The "drive" to move

My resignation from N1 was approved last week.  I will be moving in December after finishing my semester responsibilities here.  So, from time to time, I will write about preparations for the upcoming move.

This week, I was back home for a few days to celebrate the festive season.  I met some friends and relatives, who are happy about the upcoming move to New1 city and have generously offered congratulatory best wishes and lots of well meant advice.  Most of what they say now is exactly what they said two years ago when I was moving to N1.  For example,

"You will enjoy the intellectual/cultural atmosphere at N1 city," 

"we will certainly visit you there," 

"the traffic is bad," 

"you should buy a car and learn driving"

and, of course, the classic

"We know so and so over there.  Here is their phone number.  You must get in touch with them.  They are verrrrrrry nice people."

None of the above, except the bad traffic, came to pass.  I never really got a chance to enjoy the cultural atmosphere of N1 city, my relatives never visited me, I did not buy a car and I certainly never bothered to contact the people whose phone numbers were given to me.  Not that I missed any of the above, but I do find it amusing that the above comments are being repeated verbatim!

But, one advice that I am taking very seriously this time is that of buying a car and learning to drive.

Ideally, I would love to just keep a bicycle and not have to worry about car maintenance, heavy traffic , parking etc.  I managed fairly well with a bicycle at my postdoc locations and at N1, but this does not seem feasible at New1 city.

Strictly speaking, one could manage without a car there, but having one does present many advantages.  For example, if needed, I can stay in the department till late to finish any important work without having to worry about safety issues and keeping a car does provide an extra degree of freedom for shopping, traveling etc.

I learnt driving as soon as I turned 18 and was very fond of it.  But, I lost touch after I went to North America.  This week, my father has been giving me lessons every morning.  It seems that just like cycling and swimming, one does not really forget driving.  However, my main challenge has been to overcome the initial hesitation.
As an 18 year old, I was indestructible - no amount of traffic and no fear of damaging my (father's) car bothered me.   But, I am paranoid right now [1].  The roads are practically empty in the morning, but it took me two days to even try driving at 3rd gear or above.  Also, I will need some serious practice before I can be confident about parking [in fact, I find parking much harder than driving properly].

My plan is to take some driving lessons again after I move to New1 city, even though my father feels it is not necessary.  Some of my colleagues  at New1 have suggested some reliable teachers.

The next question is to decide which model.  I am thinking of a Hyundai i10 sportz.
i10 seems to be a favourite with most of my colleagues and this model has an added advantage of automatic gears [2].  But, some of my friends think that once I overcome my initial fears and get more driving practice, I might not care so much for automatic gears.  So, I am still giving this more thought.

But, each time, I start to think about cars and driving, my first inclination is to think of reasons not to buy a car and strategies to manage comfortably without one.   Sadly, this time, I have no option but to overcome this fear!


Comments/tips/driving stories are most welcome!




[1] To begin with, this time, I am practicing on my brother's car, and not my father's good old Maruti 800.  That itself is a scary proposition!

[2] The other day, my sister-in-law joked that I need not fear driving as driving a car with automatic gears is as easy as driving a toy car at Appu Ghar.  

Clothes maketh the prof?

At first, I thought that this blog post might be a bit shallow, but realized that on the contrary, it is related to a topic that has been written about a lot in the academic blogosphere.  FSP has a series of posts related to academic dressing tagged under the label "What to wear".

It is a topic on which my father and I have a lot of argument.  My father is a retired army officer with a very sophisticated approach to dressing up.  He is almost always dressed up formally, for example, here's him making tea: (pardon the crease on his coat- he had just arrived at N1 after a long flight and a jittery road journey!)[1]

He has a lot of trouble accepting the casual and extremely informal manner in which academics dress (especially those in my STEM field!)

I, on the other hand, am the exact opposite.  I don't particularly try to dress formally and am fairly comfortable in a "casual dress" atmosphere. 

During one of my job talks two years ago, my father graciously agreed to give me a ride to the institute.  I thought it would also be good for him to experience the atmosphere at a research institute.  However, as we set out to leave, he was "very concerned" to see me dress up in jeans.  Despite his repeated remonstrances, I refused to change.  He was not too pleased, but relaxed a little after arriving at the institute and realizing that he was the only formally dressed up person in the whole building.

