:45 in the evening. We ate some snacks and found out the bus timings. The buses to Mumbai were at 7:30, 8:15 and 9. First we decided to wait till 8:30 and take 9 pm bus. All of a sudden it struck to us that we could call to some guy at the other end, that is in Mandawa, and enquire about Zack. But hard luck! most of the guys had come back after the ferry got cancelled, in a bus (in effect the last bus from Mandawa boat zetty). They told us that they saw him (he could be identified uniquely, tall, bearded with bike). We had hope that he would come back or at least he would contact us. He had my phone number but there are no phone booths on that route besides it was dark now. We again went to bus stand to look for more possibilities. The last bus would leave at 9:30 to Panvel. Not too bad, from there one can get local trains to CST. We waited till 9:15, no luck, he is nowhere to be seen nor did he contact us. Our patience ran out and we decided to leave him on his faith. We guessed that after cycling almost 100kms on that day he must be tired and would have opted to stay back in some hotel. We took the last bus to Panvel and 11:54 local from there to reach back our home at 2 pm.

But where is Zack? We thought that if he doses not turn up by 2 next day we would go back to search for him. But he was there next day. His part of story: He took wrong turn on the way to Mandawa and got late to reach there in time for 6:45 ferry. He thought that we have left and so he would stay back.

Well a nice trip mixed with adventure.

Anupam

Trip to Madrid

2006-09-17T22:08:00.000+05:30

Trip to Madrid:

In the last week of August 2006 I visited Madrid, Spain to attend a conference, ICM 2006, the biggest conference of Mathematics, organised once in four years.

This was really unique experience of life. There were more than 4000 people, all mathematicians, gathered at one place to discuss Mathematics. I travelled with a group of people starting from Mumbai. We reached one day before when the conference was suppose to start. The day one, has opening ceremony, where Fields Medal is awarded. 'Fields Medal' is ultimate award given in Mathematics, equivalent to Nobel Prize of natural sciences (there is no Nobel Prize in Maths). So witnessing it live was really thrilling to me. The king of Spain himself was presiding over the ceremony and handed over the medals. This time 'Fields Medal' was awarded to four persons. One of them G. Perleman who has solved one of the greatest conjecture (Geometrization conjecture and Poincare conjecture about 3-dimensional manifolds) standing for 100 years refused to accept the award. Knowing before hand this situation the committee of Fields Medal went ahead and announced the prize to him. For them announcing prize to him is acknowledgement of Mathematical Community of his work. This has started a great tradition and has made sure that history will keep track of him. They would have kept it anyway.

The ICM 2006 was held in 'Palacio Municipal de Congress' which has 2 huge auditoriums. I attended many plenary lectures and enjoyed it. Most of these lectures were not technical in nature and were intended to give overview of the topic. Beside that I attended sessions of my interest. NBHM (Govt. of India) has put up a stall where we had kept few books published in India, means containing the Mathematics done in India, just to advertise about ourselves and a lot of tourism information about India. It was really great to know that there were a lot of people who were interested in India. By the way it is a great honour to India that we are going to host next ICM in 2006. It will be held in Hyderabad.

I enjoyed the city Madrid very much. I have a lot of good memories from there. I did not know a single word of Spanish and most of the people over there do not speak English and hence we use to have tough time moving around. But the people over there were really helpful. The city Madrid has been home to some of the greatest painters of the history. The likes of Goya, Velazquez, Picasso are just few to name. The museum 'Del Perado' has collection of a lot of paintings of these great painters which makes it must see. Even not being so enthusiast about arts I got myself completely lost in there. You can not just ignore those great paintings. On Sunday we went to a nearby city 'Toledo' which is an old town. It was a really nice day spent over there. We just kept walking all day there in the city and did some shopping, mostly buying souvenir material.

finally cam back to India after spending roughly 10 days there.

Algebraic Groups Workshop

2006-07-28T11:30:00.000+05:30

ISI Workshop on Algebraic Groups

Classification of Reductive Algebraic Groups
18 December 2006 --- 5 January 2007
Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore, India

URL: http://www.isibang.ac.in/~statmath/conferences/gt/

In this workshop Humphreys book on Lie algebra will be covered and Springer's book on algebraic groups will be done upto classification theorem. Though most of the theory will be done only over algebraically closed field there is a wave that it will be followed up by theory over base field.

