I smell a rat

Yes, today was the day when I finally saw an Indian rat up close. Luckily, it was not in my guest house room, but was in the room where I work and use the atomic force microscope (AFM). Of course I squirmed when I saw it and was shocked. The graduate student looked at me and laughed, and asked "are you scared", I said "Actually I'm disgusted. It's gross" (but hell yes I was scared!). And then the rat ran out and squeezed through a partition separating two lab rooms. So I suggest blocking it, and the grad student just laughs at me as if its no big deal. Then the rodent comes back in through the same hole and runs behind the desk, exactly where all the electrical cords and wires are for our instrument. I don't want to make a big deal about it, because it seems normal to him I guess, and I'm tired of getting laughed at. Although, in all the people's houses that I've stayed at throughout the years that I've been coming to India, I haven't seen a single rat/mouse. Plenty of lizards and moths and cockroaches though. Then I think, don't these rodents chew threw electronic wiring and cables?? This AFM is probably the cheapest and oldest in use in its class, and actually they might not even make parts for it any more . .

This room is supposed to be sealed pretty well and the area needs to be "clean". The definition of clean is of course different than what I'm used to and what it should be defined as for (ideal) nanoscale experiments and imaging. Also, there are no shoes allowed in the AFM room. We have to take off our shoes in the foyer, a few doors between the outside and AFM lab room; this of course is a good idea b/c its dusty outside and we don't want to bring in that dust into the lab room. So my shoes are not allowed but rats/mice and their feces are??

Visit to Shantiniketan

This past weekend I rode the Shantiniketan Express train to Shantiniketan for a 1 night trip. I was accompanied by a friend of a friend that is a travel agent and had some business to do there. On the way there we had the AC car, which was wayyy too cold, and on the way back non AC car which was friggin hot. The train ride was nice and I had a somewhat comfy seat and took some cool videos for my train loving nephew Sachin.

The train stops at Bolpur and then goes back to Howrah Station outside of Calcutta, and does this every day, meant for the sole purpose of going to Shantiniketan, hence the name. Howrah Station itself was pretty cool to see, seemed organized and efficient, and is a huge bus terminal as well. I wanted to explore around there and get cool pics of Howrah bridge, but apparently pics of the bridge are not allowed. Shantiniketan is where Rabindranath Tagore lived for some time and wrote some of his work, and eventually the Vishva-Bharati University developed from his vision of education and schooling. The campus is nice, huge and spread out. The small town itself was quaint, not too touristy and felt safe. I went to a small museum and walked through the compound where Tagore lived (once again no cameras allowed). There were a few cool sculptures around campus.

Apparently during Holi, this is the place to be.

People ride bikes everywhere, and the girls carry umbrellas in one hand to provide shade from the extreme sun while steering the bicycle with the other hand. We rode around on bicycle rickshaws, and I was sore afterwards. It was also nice to see an equal mix of girls and boys walking around and hanging out, very different from where I am right now at BESUS. Overall, a cool experience, but not something I would see if I was only in Calcutta for a short while.

NERD ALERT: book review of QUANTUM by Manjit Kumar

I just finished an awesome book - QUANTUM: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality by Manjit Kumar.

The author provides a summary of the discoveries and scientific advancements that led to quantum mechanics (QM, a sub-field of physics). Brief biographies are artfully entwined into the achievements made by physicists in the 1800's to 1900's; extensive references, personality descriptions, quotations from personal letters, and a sense of humor provide an insight into these scientists and a history of modern physics that I never got from textbooks. The story is centered in Europe, mostly Bern, Copenhagen and Gottingen. The effects of the two world wars on theoretical physics and the scientists is also discussed, which I found very interesting. I have no talent for retaining historical information and I've already forgotten the many amazing, thought provoking, funny and quote-able parts of this book, so I'll have to skim through again and highlight so these things will be easier to find when I want to look back. Hopefully someone else will read it soon so I can discuss it.

Some random facts:

It seems that most of the notable physicists in that time made their greatest discoveries in their early to mid twenties. Sometimes, their doctoral dissertations were ground breaking, and they were made professors by their late twenties. Ernest Rutherford had 11 of his students and close collaborators win Nobel Prizes. Einstein had written two letters to President Roosevelt encouraging research on the atomic bomb.