My father strongly believes that one must dress appropriately for all occasions and cannot imagine how a professor can teach wearing shorts/jeans and T-shirts and still earn the respect of his/her students [2].  I have tried hard to convince him that most students don't care about how their profs dress and are more concerned about how and what they teach, but to no avail.

Recently, Doordarshan aired a small documentary on N1.  I informed him about the timing and he sat down to watch it very eagerly.  Though it is not the best documentary ever made, I personally enjoyed watching my favourite colleagues talking about the academic programmes at N1, their research equipments and labs, performance of students, N1's place in the scientific landscape of India etc.  My father likes to read and talk about science and I expected that he might ask me more questions about these things when we talked later.

Later that evening, when I asked my father how he found the documentary, he said that although he found it very informative, he felt that it would have had a "higher impact" if the people shown in the documentary had dressed better.  I argued with him once again and said that the documentary served its purpose by showcasing honestly what a typically normal day at N1 is like.  Faculty members dressing up formally for one day just to shoot a documentary would have been superficial and unreal.   But, he emphasised that dressing up and presenting oneself appropriately for a programme shown on National TV was very important.  I tried very hard, but failed to convince him that "appropriate dressing" has different connotations in a military cantonment and an academic establishment.

Finally, to change the topic, he asked me why I was not in the documentary.  I am very glad that I was not in the documentary.  On the day it was being shot, I was very "inappropriately" dressed.  I am not sure how he would have reacted to see his daughter on National TV wearing a black T-shirt and blue capris!





[1] The reason he is in the kitchen making tea and not me is because he is also very particular about how he likes his evening tea.  
[2] I once introduced him to a colleague who was heading towards the institute one morning.  My father later asked me if this person was the PT instructor!

On strong PhD programmes

A few days ago, in response to this post, a commenter wondered if Indian institutes, including the new ones, are turning into factories to train students to go abroad.  I don't have the general statistics about students staying back in India vis-a-vis students going abroad.  But, from what I observe at N1, a good chunk of our faculty members have studied at institutes like IISc or other older institutes.  So, these institutes have not just trained people who leave the country, but have also trained a sufficient number of people who are doing excellent work at new institutes and are building them up.

But, to come back to the commenter's specific concern, can the new institutes do more to create a research environment that can motivate more students to stay back?  Well, for starters, we can have well designed and competitive PhD programmes which will inspire, attract and motivate interested students.

Scientists and educators  with more experience and accomplishments can of course offer much more carefully thought out views about this matter.  But, two recent incidents have motivated me to write and share some thoughts about it (for whatever they are worth).  I apologize in advance for my scattered thoughts and some "wild speculation" that follows.

Firstly, I have been spending a lot of time with a student in our Post BSc Integrated PhD (PBIP) programme.  In this programme, students finish course work (equivalent to MSc) in the first two years.  In addition, in their second year, they choose an area of interest in which they do a year-long project.  At the end of the second year, they take a comprehensive exam, and if successful, start working towards their PhD in the third year.  The primary advantage of this format is that in the first two years, we can give a rigorous training to students as per the standards and requirements of our PhD programme.  This gives them a stronger foundation to start their PhD at the beginning of the third year with a supervisor.  But, at the end of the second year, students also have the option of leaving with an MSc.

This student is doing her Master's project with me.  As I am leaving next term, we are trying to finish most of her project work while I am still here and she has easier access to me.  This student is very eager, motivated and hard working.  She is, in essence, the first student of our PBIP programme [1].  Her performance, so far, has been brilliant.  So, members of my department have been mulling a lot about how our PBIP programme can be strengthened so that students like her can get the most out of it and retain their motivation.  Moreover, how can we ensure that students like her stay back with us for a PhD and not move at the end of the second year?

Rephrase: How can we attract talented students like her to stay back with us?  [2]

Secondly, there has been some discussion at N1 recently about the underlying objective of the institute.  While some members of our institute primarily think of it as an undergraduate teaching institution and wish to mould it accordingly (with a vision of faculty members doing research in addition to their primary undergraduate teaching responsibilities), some other members see our institute as a research institution, which, equally importantly, teaches and trains students at all levels (undergraduate as well as post graduate) to do science [3].

Members of the latter group feel that to accomplish this vision, our PBIP programme, as well as our PhD programme, should be given  as much importance as the Integrated BS-MS programme.  In fact, it is felt that the PBIP programme should be considered as much a flagship programme of the N-type institutes as the BS-MS programme.

