more notes from regensburg

1) I noticed a weird tendency among a lot of Germans. They like to walk with hiking poles. Hiking poles are definitely useful while walking up steep hills for the extra support but it's funny seeing people walk in a flat town like Regensburg with hiking poles. Apparently, a hiking company once had too many extra skiing/hiking poles and started a campaign to promote healthy and safe walking (isn't walking safe anyway?) with poles. Somehow, the fad caught on and now it's very common to see people walking fast with these poles in each hand. It's called Nordic walking.

2) While taking a leak at a bar a few weeks ago, I noticed a funny thing in the urinal. There was a small plastic goal in the urinal. Not just mine, but in everyone of them. The idea is to get drunk football fans to aim and pee. I actually started laughing when I saw it and had to control myself surrounded by big Germans all around. Some of the other bars even have a goalkeeper whose body bobs back and forth if you aim at him. Definitely makes it fun to pee.

3) Beer is a big part of the life out here. The dorms have vending machines and it's very cheap. You can actually go to a supermarket and buy individual bottles of beer, though you have to put down a deposit. For some of the cheap ones, if you return three bottles you can get a free bottle of beer back. So it's pretty common to see a few bums walking around collecting beer. It's also legal to walk and drink with a bottle in your hand. A couple of days ago, I was eating pizza with a friend and we each bought a beer. We were running a bit late to meet some other people, so we just decided to walk out and drink beer along the way. I felt like a deranged alcoholic. Walking and drinking a beer is fine. Riding a bike without a light is not.

4) Regensburg is a very provincial university. In the US it was very common to meet someone who always remarked (upon hearing that one was from India), "Oh yeah, I know some Indians." Good for you! There's a billion of us, chances of you knowing a few aren't that low. But I heard a new one 2 days ago. When I told someone I'm from India, she thought for a bit, then said "Last year I went to France, and I saw a lot of Indians."

5) I started lecturing yesterday and found that the sliding blackboards are German sized. Pushing and pulling the boards was a task in itself, but Germans like to erase the boards, not with a duster, but as they would clean the windshield of a car. A wet mop kind of thing followed by the rubber dryer. Since I write a lot while lecturing I had to do this over and over again. It keeps the boards very clean, but it gave me a bit of a workout.

6) Since the semester started it's become pretty lively. The fall colours are in full bloom these days and my office has a nice view.

Berlin

Berlin stunned me. I was there for barely 4 days but I don't think I've ever been to a city which had me completely mesmerised. The architecture in Berlin was something I'd heard about but wasn't prepared for the craziness and the scale of things. It's a city which is reinventing itself and the urban planners of that city must be among the most daring in the world.

It's unlike most European cities. There is no real centre to it, nor does it have the old world charm one associates with other European cities. Walking around Berlin felt like walking through a huge exhibition of contemporary and modern architecture. Every 10 minutes one could see a very modern building, a sculpture or a crazy addition to an old structure. It sounds chaotic but somehow it seems to make sense. Then at night, it feels like a different city with a lot of the buildings lit up with a combination of lights. Some of them look like products designed for a high-end catalog of modern architecture.

Berlin's a weird city considering it's the biggest German city. It's the centre for politics and culture. The engineering, automobile, insurance, finance, TV and other industries are all based in different German cities. Somehow Berlin became a hotspot for a lot of new art and music and most of it has happened in the last 10 years. Post unification, the authorities are trying to make a big statement and even though I was there for a short time, it made a huge impression on me. I didn't explore much of the nightlife as it seems to be a city where you need to know about all the bars and clubs. Maybe next time, I'll go slightly better prepared.

I went crazy taking pictures and can't figure out which ones to upload to the blog. So, I'd much rather put a link to the whole album.

Berlin

Kelheilm

I went on a long bike ride yesterday. Actually, it was my first really long bike trip but I hadn't planned it like that. I had a bike in Boston but used it only for getting around in the city and never for a long ride. Boston had some decent bike trails but somehow I never got around to it.

After my Walhalla trip, someone told me about Beifriengshalle - the counterpart to Walhalla. It's another place with a nice view of the valley and nearby there's supposed to be a monastery where monks have been brewing beer for almost 1000 years. It was in the other direction along the Danube and supposed to be worth a visit. He mumbled something about it being 20-25 km away from Regensburg and as it was a nice day I decided to head out there.

The bike ride started off well and within 15 minutes I was biking through rural Bavaria. The bike trails are well maintained with good signage and since it was a Sunday there were a lot of bikers and walkers along the trail. Every 20 mins or so, there's a small village with a beer garden, cafe or even a town with a market. I left around noon, so there a lot of people were enjoying their lunch and beer after church. Biking through the villages and along the Danube, seeing small towns is a lot of fun.



The ride turned out to be much, much longer than I thought. I realised later that it was 20km or so along the highway, not along the river. This was something which didn't occur to me and I thought that Kelheilm, the village at the base of Beifreingshalle, was just a bit further away. At some point, I'd been biking for almost 2 hours, stopped at a village and asked for Kelheilm. One of them shook his head, and said at least another 10-15 km. I went on and on, and realised soon that a mountain bike isn't ideal for such a long ride. After almost two and a half hours, I could finally see Befreiungshalle, and with the fall colours in the backgroun (not in full bloom yet), it was a nice sight.



The last stretch, from the village to the top, was a killer. It was only 2-3 km but a steep incline and I had to get off my bike and start walking. It took me a long time to get up there and I was huffing and puffing by the time I reached the top. The building wasn't that impressive but the view was nice (sounds familiar, doesn't it?).



I pottered around for an hour, taking pictures and got a bit stiff, after such a long ride. Asked about the boat back to Regensburg, and one of the information guys replied that I'd missed the last boat back. He said there was a train station about 10 km away but wasn't too sure when the last train to R'burg was. It was almost 4 pm, so I had to decide where I should go the other way to catch the train or bike all the way back. Decided to bike back and calculated I would be back home just before sundown. Had to forego a trip to the monastery and the brewery. Next time.

Biking down the steep hill was a great thrill though. I don't think I've ever been on a bike so fast and since there was no traffic, and there were sharp bends, I had a nice time whizzing down and making sharp turns. It was invigorating and the first hour of biking went by in a rush. The next 2 hours were quite a drag especially as it became colder and I started to get stiff. Made a brief pit stop to get some water. Somehow, Europeans always give aerated water when you ask for water. It's nowhere as refreshing and actually made me a bit queasy on the way back. Whatever happened to normal water? Anyway, the nice thing about biking back in the evening was to see a nice sunset over the valley.



I made it back to R'burg at close to 7pm. I got very stiff during the last hour and biked very slowly. Had a nice beer and doner kebap in the old town, and it felt so good. Went back to my office and using googlemaps pedometer measured the distance from home to university to kelheilm and back. Realised I'd biked about 90 km! That's easily the longest bike ride I've ever done and I woke up this morning fairly stiff.

Anyway, I'm off to Berlin on Wednesday for 4-5 days. Will update the blog once I'm back.

Notes from Regensburg

1) Germans tend to be fairly formal. Compared to the average American university, it feels a bit weird. Professors are very, very senior and regarded with great respect. Getting to be a professor means going through a lengthy and trying period called habilitacion. Postdocs are basically assistants to a senior professor. A bit like being their RA and TA together. A professor has assistants, students and visitors and it's entirely up to his/her discretion who he/she wants. Their titles are Herr Professor Doctor XYZ. Can't call them just XYZ especially if you're a student. Herr is the basic requirement while addressing them. My official title is Herr Doctor Pande. Feels nice compared to Hey Dude, though I miss that informal and friendly atmosphere.

2) Regensburg is a fairly provincial university. Almost all the German students I've come across are from Bavaria and from within an hour or two at most. When asked about where they're from they give very precise directions - 45 km from the north, 70 km to the southeast, 80 km to the west. Since their families live so close they all tend to go home for the weekend. That means the bars/cafes are busy mostly during the week and on the weekends things are fairly quiet. All of them love to quote their favourite statistic - Regensburg has the highest density of bar/cafes in all of Germany. Knowing their precision for everything I don't think it's an exaggeration. The old town is especially lively.

3) I went to Munich yesterday to buy myself a eurail pass. I'm off to Berlin next week, Amsterdam at the end of november and then probably Spain in December so I figured a railpass makes more sense. I hate flying especially because of all the security and waiting and the closest airport from Regensburg is in Munich, almost 2 hours away. There's something called a Bavarian pass. 5 people can travel for 25 euros in all of Bavaria for a whole day - much cheaper than buying a single ticket. So going to Munich (it's in Bavaria) is cheap and easy. Just buy a Bayern ticket and wait near the ticket machine. Though I felt a bit shady hanging around the platform and ticket machine muttering the code word "Bayern ticket". Getting to Munich was easy but coming back to Regensburg required more standing and looking around. I felt like I was peddling drugs. The cops didn't care though.