It will be really useful for people working in group theory and specially students who are going to start their carreer in the subject. There will be very little prerequisites, for example, some basic algebraic geometry, thorough knowledge of linear algebra and Field theory and Galois theory.

There will be sessions devoted for solving exercises. Please look at the webpage for more details.

2006-07-28T10:51:00.000+05:30

State Bank of India - A love story

Well this is a story straight from daily life. It has happened to many others and keeps happening to all of us day in and day out. Only on a few occasions we sit back to think about it. This is one of those occasions. State Bank of India - a love story......

You might be disappointed at the end but it has given me thrill and hard kicks as hard as Shoaib Akhtar or Brett Lee bowling bouncers on my face.

I came to Bangalore in July (2005). Though I had an account in ICICI (Allahabad) but still I felt it will be good to have a bank account in Bangalore as well. In last few years I had heard stories about SBI becoming a dream-bank to be with and its out of blue transformation from being a desi bank has left impressions on me. What could be a better place than Bangalore to give a try specially its great work culture and what not, at least it will have some effect on the work culture of SBI as well. If I believe some Maddi's (I am sorry to be impolite, to be precise people from south India) then the southern part of the country is the place to learn work ethics and culture. Well I had all these hi-fi ideas and high expectations with this part of world.

I went to Rajrajeshwari nagar branch of SBI on a Saturday to ask whether we could open an account. Here a friend of mine Suhas, was also party to my adventures another one, Vadehee, joined later. We got a little late not because of our fault perhaps we were not used to Saturday culture, so we were given forms and were asked to come on Tuesday (Monday is a holiday in that bank) with all possible proof of identity. When we went there on Tuesday we found computers were slow and all works of the bank were hung. Very proudly they pointed it out that its not their fault and gave 'galis' to the technology. We were told to come next week as there was a holiday and there will be a possible strike of bank employees for one day in between.

Well ! we went there following week and went to the counter got open our account only to be told that "come tomorrow" to collect the passbook. Making a passbook is a one minute job once all your data is fed in the computer. Next day we went there to collect our passbook and inquired whether we get cheque book now. The answer came in a flash, "we don't issue cheque-books to students". I asked why, every account holder is entitled to get a cheque book and we are not just a student but PhD student and get scholarship and have source of income. After a lot of argument he told us to fill a form and "come tomorrow" to get the pass book.

After a week my other two friends received their ATM card and went to the bank to get their PIN code. There ATM started working but I did not receive any such card. I went to the bank approximately after a month to inquire about it then I was told to fill a form. Still another month passed but I did not receive ATM card. Again I went to the bank, a bit pissed off, and asked about it. Answer came "wait siiir, it will come. Opening an account is a life time achievement, how do you expect it to happen so quickly". My mind went off with rocket speed to the sky. I just controlled myself and asked for the reason why I am not getting ATM card. He did some searching etc. and told that you fill another form.

Again a month passed with no hope of getting ATM card. I decided that I should close my account instead of spending my head over the issue. Specially when people in the bank do not know who issues the card and is there anyway to find out what is happening to my card. This time an employee was very polite with me and cooled me down, of course, he did not have any clue about what was happening? I filled another form, this time marked with "replacement card".

Finally it has five months passed in all and had filled form thrice for ATM card. I decided to enjoy the whole adventure and not to care about getting ATM card. Let us find out how this system works. I did net search and found ATM complain phone numbers and email addresses. I wrote emails and called help center. I found that the address initially filled by my bank was wrongly written. What was the mistake was that they forgot to enter PIN-code of my address. Why my next forms where rejected where I had given correct address? An old stupid government system..... that once something goes wrong I should give a notice to some officer who issues an statement that "let a card should be given to this person" only then my forms will be accepted. Did the bank employees of my bank know of existence of any such thing. No! clearly they did not even bother to call toll-free help center even and ask for an explanation.