The programme, as it currently stands, may come across as a mere sidekick to the nationally recognized BS-MS programme.  For example, I am not sure about other N institutes, but at N1, we do not have separate courses for the PBIP programme.
Instead, we ask PBIP students to take courses in the higher levels of the BS-MS programme.  This is mainly because of (hopefully short-term) logistical issues, like non-availability of enough faculty to teach so many courses.  Thus, instead of designing courses specifically for the requirements of these students, we only adjust them into our existing courses, which were designed for a different programme.  This may not necessarily inspire the confidence of the students who pursue PBIP or train them in the best possible way [4].

Recognizing PBIP as a flagship programme will lead to proper planning of the course structure in keeping with its aims and very importantly, hiring of enough faculty  to keep the programme running independently.

Another very interesting idea that is being discussed among some faculty members is the possibility of a common national-level entrance procedure into PBIP for all the N-institutes akin to that of the BS-MS programme.  This might enable these institutes to publicize this programme more widely and tap into a bigger pool of talented and interested students.

Given the energy levels and the flowering research programmes of many faculty members at the N institutes, the PBIP programmes at these institutes certainly have a very bright future.

I hope to blog more about this issue as I understand it better.  Inputs/comments from readers will be highly appreciated.

I know that some of the readers of this blog are PBIP students at N-type institutes.
It would be great to hear back from them about their experience with this programme.



[1] Another student had been chosen in the batch before her.  But, he left the programme because he found the course work daunting.
[2] Somehow, "ensure" seems to have a very sinister and coercive implication.  A couple of years ago, a proposal was floated that we levy some kind of fee on students who want to leave with an MSc, but this was immediately shot down by the academic committees overlooking this issue.
[3] Whether these ways of thinking are fundamentally different or fundamentally the same could possibly form the subject of a future blog post!
[4] In my STEM field, this leads to some additional complications.  While, technically speaking, first year PBIP students are equivalent to fourth year MS students, most undergrad programmes in India do not cover the material that we cover in the third year of our BS-MS programme.

Strictly confidential

A few days ago, I unwillingly became a subject of some gossip at N1.  This was around the time I was applying for a position at New1.  Like everyone in my situation, I wanted to keep it very confidential.   I wanted to tell my colleagues only after New1 made me an offer (if they did, that is.)

Immediately before submitting the application, I informed the director and two deans for official purposes [1].  The application went through the proper channels and all was well.  One day, however, in a moment of indiscretion, I mentioned it to someone "unofficially" and requested the listener to keep it "strictly confidential".
Little did I know that by doing so, I made the information public immediately.
Moreover, adding the "strictly confidential" clause ensured that there was a very high-speed delivery of this information across the campus.

This had immediate consequences, which would have been hilarious, had it not not been so awkward!  Some of my departmental colleagues walked into my office to tell me that they had heard from the tea shop owner that I was moving!  "We'll miss you, new prof, but we wish you well" they said.

Moving already? Hello, I had not even been interviewed as yet!!

I then walked into the office of a colleague and very dear friend to talk to her about it before she heard it from other sources.

New prof: Hi, there's something you need to hear from me before you hear it from others.

Friend: I know for the last one week!

New prof: What do you know?

Friend: That you are moving.

New prof: NO NO, that's not true. I have applied, that's all.

Friend: (Surprised) Oh, I thought your moving was pretty certain!

After that, we went for a cup of tea and had a frank heart-to-heart conversation (away from the ears of the shop owner!)

The other funny conversation I had was with a person in the admin building.

Admin staff: I am very sorry to hear that you are leaving.

New prof: I am not leaving.  It is not certain.

Admin staff: I am worried about who will become the next warden of the girls hostel.

New prof: Well, there are so many women faculty who live on campus.

Admin staff: Yes,  but you have a very good attitude.

New prof: (keeps quiet, not sure if she should be flattered that people will miss her "good attitude" or angry that people are only worried about appointing the next warden!)