4) I've been pleasantly surprised by the attention paid to recycling and saving power out here. Computers are switched off (not left on standby) and all the lights in the halls automatically switch off if there's no activity for too long.
Every campus cafe/canteen insists on serving food or coffee in reusable dishes. In fact, everyone has to put down a bit of a deposit in case there's some damage. There are lots of recycling bins everywhere and it feels reassuring not to throw away perfectly reusable items in the trash. Even a simple cup of coffee on campus is served in a normal coffee mug, not a paper cup. In the US, after a quick meal on campus or a coffee I used to feel like I was personally responsible for half an acre of the rainforest vanishing.

5) The department assembles for lunch at 12:30 everyday and then heads off to the Mensa (canteen). If you're even a minute or two late you know you missed the group. There's an Italian postdoc visiting the department and the poor guy has a hard time keeping to the schedule. Everyday after everyone's left the dept you can see the poor guy running from his office to catch up with us. He hates to eat alone and loves to talk. Problem is that when he talks he uses his hands, which means he stops eating. Everybody else finishes their meals at roughly the same time (feels like being in an army mess) and it's funny watching him gobble down his food as he can sense everyone else waiting for him to finish. He came 3 days after me and talks to me as if I've been in Regensburg for years - How do I get an internet connection, where can I get a light for my bike, Where can I buy an adaptor plug? He's shorter than me and his German is worse than mine, so he makes me feel almost...Bavarian.

Walhalla

Doesn't sound too German, does it? That's where I went on Sunday for a nice bike ride. It's called the Walhalla temple and is the German hall of fame and was modelled on the Parthenon in Athens. Regensburg is along the Danube and there's a nice bike trail and Walhalla is about 10-15 km east of town along the bike path.



The bike trail actually stretches all the way to Budapest and goes past Vienna as well. Sometime in the future, I'd love to go all the way but it's a bit too cold right now to go biking for too long. Also, an old mountain bike wouldn't be the best thing to take all the way. Saw a lot of other serious bikers along the way. Getting out of town was a bit of a hassle as following the various bike lanes was almost like driving on a highway and taking diferent exits. Thankfully, I didn't get a ticket for biking in the wrong lane!

Got a bit lost initially before asking for directions a couple of times. The nice thing about living in a small town (by Bavarian standards Regensburg is not small though) is that within 10 minutes one is out of the city and out biking in fairly rural areas. The weather was nice in the afternoon and biking along the Danube past picturesque German villages was fun. It was a Sunday so a lot of people were out on the bike trail and the parallel walking path.



The walk up to the temple wasn't too long and once you're on top of the hill, there are some great views of the Danube valley. It's a nice place to spend half the day soaking in the sun, reading a book and chatting with other visitors. Though on a sunday, it was a bit too crowded at times with some tour groups. The inside wasn't as impressive as it looks from far away. It's full of busts and statues of famous Germans. The view was nice though.



Maybe it's a Bavarian thing but even the maths department here is full of portraits of famous German mathematicians all along the corridors. It's slightly intimidating walking out of a room and seeing Gauss staring at you.

PS - I've updated my blog with a link to the site where I've managed to upload most of my photos. The link is on the right hand side of the page under the blog archive section.

Trouble with the cops - again

Earlier this year in May, my twin brother and I went on a roadtrip in the US. We rented a car and drove from Boston to New York to Chicago and back to Boston. Along the way we had a few adventures. In New York, I'd parked the car in a diplomat's spot (it looked ok at that time) and the car got towed. It had my laptop and passport in it and for a while I thought the car had been stolen because the cops couldn't locate it in their system. This was a day before my visa interview with the UK consulate and about 2 weeks before I was leaving the US for good. Leaving my laptop and passport (and my degree which I'd gotten 2 days earlier) in the car was probably the most stupid thing I've ever done. This was my twin's first visit to the US and he was thoroughly enjoying the experience of going to a police precinct, towing garage and all the cops. We managed to find the car and on the way back, I banged into a van while trying to park. Thankfully there was no damage and the van driver was very cool and said "Better my van than a BMW".

After that, I drove (didn't take the risk of letting my twin drive without a license) for about 15 hours with a 5 hour sleepover in a motel and just as we were entering Chicago, I got pulled over for speeding. It wasn't really speeding as I was driving at 70 mph. But this was near a toll booth and I was supposed to slow down to 55 mph and I guess the cop was just having a bad day. The car was also outside its supposed rental zone and for a while I thought he might notice that but he didn't.

Then, in August while driving around in Berkeley in my older brother's car, I got a parking ticket for having parked 5 minutes over the 2 hr limit. On the way back to LA the tire burst and I had to drive at 40 mph all the way. I wrote about it here.

I thought my days of cops and trouble were over now that I'm in Europe and am getting by with public transport and a bike. Germans are sticklers for rules and riding a bike involves more traffic sense than driving in most places in the world. There are strict lanes, signs and signals only for bikers. Walking on a bike lane is an offense as is biking in the wrong lane or street. Regensburg is a town best explored by bike and from my dorm room the University and the old town are about 10-15 mins by bike and it's along the Danube, so one can actually bike all the way to Budapest along the bike trail.

Last night, I was on my way to meet some friends in another dorm. It was dark and suddenly near a busy intersection a huge guy stood in my way and shouted "Halt". He turned out to be a cop and pointed at my light (which wasn't working) and said something in German. I played the innocent foreigner card but he wasn't amused and switched to English. Asked for my passport but I didn't have it on me (I think that's also a minor offense). Then he said biking without a light is an offense and growled at me "10 euros". He was at least a foot taller and wider than me and I quietly opened my wallet and gave it to him. He gave me a ticket, a warning and said till I got my light fixed I couldn't bike in the dark. Had to walk all the way to my friends' place which took much longer and felt very stupid walking on the pedestrian path with a bike. Met my friends and they all had a good laugh about it and kept showing the ticket to each other. Apparently, biking when drunk is an offense as well and your driving license can get revoked.

We polished off a bottle of vodka and hung around till late. Decided to head home and took the risk of biking home thinking they wouldn't catch me twice especially if I went slowly and kept a lookout for the cops. I was wrong. Halfway through, a car pulled up alongside and one of them held a flashing red sign to stop me. Two of them came out and made me prove it was my bike (by locking and unlocking it), looked at my driver's license and asked me some questions. I played the innocent foreigner better this time and one of them asked me how much I'd had to drink. Decided to say 3 beers (for a German that's not much) and one of them smelled my breath, shrugged his shoulders and said you shouldn't drink more than this. They were much nicer, told me to get it fixed (cheaper than a ticket apparently), asked for my address, occupation, etc and let me off with a warning.

I guess I should head out today and get the light fixed but considering I've had the bike for just 2 days, getting into trouble with the police so soon was a bit much.

The party's over

That's what it feels like right now after almost 5 months of travelling and visiting friends and family. It's been that long since I sat at a desk and had an office and a room to myself. Though the location and condition of the dorm was a big letdown. After staying in comfort in so many big cities, living in a dorm in a small town in Germany came as a bit of a shock.

I'd expected something similar but after the nonstop partying for the last 3 weeks sitting in the dorm room by myself felt eery. I had no internet connection, my laptop battery was almost dead, no adaptor for the German plugs, only 2 books (one in German and one in Hindi) which made reading a bit of a grind. The term at Regensburg starts in about 2 weeks and I'm staying in the international student/guest housing which is dead right now. Went out for a walk towards the old city but it was a Sunday and everthing was shut. To make matters worse I left my towel behind in Munich in a hungover state so I had to dry myself with a T-shirt after a shower. Today is German unification day so it's a national holiday and again, everything's shut.

Yesterday, I managed to get a few things done - buying an adaptor, a towel, getting a bicylcle for free (don't ask me how I got it), keys to the math dept and getting my computer registered. Getting my computer registered involved filling out a form online, printing it out, signing it and then delivering it to the computer dept. Then they'll take another 2 days to process it and approve it!

Reached Regensburg

I've finally reached Regensburg and will be based out of here for the next 2 months. Haven't yet managed to check into my room yet as a friend of mine is going to show up with the keys in a few hours at the train station so I'm at the train station just killing time. Today is the last day I'll lug around my heavy backpack, some books and papers and my laptop as I'll either junk the laptop and papers once I'm done with my lectures or mail it to London.

The last 4 days went by in a bit of a blur. I spent 2 days in Salzburg, which is a beautiful small town in a very pretty location but also very touristy and boring. It's the home of Mozart and Red Bull and since it's Mozart's 250th anniversary the town is full of Mozart memorabillia, posters, etc. I spent a day walking all over the town and exploring the beautiful castle which overlooks the city. Apart from sightseeing there isn't too much else to do and by the evening it's a ghost town. The liveliest and cheapest place in town was actually the hostel I was staying in. Took lots of pictures and soon I'll update my blog with links to the pictures I've taken for the last few months.