I decided enough of it. Let me open a new account in another branch of SBI in Bapuji nagar. Again I got form and with all identity proof I went to the bank. I waited and waited but it seemed they had some internal problem and were not being able to open an account for me. I asked them what was going on. They only apologised to me for getting delayed and asked me to give sometime. I told them that I can "come tomorrow". Later in the afternoon they called me and asked whether I had another account. I told 'yes' and gave them the reason why I wanted to open a new account. They told me that since the bank is online once you open an account it is accessible from all over the places but I could open another account if I close this one or possibly give satisfactory explanation for opening a new account. I told them I will do the necessary thing. I decided to close my account in Rajeshwary nagar, anyway I was tired of going to that bank. I went there to close my account. The guy on the counter was shocked and spell-bounded, gave me 10 minutes lecture on how difficult it is to open an account and how big you are counted if you have an account. This was the same guy who gave fundas that opening an account is a life time achievement. He tried to bully me but I was determined. Finally I got my account closed.

Next day I went to Bapuji nagar branch and informed them that I have closed my account. Only to find out that they do not clear the central data immediately when they close an account. So effectively I still have an account. After a lot of hodge-podge the lady on the counter opened an account with all my old data which I found only later after few days. That means the problem continues and I will not get an ATM card again. She promised me that she will make sure that I get an ATM card. To her word I received an ATM card within 10 days. I was so happy and joyous and I told myself after all things work in this country. Anyway it was my bad luck with the other bank and hope now things will be very smooth.

I went to the bank to get my PIN code but I found that it has not arrived yet. It might take 2-3 days. Well ! another chapter in this story starts here. It's almost six months since I got ATM card and have been to my bank 15 times but they haven't received PIN-code for my ATM. This time the help center and help line email is of no use. As they just bypass by saying that it has been issued or it will be issued soon.

This is our great country. Will it ever improve? At least not in my life time..............

2006-05-23T14:34:00.000+05:30

A theory for Reservations

Well, for last few days I was planning to formulate a theory taking in account various parameters. But I opened "The Hindu" yesterday night and I came across following two articles.

1. (22 May 2006)

Meeting the challenge of Mandal II
Satish Deshpande and Yogendra Yadav

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/22/stories/2006052202261100.htm

2. (23May 2006)

Reservation — an alternative proposal
Satish Deshpande & Yogendra Yadav

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/23/stories/2006052305841100.htm

This kind of answers my questions. Though things could be done with more care and some parameters could be reduced/substituted with alternate parameters which are more practical to obtain. But I am quite happy with it.

I was also surprised to read that JNU has empolyed this method for its exam system. I just hope that soon IITs and IIMs will also consider of such theory. At least when they will be forced to have reservations. In social sciences there can not be any absolute theoreies because of large number of parameters involved but one could be fare enough.

I had got this idea while discussing with my collegues a few months back to decide whether a batsman is out of form. One can associate an index with a batsman depending on various parameters and consider his record in patches (e.g. in patches of 6-7 matches).

2006-05-22T20:23:00.000+05:30

Reservation - a pondering question

Well these days there is a wave of issue going on more popularly called "Mandal-II". Let us think it in terms of questions for a moment.

The facts are:

1. 70% of our population leaves in villages and slums (earning less than Rs. 100/- per day or Rs. 3000/- a month) which are far from being equipped with modern facilities. More than 40% of our population live "Below Poverty Line" BPL (according to the Government of India a person earning Rs. 10/- per day defines poverty line which constitute 25% of our population, what a pity! But here I have assumed earning level Rs. 30-40/- per day). We refer here the group of 30% people who are so called forward as "elite group" and the rest of the 70% will be called "OBC".
2. Only 3-4% of total of 20+ age group people are graduate. Only 7-8% of 20+ age groups of our population make to a college after going through schools.
3. We have history of being discriminator with caste. Till 1990 (before Mandal-I) nearly 75-80 % of the Government system and jobs were filled by the people not in OBC, i.e., coming from 30% population (elite group) of people. Needless to say for several hundred years a group of people "elite group" thought that being educated or getting education was hereditary to them only.

Some questions are:

1. How to bring up people from Backward Class (referred as OBC) which constitute 70% of the population?
2. How to increase the number (3-4%) of graduates in our country to better figure?
3. Can one make education system free of cost (which it is at present except some institutions like IIT's or IIM's) keeping in mind the large number of people being BPL?
4. Can one figure out a way to provide monetary help to OBC class than just letting them go everywhere?
5. Is there a way to bridge the social gap between elite group and OBCs which are more famously depicted in some of the 70's 80's bollywood movies?