One positive consequence of all of this was that some very concerned and well-meaning colleagues from other departments came to talk to me about it.  They were worried that I was feeling isolated and lonely here and came to assure me that I was not alone!  That felt very nice.  I also got dinner invitations, which was a pleasant surprise, given my non-existent social life here :-)

But, through it all, I was very worried about what would happen if New1 did not make me an offer!  That would place me in such an embarrassing position! In a state of paranoia, I imagined awful scenarios in which people at the tea shop would gossip about how "new prof wants to move, but can't get another job"!  I imagined that the tea shop owner would ask me "Arre didi, aap ab tak yeheen hain?" [Translation: Sister, you are still here?] or even worse, "Ab Kya Karengi, didi?" [Translation: What will you do now, sister?]

Just before I left for my interview at New1, I made the following Plan B in case things did not work out with my application there:

 Motivated by this post by GMP, I ordered the book "A guide to rational living" by Albert Ellis and Robert Harper on Flipkart, a book about Rational-Emotive Behavioral Therapy, which, as the back cover says, "can teach any intelligent person how to stop feeling miserable about practically anything."

Happily, by the time the book arrived, New1 had already made me an offer and I had accepted.  So, although I am reading the book, it is for reasons very different from the one I originally imagined.

Are there any therapies which teach you how to keep your matters "strictly confidential"? [2]



[1] I also informed my PhD student because this would directly affect his future as well.  I am glad I did so because he went for a conference to another city soon after that and colleagues from this city told him that I might move.  I have no idea how they knew it! But, I am really glad that my student heard it from me before he heard it from them! 

[2] In  case any one is wondering, I am pretty reliable when it comes to preserving information about others!

Are you a student?

I often get mistaken for a student.  Almost always, it leads to hilarious situations.

When I was interviewed at N1, some people asked a colleague who was showing me around if I was her student.  The guest house in charge was very concerned at my being the only person staying in the guest house at that time and told my colleague, "She is very young. She might get scared."

When I joined N1, many people assumed that my father is a new faculty member and I am just following him.  When he accompanied me to some offices, the office assistants passed the forms to him and started explaining to him how to fill them up! (therefore, I have requested him not to accompany me when I join New1, and even when he does visit me there, he will be asked to stay away from the office premises.)

When I was asked to become warden of the girls hostel, some students asked my domestic help (who also works at the institute) about me.  She apparently replied, "Woh toh khud bachchi hai, aur ladkiyon ko kya sambhalegi!" [Translation: She herself is a girl. How will she take care of other girls?]  By the way, it did not take the students, guards and house keeping staff long to figure out that I was not a "bachchi"!

Every once in a while, students come into my office and ask me when Dr NPNI will be back! [1]   Every year, I meet a couple of new students  who start off by calling me "didi."

However,  the frequency of such incidents has decreased, especially since I drastically upgraded my wardrobe.

Recently, another such situation presented itself.  While attending a conference last week, I was having dinner with a senior colleague, when a young PhD student joined us.  The senior colleague introduced us to each other by our names.
Student asked me where I am from and on hearing my answer, asked me what research area I work in.  After that, he continued the conversation with senior colleague.

A couple of days later, this student walked into an office in which I was using a desk reserved for visitors.  I was preparing some lectures for my course.  He had come to talk to a faculty colleague at New1 who sits in that office.  Here's how the conversation went:

Student (to me): Hi! What's up? How come you are here?

New1 Colleague: She is using every spare minute to prepare her course lectures.

Student(to me, looking surprised): Oh, are you faculty? I did not know that.

New1 Colleague: Yes.  She is currently a faculty member at N1 and is joining us next semester.

Student: Cool. I had no idea.

NPNI: (Smiles, and thinks "I thought as much!")

Later, in the course of his conversation with New1 Colleague, I heard this student asking very demanding questions like, "How come this work had not been done before? What was your motivation in working on it?"  I rolled my eyes and thought "Poor kid! He will grow up soon enough!"[2]


Next morning, as I flew back to N1 city with a colleague from another place, I narrated this incident to her and asked if she knew whose student this person was.
My colleague laughed back, "He is not a student.  He is a faculty member at -----Institute!"



[1] One student even asked me, "Are you Dr NPNI's secretary?"  I was almost flattered that he thought I was important enough to have a secretary.
[2] Haven't we all said stupid things to profs when we were students? 

An upcoming move

I am very happy to share with you the news that I have recently been offered and have accepted a position at another "N" institute, and will be moving next semester.
Inspired by a comment left by an anonymous commenter long ago, my future institute will be henceforth referred to as New1[1].  My primary motivation to move to New1 is the tremendous opportunity that it provides for my academic growth.