Also went hiking in Unterzberg, about an hour outside Salzburg. It was a nice break from the crowds in Salzburg and the views were amazing. Had to change a couple of buses to get there but spent most of the day hiking without seeing a soul. Till I got to the top where a bunch of people had taken a cable car. The top of the mountain is a great place. On one side one see into the Austrian Alps (though it was covered by clouds mostly) and on the other side, one can look over the whole Salzburg valley.





On Friday, I reached Munich and crashed at J's place. His brother had just flown in from Melbourne and M showed up on his way to Spain. It was the last weekend of Oktoberfest and the 4 of us went in with slightly low expectations. But we were pleasantly surprised and it was a great time. The place is huge and it resembles a huge carnival with a very festive atmosphere. A lot of people dress up in traditional Bavarian costumes and it's a mad, crazy place with at least half a million people walking around and sitting inside the beer tents. The funniest part is how everyone is there to get drunk and the minimum one can order is a litre of beer. There are live bands, ferris wheels and all kinds of crazy people walking around. To get inside a beer tent one has to get there at 9 in the morning! We managed to sneak in much later and the atmosphere inside is of a huge, huge party with people dancing on tables, walking around drunk and singing loud Bavarian songs and clinking their mugs every few minutes. We stayed till 11, when it closed and headed out to a few more bars afterwards. Got home around 2 and woke up the next morning very hungover. J's flat didn't have hot water that weekend so 4 of us went to someone else's flat across town to shower. Felt weird walking around Munich with a towel and a hangover. Spent most of Saturday exploring Munich with the two brothers.

Leaving Vienna

It's been about 10 days in Vienna and sadly time to move on to the next place. Am getting a ride to Salzburg tomorrow so will spend 2 days there doing some hiking in the Alps, then take a train to Munich and spend the weekend there. Oktoberfest is on so it should be quite crazy. Finally, on Sunday I'm getting another ride to Regensburg where I'll be based for the next 2 months.

The last 2 days were fairly quiet. Now that I'm very familiar with the city I spent most of my time walking around without a map, browsing a couple of bookstores and sitting and reading at a few cafes. The weather is perfect and nobody minds it if one spends 2-3 hours at a cafe just reading. It's also reassuring to see a lot of other young and middle-aged people spending a long time at a cafe, talking and reading. Having spent a lot of time in the city exploring and feeling comfortable here I felt very happy doing what I would have done in a place like Boston.

On Monday night, H took me to his favourite club, the Flex. That place lived up to all the hype I'd heard from him and somehow partying late on a Monday night felt great. The 2 unemployed doctors had no work or studying to get back to so we were there till 4 in the morning. Felt very hungover this morning and didn't wake up till it was time to get lunch.

I had a great time in Vienna and apart from the sightseeing, concerts and partying I really enjoyed meeting H's friends and family. It felt comfortable hanging out with all of them and I can see myself coming back here regularly and spending time with them again.

Burgenland

The last three day have been slightly overwhelming with a heady mix of traditional Austrian music, wine and food. A couple of concerts, some vineyards and some great homecooked food.

On Friday, H's parents had given us 2 tickets to go to the Musikverein for a concert. The whole family is involved with music and they have season tickets and a great pair of seats. It's also a very formal place and I had to out and buy a decent jacket and a pair of shoes. My hiking boots and T-shirts didn't quite fit in. It's one of the most famous concert halls in the world and the moment I walked in I was a bit open-mouthed. I managed to sneak in a picture before the concert started.



The concert was great though the elaborate chandeliers gave off a lot of heat and the last 20 minutes were a bit uncomfortable as slight movements and noises are frowned upon. Went out to a slightly upscale bar for a drink since we were both fairly well dressed. After the grungy underground bars and clubs this was a bit different.

Woke up a bit late on Saturday and we missed the train to Burgenland. Hung around in the train station and had a coffee and then caught the next one. Burgenland is the wine country of Austria and that's where his girlfriend and his parents live. Reached H's parents lovely house around noon and had a fabulous meal. I'd asked for traditional Austrian food and I couldn't stop eating. Relaxed in the house for a while and enjoyed the view.



Headed out to meet H's girlfriend C, who lives about an hour away and it's a nice drive through vineyards. It's the harvest season and there were a lot of grape-pickers all over. Picked her up and drove to a vineyard run by a family they've known for most of their life. Their son D now runs it and he studied with C in school so he gave me an extended tour of his winery. Explained all kinds of things in detail and then brought out about 10 different bottles. His family joined us soon and we spent about 2-3 hours just sipping wine and getting more and more drunk.



Drove back to C's house and had dinner and more wine. Hung around for a while and then drove to a weird event. It was the annual festival for the local arts. The art was pretty bad and the music even worse, so after an hour of sitting around we drove back and opened a couple more bottles. D and his sister came by around midnight and we were up till 3 drinking, smoking and fooling around on the piano. C is a professional pianist and after much coaxing sat down and played for everyone.

Woke up today around noon, hungover and hungry. Drove back to H's parents' house for the sunday lunch. Lazed around most of the afternoon and then headed out to another winery run by another childhood friend of theirs. Had a special drink called stürm, which one gets only for a few weeks in a year because of the harvest. It's the wine before the first fermentation and it tastes a lot like grape juice with some soda. Drove back to Vienna around 11 and since we were close to the border with Slovakia and Hungary saw signs for towns in those places. A big part of the vineyard is in Hungary but I couldn't go in. Unfortunately, an Indian passport doesn't allow such easy travel.

Vienna diary

It's been about 4 days in Vienna but I just love the place. My friend, H, stays in a great flat in the heart of the city. Everything is easy to explore on foot and the weather's been perfect.

My typical day starts off by waking up late around 10 and getting ready. Head out to the first district and then explore some of the museums. The whole museum quarter is a bit overwhelming and it took me a day to get over the grandeur of the place. In between , there are a few crazy looking modern buildings but somehow they don't spoil the ambience of the place.



After a lot of aimless walking, I usually end up finding some coffeehouse and sipping some strong coffee to wake myself up, read a book and munch on some great snacks. Street food is cheap in Vienna and I've taken a strong liking to schnitzel. It's a compact city and within a couple of days it was easy to figure out how to get around on foot. Since the weather's been perfect, the whole city is littered with open air cafes where one can sit for a long time without being disturbed. Also took the metro out to Schonbrun, a huge castle, which has a great view of the city if you walk up to the top of the hill.



During the day, I guess I've been doing the normal touristy things one does in a city like Vienna. At night, H has taken me to places I doubt I would have found on my own. A student lounge cum bar where I met a bunch of his friends who have all lived in and around Vienna all their lives. A small hole-in-the-wall eating place to meet his ex-girlfriend K, where we ate some great fladen. A quiet evening at home where 2 other people I knew from the math dept in Vienna showed up. A small shop cum gallery which sells stuff made by 2 designers from a century ago (wiener werkstatt). They were strongly influnced by Klimt and the exhibition was small but quite mindblowing. Another crazy bar with H's brother who stayed on till late even though he had to wake up 4 in the morning for a concert. The cliches about Vienna being a laidback city have been pretty true. Each night, all it's taken is another round of beer, or another bottle of wine for everyone to stay on till late even though it's the middle of the week and everyone, (except H and me) has a job.

Reached Vienna

It was a fairly long day (and typing on a German keyboard isn't easy) but I finally reached Vienna and Schengen land today. Got up around 7 in the morning and had to repack a lot of stuff as European airlines only allow one carry-on and one check-in bag. This meant my main backpack was stretched to the limit and and I was scared it might be overweight as I'd stuffed everything inside it. Left G's flat around 8 and after changing 2 trains reached Tottenham Hale for the Stansted express. My flight was around 11:15 and I reached the airport at 9:30 and felt I had enough time to get breakfast and buy a book. The check-in took ages though. My backpack weighed in at 19.7 kgs (My entire life's belongings plus a laptop) and though it was just under the 20 kg limit I had to go to the oversized baggage counter. Took a while to clear that and finally had to sprint through security to board my flight. I was flying Ryanair so there's no assigned seating so I got one of the worst seats on the plane. Slept througth the entire flight.

I flew into Graz (about 150 km outside Vienna) and C was supposed to pick me up but turned out that she couldn't as she had a recital so I had to take a train to the main Graz station and then another train to Vienna. This was my 5th train for the day but worth all the effort. It was one of the prettiest train rides I've ever taken and sipping a nice chilled beer, listening to my ipod and watching the Austrian countryside unfold in front was a great experience.