Pros and Cons of reservation:

1. Are we demeriting deserving candidates, so called SOCIAL-INJUSTICE?

Actually, surprisingly NO! it's more of our education system which makes it look like that.

Let me illustrate it by an example. Let us pick up one candidate each from elite group call him 'A' and OBC call him 'B'. Suppose both of them are average student having finished their schooling. Naturally 'A' has more knowledge of the world, has been in possession of many more books and is a bit of aggressive as well. One can always set up a question paper which will benefit A but will be just out of reach to B. The examples are entrance examination systems of IIT's, IIM's and most of the prestigious medical colleges. Though you wouldn't notice it. For example, the 60% requirements by IIT's to appear for JEE obviously debars candidates coming from poor places where eduction system is not good, they don't have good teachers and barely learn enough to pass in schools. They were not even presented with "good books" (e.g. Irodov's solved or Brilliant tutorials etc.) to learn from and were never fortunate enough to attend "coaching classes". To enter IIM's you have to be speaking fluent English, easygoing, so called 'smartness' which you cann't imagine for a guy coming straight from a Karnataka village. I refuse to believe that no one from a village who cann't speak English can not compete with others in IIMs.

2. Why not to provide monetary help and bring them up to standard?

Well government has tried that for last 50 years. Our country being so huge and much poor for that number, it is almost impossible to work out any method for doing that. We just have 7-8 % people in colleges, even then all of the colleges and universities have more number of students than they can handle.

3. Are reservations justified?

No! But it's consequences, yes. It has helped in last 10 years to remove the discriminatory logic that the logic of being educated is hereditary. It feels good (if you are human) that the son of my housekeeper became doctor and treats me whenever I an in bad health. Mind you ! He is a good doctor else I wouldn't go to him (I am not obliged to go 50% times to an OBC doctor).

4. Can you imagine this in the modern world where everyone goes by logic?

Yes! Some of the most developed countries have reservations too. France has reservations in some of its best universities and institutions for those who come from a certain area known to be backward.

5. Don't you see politics in it?

Yes there is. Because the people who are in OBC are supposed to be decided by there economic level not by there caste. But our local governments (state governments) decided that it's easier to go by caste. I don't blame them too much. In our country we try to cheat with taxes as often as we can. So it is almost impossible for a government to declare who is needy.

6. What about reservations for women?

Yes by the logic as above which is based on socio-economic stature we can argue by the discrimination of sex. Hence if there is reservation, in each of the classes 50% of it should be reserved for women.

disclaimer - this article is purely for academic interest.

2006-04-12T20:28:00.000+05:30

ICM 2006 http://www.icm2006.org

This year we have ICM in Madrid, Spain. ICM is the biggest conference held in Mathematics every 4th year. In ICM only, the Fields Medal (the Noble Prize equivalent) are announced and given away. This years ICM is in the last week of August. The biggest news is that the next ICM will be held in INDIA in 2010. We are very proud of being given this honour. Controling some 6000 odd mathematicians will be a tough job for our considerably small population of mathematicians in our country.

2006-04-12T10:17:00.000+05:30

On a trail!

2006-04-12T10:00:00.000+05:30

Hi,

In February last week, I went to a trip to Kerala.

I, myself, with a friend Tejas went to Alleppey. We took a train on Thursday evening (16 Feb 2006) from Bangalore and reached there on Friday morning. Straight way, we went to a hotel, actually a heritage home (these are more popular in Kerala than hotels, it gives feeling of staying at home) called Gowari. We stayed there through out our trip.

Day 1.

We were in there for surprise. Contrary to our expectation it was hot and being close to sea it was humid as well. Whole day we roamed around in the little town of Alleppey (Allapuzha) and interacted with locals. By the evening we went to the beach. A nice, clean beach where Arabian sea was bouncing on its shore.

Day 2.

We were in for an adventure. We found out that the best thing to do is to hire a Kettuvalam, a big boat made like house, it has beds and one gets meals etc. on the board itself. The cost starts from 6000/- onwards per day! not our cup of tea arrrrrr... coffee.