Working at N1 has been a wonderful experience and I have always been very happy here.  But, I have had to take this difficult decision purely from the point of view of furthering my academic goals.  N1 and New1 share very similar philosophies and objectives and that is an added advantage.

I am feeling a lot of things right now. I feel excited about a new opportunity and I also feel sad at the prospect of moving away from some very close friends and dear colleagues. [This has been my plight since childhood - move from a place as soon as I begin to build personal connections there- sigh!  In the last six months at N1, I have made some really good friends here!]

But, what I feel the most right now is gratitude. I am grateful to New1 for expressing an interest in my application and processing it in a very timely manner, grateful to N1 for understanding my professional needs and granting the necessary approvals [2] very smoothly, grateful to all my referees for sending in their letters at very short notice and for always supporting me in all my endeavours.  My initial plan was to apply a few months later and to more than one place so that I could give my referees sufficient time to write.  However, once my former advisor and second postdoc mentor assured me that they will write for me as soon as needed, I decided to avail this very good opportunity presented by New1.  After this, I contacted two other referees who also promptly sent in their letters.

I am also very grateful for the professional courtesy and the positive vibes that I encountered  during my interaction with the chairperson, members of the selection committee and other faculty members during the visit to New1 for my job talk and interview.

Coincidentally, this week, I am at New1 for a conference.  I have met many future colleagues and they have been very friendly, warm and welcoming, this making me look forward to the move.

Finally, I am so grateful to be in India at a time when there are so many opportunities to build a science career at new places which want you and also the opportunity to contribute towards building these places.






[1] The other possible names could be N2, NN1 etc. But, I like New1 the most.
[2] Applications to move from one government institute in India to another have to go through proper channels.  Thus, I had to take approval from the director at N1 to apply to New1.  I truly appreciate his cooperation in this matter. 

On guest houses

Earlier this week, I visited another institute and stayed at their guest house for a couple of days.  This GH had a very homely atmosphere.  I had one room of a big apartment with shared kitchen and dining facilities.  All the meals were cooked and served fresh by a resident caretaker (who reminded me of the proverbial Bansi kaka from Hindi movies).  It was sheer delight to have hot and puffed chapatis fresh off the pan for dinner (something that I don't enjoy at home also as my cook does the cooking and leaves before I return).  We were served hot Indian meals for breakfast as opposed to toast or cereal with milk.  The caretaker was also kind enough to serve us masala chai before we left in the morning and after we returned in the evening. Had I not been otherwise preoccupied, I might have stepped into the kitchen and taken some cooking lessons from him.

This visit brought back some pleasant memories of my fist visit to N1.

Every year, N1 goes through a rough time accommodating its new batch of students.  However, hosting visitors is not one of our problems.  Our authorities have been very conscious about maintaining a couple of small but decent guest houses so that we can invite and host visiting scientists without any constraints [1].
A very talented person from the hospitality industry was brought in to renovate some old, decrepit houses into functional guest houses.  Two of these guest houses, known as VIP guest houses, host senior and distinguished scientists and also new faculty members who stay there till they find a place of their own.  The only limitation is that these guest houses do not have a fully functional kitchen.  The visitors either eat at the hostel canteens or food is brought from outside and heated in a microwave before it is served.

There is another guest house, which hosts job candidates and faculty members who stay back on campus to teach early morning classes.  I stayed in this guest house during my first visit.  This guest house also did not have its own kitchen, but was located right next to the director's bungalow.  As the director stayed by himself in his bungalow,  he allowed some other rooms in a different part of the bungalow to be used for hosting guests.  The dining area of this house was also made accessible to institute visitors.  Thus it happened that during my four day visit to N1, I ended up having fresh, home-cooked meals prepared by the director's chef along with other visitors [and many a times, the director himself joined us].  

Due to a variety of reasons, this bungalow is not open to visitors any more.  Thus, institute guests are back to having packed meals in their rooms.

I was very impressed that the institute that I was visiting has made such comfortable long-term arrangements for their guests.  It's always nice to feel at home when traveling.

[1] However, earlier this month, it looked like we might have to convert our guest houses into hostels.  Fortunately, we were able to avoid this extreme step.