H was at the Hauptbanhopf to receive me and asked me immediately if I wanted to do something illegal. Couldn't figure out what he meant since the last time he and I had met we'd had a few crazy experiences in Toronto. Turned out the Vienna subway has no security and he doesn't pay for tickets - he gets caught twice a year which is still cheaper than buying passes. Reminded me of DTC buses in Delhi. Decided to stay legal (not for long though) and reached his flat around 7. It's right in the heart of Vienna and I can't wait to head out tomorrow and explore the city.

His brother M came by soon and we polished off quite a bit of wine and then headed out to one of their favourite bars - a cross between a lounge, bar and a cafe with a DJ. But a very comfortable place and they seemed to know a lot of people there. Hung out there till well past midnight and followed H in not paying for tickets on the Vienna metro. Let's see how long this will last.

London

I reached London 2 days ago and thankfully the heat wave is over. Reached Heathrow in the morning and took the tube straight to Covent Garden. My advisor's moved to London and we'd scheduled a meeting for the afternoon as that was the only day he was on campus. Since I had 4-5 hours to kill before that I decided to drop off my backpack at M's office, one of his students who just moved from Boston to London with him. The campus has a great location and it's right in the heart of the city. A huge change from B which was 15 miles outside Boston. Took me a while to find M's office and the security wasn't too keen to let me walk through with my 2 backpacks. Went out and had coffee and lunch near Covent Garden.



Toyed with the idea of getting a beer closeby but decided to stay sober before my meeting. It was fun walking around with M in London. We used to get lunch/coffee frequently in B and always complained about the lack of a decent place on campus. This was bang in the centre of everything and walking between the different depts involves walking through central London. Felt a bit envious of him as I'd considered delaying graduating in May and moving to London as a visiting student. I doubt if I would have been motivated to finish though. Picked up the keys from G in his plush corporate office a few minutes away from the maths dept. Different world compared to the cramped offices and shabby students hanging around. Getting back home wasn't easy as I ended up taking the tube during peak rush hour and my 2 backpacks made things even harder. What made it worse was no air-conditioning and I sweated as much as I would have on a hot day in Delhi in a crowded DTC bus.

The last 2 days I've just walked around aimlessly during the way in London, browsed a couple of bookstores and met some other friends in the evening for a drink. The pubs and streets are so packed in the evening (especially on the weekends) and I love how one can take a drink and stand on the streets or sit on the sidewalk. Unfortunately, in the US, that's something one can't do and I wish some places would allow it. A nice place to drink is on one of the cruise boats on the river and watch the sunset and the riverbank light up.

The travelling math show

For the last 6 weeks, I've been travelling a lot in the US. I am now basically a travelling mathematician and almost all my stops were related to *work*. There was a workshop in California and after that I went to various places giving talks on my thesis. I managed to get paid for most of these things and so financially I've been able to survive. Since I don't pay any rent or bills now, it's not too hard as I've stayed with friends or in some accomodation arranged by a math dept (or a tent). Food and bus/airline tickets are the only thing I've had to spend on.

Yesterday was my last stop in the US in Philadelphia. On sunday, I took a bus from New York to Boston, then on Monday morning another bus to Philly and back the same day. I gave my last talk yesterday and for the first time realised what it might be like to be a performer on tour. Till a few minutes before the talk I felt a bit fatigued and disoriented with all the travelling. I was wearing my *talk shirt* to appear respectable (I have a spare one in case it's dirty or smelly) and trying hard to talk to the other profs and seem alert. The moment my talk started I felt comfortable and by now I can give the talk half-asleep. The audiences have ranged from being hostile, friendly to ignorant and it's been a great learning experience being on the other side of the fence.

It's Tuesday today and I'm about to leave for JFK to catch a flight to London where I'll meet with my (former) advisor. I'll hang around there for 5 days and then go off to Vienna and stay with another friend who has a spare room. I won't give a talk there but from October 1st I'll be in Germany giving a different lecture series for about 6 weeks. After Dec 1st it's a bit vague about where I'll be based but if someone offers me money and/or a room I'll show up with my backpack.

Boston

It's been a week in Boston now and almost everyday has been a bit disorienting and weird. Boston was home for 5 years and to come back to a place after leaving just 3 months ago meant things hadn't changed at all. Almost all my friends are still around and almost all of them are doing the same things. The main problem was that since most of them are in grad school or postdocs, they were all busy with the beginning of the semester. Before reaching Boston I'd emailed most of them and gotten myself invited for dinner to a different home each night. Met some other people for lunch and drinks later at night and felt like my social live was on steroids.

Being a bum, I hung around Cambridge a lot and went to my some of favourite haunts and spent a lot of time just reading, writing and surfing. My favourite spot is the 3rd floor of the Harvard Coop and sitting on the chairs which overlook the square with a few books is a great way to spend 4-5 hours. Other than that, I spent most of the day in some of the cafes in davis square. Never went there in the middle of the week in the mornings so it was pretty quiet and not busy unlike the weekends.





Leaving for New York on Sunday, Philly on Monday and then flying out to London on Tuesday. Greyhound has kept me going up and down the east coast.

Bumming around in New York

One of the problems about being broke is spending time in an expensive city like New York. Sightseeing and exploring the city on foot are fun things to do the first 2-3 times one visits. I've had enough of both over the last few years and haven't budged too far from where I've been staying. Since I've been a student for so many years finding ways to keep busy without spending much isn't that hard. Midtown Manhattan is a very convenient place to live in but there are no cafes or coffeeshops to spend most of the day reading/surfing/working. Starbucks is an option but the ones in New York are very cramped and don't have free wireless internet.

I discovered the New York public libraries for the last 4-5 days. There are 2-3 of them very close to D's apt and they have nice tables, free internet and an atmosphere where one can spend 4-5 hours at a stretch without realising it. I managed to finish writing and reading up on a few things quite comfortably in the libraries and it's safe enough to leave one's laptop and browse their collection of books and music. The one thing it lacks is coffee/tea but 4-5 hours is enough to survive without either. The weather was nice for the last 4 days and in the late afternoon, walking down to central park and hanging around sitting in a nice spot, reading a book, listening to music and watching other bums hanging around was a great way to spend some time doing nothing. Felt tempted to join the frisbee and soccer games going on but didn't feel safe leaving my laptop in the park. Just sat and watched people enjoying the weather.



There are a couple of Barnes and Noble bookstores closeby and I've had a habit of reading books in instalments for many years across various big bookstores. For the last 2-3 years I felt too guilty reading a book at home (thesis stress!) and found reading a book in instalments far more enjoyable and productive. I've spent a considerable amount of time reading all kinds of books I didn't have time for the last few years and I wouldn't be surprised if they banned me from the corner bookshop for not buying anything at all.

I started this blog to stay in touch with friends scattered all over and meet up in case I happened to be in the same city as them. Dr M saw my blog and he's visiting New York and we hung out at night a few times. Went up to a nice bar in harlem playing great calypso music and then the village for a few drinks. Also met another former roomate D and met his friends and brother on the west side.

Leaving for Boston tomorrow for a week. Feels strange going back as a visitor to a place which was home for 5 years.

New York

I've been visiting two former housemates in New York for the last week and the experiences couldn't have been more different. I'm staying with D in Manhattan and he now works as a banker and has the stereotypical young New York banker life. A great apartment in the heart of Manhattan, a few blocks from Central Park and tons of things to do within minutes of his house. Goes to work at 630 in the morning and stays there till 8 or 9 pm. His apartment is pretty bare with an empty fridge but a great TV and stereo system. In his absence, I've made good use of living close to Central Park by going running there and also watching TV in surround sound. The weekend was quite crazy as I ended up going out with his banker friends to a bunch of bars and clubs in the village. All of them have a work hard, party harder lifestyle and I was completely groggy the next day. They were all back at work the same day though. D has dragged me to a lot of places so far - a baseball game, a golf driving range, a comedy club and lots of bars. It's been a lot of fun but a bit draining.



For the last 3 days, I've been in Ithaca in upstate New York staying with another former housemate, C. She's now married to E and they're both postdocs in Cornell and have a life on the other end of the spectrum. A huge apartment (where I had my own room and bathroom) within 10 minutes of the University, relaxed "work" hours and a kitchen better stocked than almost any kitchen I've seen. Cornell has possibly the prettiest campus of any school I've ever been to, with gorges and waterfalls in the middle of the university. Walking around Cornell was nice with all the hills, streams and trails. Ithaca is a really small town though and in 3 days I think I saw all of Ithaca and met half the people. The cliches of small-town laidback lifestyle are so true out here and for people from a quiet/smalltown background and an affinity for the outdoors it's an ideal place. The walk back from the campus to their apt is along a gorge and past a waterfall. Can't imagine a nicer walk back home everyday.