We were anxious to see 'backwaters'. We hired a small boat, after a bargain, for Rs. 400/- for three hours (regular cost is Rs. 150/- per hour). Now starts the journey to mind-boggling, scenic beauty of Kerala. The area is full of waters and there are many small islands, man-made islands. People live on these islands and they do farming on claimed land which essentially should have been part of the sea water. Thus one has below-sea-level farming here. Watering the farm is not a problem, you have to just make a small hole in neighbouring canal. The whole area is full of lakes, network of canals and small islands spread over. Each of these lands are fertile thus people do farming here and coconut trees all around. This makes it most picturesque and scenic and I suppose calling it 'Venice of the east' is not too much of exaggeration.

Day 3.

We were caught in the fever of beauty of Kerala. Another adventure follows. This time we decided to go on one of the islands and spend whole day. After much effort (we do not know malayali) we concluded that we must go to 'R-block' where they have some place to eat as well. A perfect day full of surprises follows.

We took local ferry, Rs. 7/- which goes to Kottayam and drops local people living on the islands, its like a city-bus which stops at every few kilometer distance. On most of the islands people were getting down and one can always see people being around. 'R-block' comes and we were asked to get down, no soul around here. In the network of canals, one side a big lake, here we have an isolated island, greenery spread over, lot of coconut tress, banana trees and generally mind-blowing scenery around. Only concern was whether we are in no-mans-land and thus what will happen to our dream of eating sea-fish with 'toddy' on this island. We tossed a coin and started to walk in a direction. There were lot of little houses, farms but no-one around. We had walked about an hour and were tired. Anyway we decided to keep walking, luckily we had enough water, exploring the island, actually one has to walk on the railing made to separate the water from land, i.e., the boundary of canal is made of concrete blocks. After another one hour we met two locals, we asked them whether we can get something to eat. They pointed us in the direction we were walking and told that after 1 to 1.5 km we will get a place to eat. We were relieved. Tejas decided to take a plunge in the lake. Water was quite clean, one could see fishes moving around.

We reached our dream-place. In middle of nowhere almost in no-mans-land we have a small shop selling fish-curry (of 2-3 types), Karemeen (a sea fish) fry, prawns and above all fresh 'toddy'. Nothing could have been more satisfying under the circumstances. These kind of things you only imagine in dreams. We drank 'toddy' and got flat (slept) under a tree for an hour. The JOKE of the trip happened here when we were having our meals.

Just imagine the kind of day we were having. There were some typical 'Jat-kind' of characters, must have been from Delhi, came by a boat and wanted something to eat. They guy asks to the shop-keeper, " edhar kuch veg khanne ko milaga kaya". Oh gosh! I felt like drowning him or rather myself.

We stayed there till evening, till sunset and took last ferry, the ones which come from Kottayam, back to Alleppey.

Day 4.

We wanted to have land excursions. We went to Ambalpuzha where they have a famous Lord Krishna temple. We attended 'Aarti' at noon and got 'Payasam' to drink. We had some meals and decided to go to another temple in Haripad, the famous snake temple over there. But temple opens in the evening at 5 pm. We had whole afternoon to spend. We went to a nearby village and walked around 2-3 hours in sun. It was quite exhausting and tiring. But anyway we took the bus to Haripad and went to see the Snake Temple.

Day 5.

There are tourist boats going to Kollam, Rs. 300/- which has eight hour journey. We talked to them and decided that half way we will take the ferry coming back to Alleppey. It was again a very nice trip, scenic, through canals, lakes and watching locals on their work, paddy fields all around on each little islands. The ferry stopped at a place where we had lunch as well. One could buy water, cold-drinks and beer on board. In all, a perfect river cruise.

Day 6.

We checked out in the morning and kept our luggage their at Gowari itself. We argued for a while about what to do. Not that we did not have anything to do but which one of the trips we should repeat and satisfy ourselves on the last day. We went for a boat-ride again in canals and back waters. After all, we wanted to capture all the beauty in our mind for time to come. In middle of nowhere on a small island, Kainkary, there was a nice Restaurant. On this island they have a school also, Govt. High School, imagine we use to go to school in a rickshaw or in a cycle here you go to school in a boat. We had lunch there and finally we came back to Alleppey and back to Bangalore.

With best wishes,
--
Anupam

2006-04-12T09:52:00.000+05:30

Hi,
There is nothing special yet. Soon I will write something meaningful.
By proffesion, I am a researcher (Mathematician) but I have wide interest.
Other than doing Mathematics, I like playing Badminton, Football, Cricket, and trekking & travelling.

With best,
Anupam