Perelman

I've been reading a lot about Perelman recently and felt prompted to write something about him. In case you're not aware, he was recently awarded the Fields medal which he declined. The Fields medal is the equivalent of the Nobel prize for mathematics and is awarded once in 4 years and to mathematicians under the age of 40. It is the most prestigious award in all of mathematics and because of the strict guidelines an incredibly hard award to win. He's also likely to win the Clay millenium award of a million dollars for solving one of the millenium problems - which he'll probably decline as well.

He proved the Poincare conjecture about 3 years ago and posted his papers on the internet. After people became aware of his results he was invited to lecture at various universitites in the US. I was a student in Boston at the time and went to MIT to listen to his lectures. Having studied in Boston for 5 years encountering math geniuses, freaks and prodigies was not out of the ordinary but this man was something else.

I reached MIT a bit late and sneaked in through the back door with a couple of friends. Very rarely are mathematics lectures packed to the point where people fight for standing room - this was one of those occasions. Perelman was standing in front of 5 blackboards, with every leading geometry/topology expert in the audience waiting to find a mistake in his lecture/proof and expose him. For any normal person presenting such a high profile proof in front of an audience like this would have been daunting. Not for him though.

He was dressed awkwardly. I can imagine a professor telling him to dress slightly decently as it was such a big occasion. He wore a jacket and pair of pants but underneath was a dirty zip-up jersey and a pair of old, beatup sneakers. The look on his face was one of a crazy man - eyes staring out into infinity, long fingernails and unkempt hair. If he'd stood in Harvard Square with a paper cup asking for change he would have looked like any other homeless guy hanging around. He kept staring away from the audience almost as if he was in a trance even while lecturing.

His lecture started with him writing a simple equation of about 6-7 symbols (The Ricci flow equation). That was it for the next 45 minutes. He held a wireless mike close to his lips and started talking math. Not a single slide was used, no notes and no more equations on the board. I understood almost nothing of what was going on but I could see the bigshot mathematicians leaning forward and their phd students scribbling away. Since the mike was close to his lips, one could hear him breathing heavily and he kept making a weird noise from his throat. I managed to imitate it at the back and forced a lot of other clueless people at the back into fits of laughter.

After 45 minutes of talking he proceeded to write a long equation with at least 20 different indices (I tried counting them as that was the only thing I could do to keep busy) which stretched across 3 blackboards. He paused, looked at it again and then changed a couple of symbols and then looked back and said something to the effect - I think that's it. The whole audience burst out into spontaneous applause but he seemed unruffled. He went on to give 3 lectures almost flawlessly and everyone believed he'd proved what he claimed.

He has a reputation of being a bit crazy. He loves to walk and once on his way to a conference met another participant at the airport. The other guy asked him how he was going and Grisha replied he was going to walk. The other guy walked along with him and 8 hours later, they reached the conference venue! He's retired from mathematics now and lives with his mother off the money he saved from his visiting positions in the US about ten years ago.

It's a bit sad to see how a lot of other mathematicians have tried to plagiarise and build on his work for the sake of tenure, prestige or money. But it's reassuring to know that among the math community it's accepted that he's the one who proved it and it's understandable why he's refused to accept an award in such circumstances. The Chinese mathematicians who claim to have proved it (using his ideas) should take a cue from him. He cared only about proving it to his own satisfaction and that was it. The rest can fight for all they want but he's going to sit happily in St Petersburg knowing he proved one of the hardest problems in all of mathematics - even Terrance Tao (one of the other Fields medalists) claims Perelman's work was easily the most important mathematical breakthrough in the last 10 years.

Breakdown

I had a fairly eventful drive down from Berkeley to LA. On the way up from LA, the car had been wobbling a little bit and I knew it was because of the alignment and old tires. Both my brother and I had been lazy about getting it fixed and kept telling the other one to do it and then finally didn't get around to it. I had just finished some stuff in Berkeley I was a bit tense about and also avoided a parking ticket by a few minutes. Hit a lot of traffic on the way out and so when I finally hit the highway to LA I turned up the radio, the AC was humming away and I felt relaxed. LA was about 4 hours away if I drove fast enough and there wasn't much traffic on the road. Suddenly, the car started wobbling even more and I heard a loud bang and the car almost veered out of control. Thankfully, there was nothing behind me and I managed to pull the car over onto the shoulder. It looked pretty bad. One of the front tires was completely gone and had almost come off.



I had no cellphone and was trying to figure out what to do. Looked around and in the distance saw this. Thankfully, till a few years ago there weren't too many cellphones around and in case of emergencies, things like this existed.



Picked up the phone and got through to an operator who first put me through to my brother in LA. His AAA insurance wouldn't work so he suggested I should get it towed to the closest mechanic and get the tires changed. After more than an hour of waiting a tow truck finally showed up. I didn't want to wait inside the car as it was pretty close to the cars and trucks driving by and each time a truck drove by the whole car would shake. Ended up sitting on the side on the grass in the harsh sunlight staring out across Fresno County. The tow truck guy came and said all the mechanics were closed (it was past 7pm) and I would have to wait till the morning to get it fixed. I had a flight to New York the next day and driving the same day would have made it very tight. Also, the idea of spending the night in a cheap motel in the area wasn't too exciting. He put on the spare tire and since it was a replacement I wasn't sure if it would last all the way to LA. Asked him and he said if I drove around 50 throughout it would probably last. Decided it was worth going ahead than sit around and do nothing till the morning.

Left around 730pm and drove at 50-55 throughout. The car was going fine so I relaxed and put on the AC and turned up the radio. The next 5 hours were excrutiatingly boring and driving so slowly meant I didn't overtake a single car on the way. Trucks, buses and even motorcycles zipped past me and I plodded along. The last 2 hours were a bit tense as it started to wobble again and with trucks all around me (I had to drive in the slow lane) I had to drive on red alert. Since I was driving uphill it seemed to be under quite a bit of strain. Turned off the AC and radio and every sound, bump and wobble made me more tense. If the car went out of control in this situtation it wouldn't be good with those gigantic trucks all around me. Finally managed to reach home at 2 am. It took me almost 10 hours from the time I left Berkeley.

Anyway, I'm in New York right now, sitting comfortably in Deniz's apartment enjoying his fancy home theatre system. Felt completely disoriented this morning so will just spend the day lying around here.

Point Reyes

Just spent the last two days at Point Reyes park. It's about an hour north of San Francisco and since I had a car and a couple of days to kill (I'm back in the bay area) I decided to head out there. I was carrying my tent and sleeping bag so that I could camp out there for one night. Since it was a sunday afternoon, it wasn't too busy and the ranger at the visitor centre told me I could camp almost anywhere. Parked my car, packed my stuff into my smaller backpack and headed out with a map following a trail and encountered this pretty soon.



Walked on and found the first campsite (the one I had a permit for) after a decent 2-3 hour walk. Decided it was a bit boring and hiked up another trail towards the beach. It was a pleasant walk and since it was overcast I didn't sweat much either. After another hour or so of walking came up to the edge of some cliffs over the water and found another campsite and decided this was it - even though I didn't have a permit for that site. It was right next to the ocean and apart from one other tent it seemed very quiet and not busy at all. Pitched my tent with a great view of the ocean and walked down to the beach.





Crashed around 9 as it was pretty dark and went off to sleep with the sound of the ocean waves crashing furiously against the rocky cliffs. Woke up early to catch the sunrise. It was too overcast to see anything so I went back to sleep and then woke up hearing noises next to my tent. Poked my head out and saw my old friend.



He didn't seem to bothered by my presence but after I came back from my morning routine he was gone. Walked up along the coastal route and since it was a monday morning it was absolutely empty. Found a huge rock in the middle and had lunch consisting of two energy bars and a bottle of water. After another 2-3 hours of walking I reached my car and then drove out towards the lighthouse on the southern side of the park. It's not in service anymore but is very pretty especially as it juts out into the ocean.



It was almost 4 so I decided to head back to Berkeley. On the way back I missed the Bay bridge towards Berkeley and ended up on the highway towards the Golden Gate bridge. Driving over the Golden Gate bridge was a nice experience with the huge red columns and the SF skyline on the left. At the toll booth, I asked the attendant about getting towards Berkeley and she gave me some directions. Since I'd spent 3 days in San Francisco and walked all over I was familiar with the city so I had no problem following her directions though I hit some really bad traffic and was also running out of gas as I didn't think I'd need to refuel before reaching Berkeley. The freeway was bumper to bumper traffic and I also didn't have a cellphone so I had to make some very bold moves across three lanes to take the right exit for Berkeley. Am back in A & L's apt and ready to pass out. Heading back to LA tomorrow and then flying out to New York the next day.

LALA land

This is my umpteenth trip to LA and the first time I've felt independent enough to drive around and do stuff on my own. The last time I was here I drove quite a bit but I wasn't too familiar with the streets or comfortable enough to drive around. To take a break from sitting at home most of the day struggling to get some work done I managed to go down to Venice beach a few times to go for a run. Around 630 in the evening, the sun isn't too strong and the breeze is invigorating. Running along the beach front, watching the sun set, seeing beach volleyball games and listening to the drummers in the distance is great fun. What makes it even more worthwhile is all the amazingly beautiful people with their perfectly tanned and athletic figures. Sadly, with my receding hairline and beer belly I don't quite fit in with the super athletic bikers and runners. It's even worse if one goes to the some of the cafes or bars in the area but a great place to people watch.

Also went for a free jazz concert at the Hammer art museum. The atmosphere and ambience was great but the music was a bit too much for an untrained or tone deaf person like me. Sounded more like the soundtrack of a bad horror film with all the screechy sounds.

LA

Reached LA yesterday after a very boring drive. There are 2 ways to drive from San Francisco to LA - either the Pacific coast highway which is a beautiful, scenic drive along the Pacific but about 12 hrs long or the Interstate 5 which is a flat, boring highway like any other interstate in the country but takes about 6 hours. I've been up and down from LA to SF 2-3 times and each time it's been the flat, fast route. Unfortunately, even this time it was the flat boring route and we covered it in less than 6 hours. The car didn't have any airconditioning and within 20 minutes of heading out of Berkeley, it was quite an energy sapping drive because of the heat. I got a ride from one of the conference participants who was driving down to Caltech and it was hard to talk about anything except number theory and math rumours and gossip.

Since Pasadena and LA (where my brother lives) aren't too close it seemed like a nice idea to get dropped off at the Pasadena metro station and ask my brother to pick me up from the station closest to his house. In hindsight, it was a stupid idea. I've taken the LA-Pasadena metro once and had forgotten how long it can take. The LA metro is possibly the most underused, slow and forgotten subway system in the world. In a city where distances are huge (a 20 min drive = close by) the metro is quite useless. At the Pasadena station there were 4 other people waiting with me - a slightly scared looking elderly couple and 2 black kids talking loudly. With my huge backpack it was hard to fit on the only remaining space on the bench so I just kept standing. It took almost 20 mins for the next train to arrive and I couldn't see a single white person on the train. The crowd seemed like a mix of fairly down-and-out tired looking people and a few young kids talking loudly. Halfway through, a completely drunk, white guy walked in with an 80s style mullet and a bottle of vodka in one hand. He sat right opposite me and kept dozing off and waking up, shouting "nigger" and "bitch" to himself. The stench of cheap vodka almost filled the whole coach. Finally reached Union station after about 30 mins and then had to wait another 20 mins for the next line which I had to take.

Not having a cellphone meant I couldn't call up my brother and tell him to not be at the station for another 20 mins. By the time I reached the station, he'd been waiting for almost an hour and finding parking on a Saturday night near Koreatown wasn't easy. Keeping busy for an hour after parking couldn't have been too much fun with no cafes or bookshops closeby. Reached home around 1030 at night and realised it would have been easier and faster for him to drive to Pasadena and pick me up. Anyway, after more than 2 weeks of shared accomodation and dorm-type food, having homecooked food and my own room and bathroom feels great.

Compute, compute, compute

The workshop gets over tomorrow and then a day later I'm going down to LA to spend about a week with my brother and his wife. It's been an interesting workshop. Of all the conference/workshops that I've gone for this was easily the most useful and productive one. What was different was the style and pace of the workshop. Most math conferences consist of a bunch of lectures, a few question-answer sessions and informal discussions with other mathematicians. Some of the discussions can lead to future work but it's mostly about networking and letting other people know about your work or existence.

This one was a very intense workshop with lectures in the morning on the computational aspects of number theory followed by coding sessions through the day. Different problems had been posed before the workshop and people worked in groups on the problem they were interested in. It was my first experience (since a couple of farcical undergraduate projects) of working in a group and trying to make presentations of everything that had been done in a short period of time. Over the last 10 years, as computers have become faster, a number of programs have been written which make computations of fairly sophisticated and abstract concepts much easier. The main purpose of this workshop is to integrate a lot of the existing programs into a free, open source language called SAGE. This will hopefully become the main resource for programming and building databases of examples and computations. As it's free and open source, changes and developments can be made by anyone using it. It's an ambitious project and it looks like it's gathering a lot of momentum.

For the past few years, I've worked in a very abstract and theoretical aspect of math (number theory - though it has nothing to do with numbers) and become used to working alone using simply pen and paper or a blackboard. Occasionally, about once a week or two, I used to meet my advisor for less than an hour to ask questions or show him what I'd done but that was about it. It takes months or close to a year to work out a reasonably advanced problem so one gets used to plodding away for weeks with nothing to show. There are no experiments to run, events to understand, societies or people to study or laws of nature to follow. Then, there's suddenly a flash of insight and a few lines of abstract nonsense can explain something very clearly. Sometimes subtle mistakes can be passed over since only a few people actually cared about the problem. What is daunting is coming across other mathematicians who are far more comfortable with the concepts one struggles with, and who seem to say things which can seem incredibly vague. When things make sense, it's a very enlightening moment.

Working on a computer with a group was completely different. There are instant results popping out all the time. This leads to a lot of quick thrills, high fiving and instant elation. Also, a lot of frustration, when there are errors or bugs in a program. Four of us sat around a computer and kept bouncing ideas off each other and writing down code. Since it was my first experience at programming there were more bugs and errors throughout but getting a program to work is pretty satisfying. A lot of the programming skills and structures that I saw and learnt are definitely useful. Writing a code to compute a series of examples of various cases actually helped to understand a lot of things compared to reading a paper or a book on the same topic. Especially as a slight error or bug is evident immediately. It also involves a completely different way of thinking compared to what I've done in the last few years and it's been an enjoyable experience.

Though the larger question did loom - was it really so useful and important? The main idea of the problem was to compute some very specific examples, so specific that it's hard to come up with a conjecture or construct a general theory around them. What surprised me was the large number of people who seem to do just this - compute, compute and compute. Words like interesting, cool and exciting were used a lot. A few conjectures kept floating around and since it's a high-speed game people tend to claim things too soon. I've always had a fairly low opinion of my own mathematical and research skills and in an objective discipline like mathematics it's easy to see how good/useful someone's paper is. My thesis was pretty average and at most reasonable. Seeing the way people were getting excited over small computations was puzzling. The prospect of publishing a paper out of all this is what seems to excite everyone, not the prospect of coming up with a useful idea. I'm pretty sure it's the same in other disciplines as well.

I have a long rant on how 80-90% of academic/research papers are complete nonsense (including my own thesis). Forget about them being useful to our daily life, they're not even useful in the narrow academic discipline they fall under. But that's something I'll touch on later when I have a lot more time to waste.

math and baseball

Went out with the geeks for a group outing yesterday. After a week of hanging out in the same institute and dorm, 4 of us discovered we were all big baseball fans and decided to go and watch a game in San Francisco on Saturday. Asked around if others were interested and about 10 other people came along. They weren't interested in the baseball but more keen on sightseeing in San Francisco.

Organizing a trip with almost 15 people wasn't fun especially as a lot of them had no clue of how to go into San Francisco and what to do. One of the baseball fans decided to be the tour guide and he took everyone on a walking tour of San Francisco's touristy sights. Cameras were whipped out all the time and it was a bit awkward travelling in a big group, doing headcounts, asking what to do next, etc. Since a bunch of us were going to the baseball game later in the evening and I don't have a cellphone anymore I had to stick with them. Managed to sneak away for a while to City Lights and bumped into Darius and David, 2 physicists from MIT who I knew while in Boston. It was quite bizarre running into them in San Francisco, having not met in Boston for almost a year.

Ended up walking all the way up to the Ghirardelli chocolate factory where I had a sinful sundae. One of the baseball fans, Nathan, told me how he had finished 2 vermonsters. At Ben and Jerry's icecream a vermonster consists of all 42 scoops of icecream and all possible toppings in one huge bucket. It costs 42$ and if any one person can finish it, he doesn't have to pay for it. Nathan used to play semi-professional rugby for a few years and after a 6 hour session, went with his entire team to the store and finished off a vermonster. Apparently, he didn't struggle while finishing it.

The game was pretty ordinary but the baseball park is beautiful. It's on the south side of the city and overlooks the Berkeley and Oakland hills over the bay. Watching the sunset and the hills light up with a game in front was pretty enchanting. Spent most of the time yakking about math gossip and cheering the occasional hit and trying to boo Barry Bonds. The baseball world might boo him for his steroids but San Francisco still loves him. He didn't hit a home run over into the bay but pulled a foul ball over. The lone kayaker in the waters promptly jumped in to fetch it.

Geek world

I've been surrounded by supergeeks for the past 5-6 days. One of them is carrying his own wireless router so that he could get wireless access in his room. A bunch of them have been wearing T-shirts with math jokes on them and some with formulas in the front and references on the back. The chief geek is the main organiser of the workshop, WS and has an interesting autobiography on his webpage. He's assembled a computer with 64GB of ram and once took apart a wristwatch and converted it to calculate some sophisticated math formulas.

This workshop is about using computer programs to have a more hands-on approach to number theory rather than use just abstract reasoning. So, half the participants (like me) are here with zero knowledge of programming while the other half is full of geeks (like WS) who're obsessed with telling each other about the latest tricks or codes they've cracked. Lecture notes, slides, etc are updated realtime on the conference website rather than the standard math conference which has only blackboard presentations with no slides.

I've been sitting in a corner with my laptop at an angle so that nobody can make out I'm actually reading cricket and baseball scores. Over the last few years, I've perfected the art of looking busy and involved in a math lecture. A little bit of fidgeting, some scribbling on a piece of paper, a deep frown and then a quick nod of the head to make people think I follow what's happening. Very reluctantly, I've let people know that I'm not a student anymore so I can't keep hiding behind the magic words "I don't know". In this workshop though everyone else around me is writing code at the same time as listening to the presentations. I feel like a con artist sitting out here surrounded by nerds.

The location of MSRI, a math research institute, is spectacular and is the first math building I've seen which is not the ugliest and most boring place imaginable. The Berkeley math dept is ugly, but MSRI has a breathtaking view of the university, the SF skyline and the Golden Gate. I have a great view from my office and watching the sun set is quite magical.

San Francisco diary

Shaking off the jetlag wasn't too hard. Since I reached in the middle of the day all I had to do was stay up till around 8 or 9 pm. Went out for a walk and saw a grungy side of San Francisco which I hadn't seen on my previous two trips. The last time I came here was with my older brother and we stayed in a hostel on the north side. The hostel I'm in on this trip is on the south side (SOMA - south of market) and it's not as gentrified as the other side. Went out for a walk as staying in the hostel would have resulted in crashing out and waking up at an awkward hour. Saw more weirdos and homeless people in 30 minutes than I could recall from the last two trips. Walked around aimlessly and then headed back to the hostel. Am sharing a room with a guy called Ben who's been living in the same hostel room for more than a year. He's about 50 and makes Tamales for a living. Told me he came up from LA to San Francisco for a weekend 2 years back, loved it completely and then never went back. Decided he'd had enough of working for other people and decided to live here. The hostel owners treat him like one of them and he's converted the 4 person dorm into a small home with his bike, CD player, TV, clothes neatly organised. He goes to bars which don't have food where he makes and sells Tamales. He was on his way out to *work*, tied a bandana, put on a bowler hat, shrugged his shoulders and said "I guess I'm just an old hippy".

The other guy (he moved in tonight) is even weirder. A 48 year old Hungarian immigrant, Gabor's here to run the San Francisco marathon tomorrow. It's his 45th marathon. Yes, 45 marathons. He ran 12 marathons last year all over the world including one in Sydney where it was 104 degrees. 12 marathons in one year! What's even funnier is how stingy he is. He's a self employed tax lawyer but is staying in a cheap rundown hostel after taking the greyhound to come up here from LA. He has two daughters who are now in college and was talking to me about expensive it is to pay for college tuitions. The marathon starts at 530 tomorrow so he was grumbling about missing the free breakfast. I told him *breakfast* consisted of a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and starts at 9 am. He thought it about and realised that he wouldn't be able to make it back from the marathon in time so he asked me to make a sandwich for him and keep it on his bed. Since there's no free pre-marathon pasta dinner he's just drinking some water and maybe a couple of energy bars. His rationale for running marathons is to avoid illnesses and diseases when he gets older which would mean saving money on doctor's fees. Wow!

The last time I came I loved the Italian district especially Cafe Trieste and City Lights bookstore - both within a minute's walk of each other. It's a 30 minute walk from the hostel through the grungy south side, chaotic chinatown to the hip Italian district. Since I need to get back to math mode, I've been camping out in Cafe Trieste with my laptop and papers trying to shake of the rust of not having done any math for more than 2 months. Much harder than shaking off the jetlag. Cafe Trieste is an interesting place. It has a large number of regular customers who the staff knows well and who sit around and just chat, tourists who come with cameras and keep staring at the pictures on the wall and students or independent professionals plugging away on their laptops. But, it's not overly crowded or loud. Almost the perfect atmosphere and decor with a staff happy to let people sit in a corner all day. After pottering around with math and surfing in between (free wifi) I've rewarded myself by going up to the reading room loft in city lights bookstore with a bunch of graphic novels.

The bookstore has a great section on graphic novels and till 2 days ago I'd only ever read one or two of them. I read R Crumb's Kafka and Spiegelman's Maus I and Maus II. I found all of them riveting especially the Kafka one. I never quite understood or appreciated Kafka's books nor a few films based on his books. This one captured and explained a lot of things about his life and work in a medium I've just started to explore. Maus I and II are about how a Polish Jew survived the holocaust and I finished both of them in one go.

san francisco

I just reached San Francisco after a long and uneventful flight. Checked into a slightly run down hostel in the centre of the city. I'm here to attend a workshop at MSRI, Berkeley and will move into the campus housing on sunday. Since I need to prepare a bit for it and didn't want to be jetlagged and sleepy at the beginning I decided to get here a bit early. Getting to the hostel from the airport wasn't hard except lugging my gigantic backpack through the subway. It's lighter than it was when I left Boston 2 months ago but still not easy to fit into the subway coaches. It took me roughly 24 hours from the time I left for the airport to checking in to the hostel. Everytime I've flown from the US to India it always takes the same amount of time. It doesn't matter which direction you fly in or how connections you have to make. Almost like taking buses from Delhi University. No matter where you lived it always took (at least) one hour. Till the metro came about.

Speaking of the metro, I managed to finally go on the Delhi Metro two days before I left. Going from Connaught Place to Delhi University used to be a major hike (at least one hour!) but now on the metro it takes ten minutes! I was stunned by the metro and never thought something so modern, clean and efficient could be built right in the centre of Delhi.

I ended up going on the metro with two old friends from college, Karan and Latika, who I met after more than 7 years. The three of us lived reasonably close to each other when we joined college and used to take the same bus initially till Karan and I moved into the college residence halls and shared a room in our first year. The three of us also went on some hiking trips together and somehow lost touch after college. Going with the two of them on the metro to the university felt a bit surreal since commuting on the buses wasn't easy and we used to try hitching rides often. Feel envious of students now who can use the metro to get around.

Around the same time that I left Boston with nothing but a backpack, Karan was doing the same thing in Bangalore. He packed up everything in a backpack and gave away the rest of his stuff and set off. He ended up somewhere near the northeast and ran out of money. Sold his cellphone to get some money to go hiking. After that he showed up at his parents house in Delhi. When he saw my blog - homeless, jobless, broke and single - he knew exactly what I meant. Quite a coincidence that my roomate from 11 years ago was going through exactly the same stage. Between college and now, he's had an interesting life. He graduated from a prestigious business school and started working with Citibank. Got bored and tired and chucked it to go off to Switzerland to do some farming and worked with people with special needs. Then an NGO in rural south india which dealt with water conservation. After that he learnt reiki and tried teaching that but it didn't work out. Latika studied art history and criss-crossed the globe working on a massive project to document Indian art and sculpture. She's been to almost every major art gallery/museum over a lengthy period researching art. Both of them are living with their parents in Delhi, not much money in hand, no idea of what job to do and no signs of getting married. But no airs about saving the world, no disdain for people who aren't in the same boat, no standing up for pseudo principles or angst against the rest of the world. Meeting them both was reassuring.

Kumaon

I spent the last 5 days in Kumaon with my parents. For the uninformed, Kumaon is the region in the Himalayas where my parents, grandparents and every other ancestor was born and brought up. I wasn't born there nor did I ever live there but have always considered Kumaon as the region to which I belong. Ever since I can remember my whole family (and other friends who my parents would take along) would drive up to the hills in the summer and spend most of our time driving around in a convoy, staying with relatives and in old tourist resthouses. For my parents it was always a sort of homecoming as they spent a significant part of their childhood in the hills. For my brothers and me, it was a respite from the heat in the plains and a time to go for long, leisurely walks, enjoy some spectacular mountain views, play games in the old houses we stayed in and meet aunts, uncles, cousins and lunatics (some of whom were aunts or uncles).

Nainital and Almora are the two big urban centres of Kumaon. My mother studied in Nainital till 16 and my father spent most of his summers in Almora and though both towns have now become dirty, ugly and congested for my parents they still retain the charm they had in the 50s and 60s. In the 60s Almora became popular with hippies including the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Timothy Leary. Somewhere around that time my father, who was in his teens, befriended a lot of the lesser known hippies. My father's parents were fairly strict and conservative but he managed to convince them that he was going to the temples as part of a religious awakening and not because of the crazy hippies hanging around. Every year, my brothers and I would be regaled with crazy stories of those years and somewhere that part of him hasn't gone away. On the other side, my mother went to a strict christian missionary school in Nainital and part of the training she received in those years hasn't gone away either. A trip to the mountains is a bit like a geography, history, sociology and family history lesson. As a result, even though my brothers and I didn't spend much time there we developed a strong attachment to the hills.

Since this was just a 5 day trip without my brothers or other friends or relatives, it was very different. There were no long walks, no chilling beer in a stream, no 2-3 day drives to reach what seemed like the end of the earth to us at that time, or late nights of board games and cards huddled underneath blankets. We spent 2 nights in Bhimtal at a cousin's house which resembles a resort. It was easily the most opulent place I've stayed in and there were more bedrooms than guests. One night in Almora at our ancestral home and one night in Jageshwar. The most we walked was about 30 mins and we stopped for tea almost every 15 minutes. This was also the first trip where we all put on weight after coming back.

The drive up consisted of stretches where the highway resembled world class roads which was a welcome relief after so many years but in between there were stretches through villages, dusty towns and potholes which reminded me of how tiring roadtrips in India can be. Throughout the drive my parents insisted on stopping every hour because a particlar town was known for mangoes, another for potatoes and a small 20 minute stretch for corn. My grandparents used to be like that years ago and seeing my parents behave like that was amusing. I went back to Kumaon after 7 years and the weird and unnerving part was meeting relatives who had aged rapidly, a favourite uncle who wasn't around anymore and cousins who were no longer kids but getting ready to join college.

Almora seems to have aged but going to Jageshwar was a refreshing change. Jageshwar is a town which seems to have been bypassed by inflation, development and globalisation. For a tourist it's reassuring though I'm not sure how the locals view the lack of progress. The claim to fame of Jageshwar is a stunningly beautiful stone temple built somewhere between the 8th and 10th century in the middle of a thick deodhar forest. It's quite mindboggling to think of how they managed to build a temple like that more than a thousand years ago. I went for a short walk one afternoon and since it was raining off and on, I followed the main road and resisted jumping into the forest and following some trail. Spent most of the afternoon sitting opposite the Dandeshwar temple and reading a book in a small tea shop. There were about 10 other people sitting around doing nothing except talking about the activities of the three monkies jumping around the temple. Sat and talked to the tea shop owner in halting Pahadi and he cursed the local politicians. After almost 3 hours of sitting there and endless cups of tea the bill came to about 10 Rs. It was about 2 Rs for a cup of tea - things haven't changed in a long time.

I didn't take a camera with me and really regretted it. Since it's the rainy season, the mountains are beautiful and almost every turn we took resembled a picture postcard like shot with low lying clouds over lush green moutains and red tin-roofs standing out prominently. Maybe next time.

ban on blogs?

I just got back from a 5 day trip to the mountains and jumped at the computer to catch up on my mail and blog. Can't seem to read my blog (or any other blog). Just read on bbc that the Indian govt has banned blogs. If this post goes through then there's still a way to post on my blog but not read it. Crazy.

Big brother is watching over you

I recently started using gmail and love its features. Like all google products it's different from other existing products and easy to use and I wish I'd started using it earlier. The scary thing is the advertising content on the right. Ever since I started blogging and using google calendar it seems like google knows what I'm up to everyday. When I've emailed people about giving talks or staying with someone it asks me if I want to add it to the calendar. Below it are advertising links which seem very relevant. When I email people about staying with them it tells me about cheap hostels or bed and breakfast kind of places. When I email people about some math research it advertises math softwares and job sites. When I email people about plans in Delhi it advertises movies and restaurants. It's a bit unnerving to see how they read your emails and advise you on what to do. Now that I've started using so many of their products and can't bring myself to switch to other stuff I feel like I've been sucked into the world of google and soon will have daily reminders and updates on what to do, eat, wear, etc. At least microsoft only tried to dominate the software market. Google looks like it's going to take over the lives of geeks.

Conspiracy theories

1) The last time Italy won the World cup (in 1982) the Italian soccer league had a similar scandal about match fixing. 13 players in the squad of 23 were in the 4 clubs involved in matchfixing.

2) Ribery was probably the most exciting and consistent French player in the World cup. Henry was easily the best French player yesterday. I'm sure Henry is a good penalty taker. Why were the two of them taken off in extra time when penalties were obvious?

3) Zidane has a history of madness and 14 red cards. But the cool way he took his penalty and his almost emotionless reaction after scoring a goal and getting sent off seemed too weird. He's their captain and their best penalty taker. With his sending off France had no attack left and seemed in shock.

4) What the hell did Materazzi say to Zidane to provoke him? Racial slurs and abuse are an unfortunate part of international sport. Surely Zidane has dealt with worse through his career. You can't play at this level without being mentally and emotionally tough - which I'm sure Zidane is.

5) The shady way in which Italy got a penaly against Australia seems even worse now. Grosso faked a dive in the last 5 seconds and the referee knew that was the last kick of the game. Down to 10 men against a very fit Australian side I doubt if they could have survived in extra time.

6) How could FIFA give Zidane the golden ball? He was awful in the opening rounds, invisible against Portugal in the semis and pretty bad in the final. He pulled France through against Spain and Brazil but that was about it - apart from the 2 penalties. Cannavaro was the heart and soul of an Italian defense which conceded only two goals in the entire tournament (one penalty and one own-goal). He was rock solid throughout the tournament and easily the player of the tournament.

7) The main referee and the sideline referee didn't see the headbutt. Someone made them see the TV replay. Has that ever happened before in the middle of a football match?

My theory is that the world cup was fixed. After the scandal of matchfixing the Italian fans had only the world cup to look forward to. A loss would have resulted in the fans getting cynical and turned off the game. That would have resulted in huge losses in revenue which the Italian league couldn't afford. I think that's what Materazi must have told Zidane (the match is fixed and that's why Henry and Ribery were taken off) and Zidane had an idea about the whole thing. He probably didn't want to be part of it and decided to go off in dramatic fashion rather than take the loser's medal. The Golden Ball award must be a way to appease him.

PS This is obviously a very outlandish theory so don't read it too seriously. A lot like any theorem I might come up with.

What the *&^(^*??

What happened to Zidane? 10 minutes to go for penalties. He's the captain, designated penalty taker and he headbutts an Italian for no apparent reason. Or maybe, Materazzi (right?) knew how to upset him but it was quite an unbelievable scene. The match was ok, not too great, not too boring. Still shaking my head at Zidane's behaviour. What a stupid and sad exit.

What a letdown

The France-Portugal match was such a disappointment. Both teams seemed to be playing without any plan or coordination. Zidane was invisible in the second half and only Ronaldo had some exciting moves in the match. The defending was sloppy and compared to Cannavaro's performance in the previous match it resembled a bunch of schoolboys playing defense. Maybe FIFA should nullify the match and make Italy and Germany play in the final.

Italiaaaaaa

Last night's match was the best so far. The first half was fast paced, evenly matched and both teams were playing attacking football. The defending and goalkeeping was what kept it from being a high scoring match. Not surprisingly, the second half wasn't as intense and it looked like the Italians were having an extended siesta. The extra time period was where the Italians stamped their authority on the game. The two chances at the beginning of the first half which hit the posts and then the desperate attacks at the end showed that they didn't want it to go to penalties - where the Germans have never lost. The pressure and home support might have been too much for the Italians. The two goals were so clinically executed and the finishing was perfect. Two beautiful curling kicks past Lehman showed how tough it was to score against him. Del Piero's finish was quite dramatic. An ageing superstar coming off the bench, he knew exactly when to make that great run on the counterattack (he was obviously not as tired) and the placement in the end was a dagger through the Germans' heart. Felt sorry for Klinsi and his team. Tonight's match will probably not be as intense but Zidane's in amazing form and he's a joy to watch.

Summing up

1) Brazil put up a very insipid and uninspired performance. They deserved to lose. I thought Zidane was excellent and he played a lot like he did in the 98 world cup. Seemed to be in control whenever he had the ball. Ronaldinho was the biggest disappointment.

2) Why did Argentina not bring on either Messi or Saviola in extra-time? They went too defensive after scoring a goal and it obviously wasn't their natural way of playing. Watching Germany fight back and attack relentlessly was quite exciting. Ballack was everywhere and Germany has been the most consistent team throughout the world cup.

3) Did Rooney deserve a red card? His trampling on the Portugese player's groin didn't seem intentional. That sending off changed the whole tempo though England had so many clear chances to score a goal. In the penalty shootout they looked too scared and since they've never won a shootout it didn't look they expected to win.

4) Italy and France have shaken off sluggish starts and in the beginning it didn't look they'd have a chance to be in the semis. Spain and Argentina looked more likely to get there.

5) Can't figure out who to root for. Probably Italy.