The book first lays the foundation for understanding how QM as a field developed and came about, which takes most of the book, and later goes into the details of the fundamental disagreements between Neils Bohr and Albert Einstein about the theory as a whole and its implications.

I'll outline the basic points of view here:

Neils Bohr - "There is no quantum reality beyond what is revealed by an act of measurement or observation. Hence it is meaningless to say, for example, that an electron exists somewhere independent of an actual observation." Basically, for something to exist, there needs to be someone/something observing that other something. He also claimed that QM was a complete theory.

Albert Einstein - He thought that QM was not a complete theory. He did not believe in an observer-dependent reality, but believed that something would exist regardless if there was no one to observe or measure it.

"Einstein versus Bohr had little to do with the equations and numbers generated by the mathematics of quantum mechanics. What does quantum mechanics mean? What does it say about the nature of reality? It was their answers to these types of questions that separated the two men. Einstein never put forward an interpretation of his own, because he was not trying to shape his philosophy to fit a physical theory. Instead he used his belief in an observer-independent reality to asses quantum mechanics and found the theory wanting."

Food

The campus guesthouse I'm staying at has a dining hall that serves breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner and it's busiest at lunch when people on campus come by, other than that its usually just me and two or three other people. The first few weeks, I enjoyed the food. Breakfast was toast, fruit, and coffee/tea, lunch was about two handfuls of rice, some daal and vegetable dish, and dinner was 2 or 3 rotis with a vegetable dish, maybe an omelette or egg curry, maybe some yoghurt. Slowly I realized the spice level of the food was not agreeing with my stomach. I could eat it, so my taste-buds could handle it, but I realized my stomach couldn't. Eventually I bought my own tub of granola (yay!) for breakfast and cut out the white bread, and after telling the kitchen staff about 6 or 7 times that the food was too spicy for me, I'm finally getting some vegetable dishes that are not spicy! It was a long battle, about 2 weeks, but now the head waiter knows when I come in to bring me something that's not spicy. Unfortunately today, the squash/potato dish was meant to be non spicy, butttt I think the kitchen staff used the same vegetables from the original dish and just added water to the sauce. So when I ate it, it was just as spicy, but the waiter was shocked when I said it was too spicy. oh well. I used to force myself to eat the spicy stuff, because I was starving and wanted to build up to being able to eat spicy food, but realized that's not helping the situation. The tea and coffee are too sweet, the coffee is just nescafe added to hot milk so I think I prefer the tea, which is pretty strong. The yoghurt is amazing, probably full fat, slightly tart and sweet, reminds me of Tart frozen yoghurt from yoghurtland! And the Ras Goola they have sometimes is really good, but I think its from a store. I think I'm officially sick of potatoes though.

I get plenty of fresh fruit from the stands outside the campus gate, but its the usual (bananas, apples, oranges, maybe sometimes pomegranites). Where are the mangos and guavas!!??

I've visited most of the stores right outside the gates of campus, and there's some pastry shops but the pastry/cakes are way too sweet for me, the frosting is too sugary and the cake is dry. I have enjoyed cookies though, Bourbon being my favorite (chocolate cookie sandwich with chocolate filling), and of course Digestive Biscuits (although not OG McVitie's) filled with fiber! I've also tried the traditional Bengali sweet known as "sandesh", which is pretty good, not overly sweet like other mitthai.

In MH, I got my fill of srikhand and gulab jamun and puri.

When I get out of Shibpur, I make sure to not eat Indian food. I've tried McDonalds (McVeggie + fries) which is pretty good, Subway (which is as amazing as in the states), Pizza Hut (which I don't eat at all in the US but its the closest to Gina's Pizza or Papa John's that I'm going to get), and try to have real brewed coffee when I can. I did eye a South Indian restaurant so will have a dosa next time I get a chance.

Can't wait for some rice, beans and plantains in Costa Rica!

One Quantum of Indian

One of my pet peeves is when people stereotype or try to label other people, especially me. Maybe this is immature and maybe I have too much pride, but I do not appreciate it when someone else tries to define me and who I am or what I do or why I do things. So of course I find it a bit annoying when someone tries to quantify "how Indian" I am. So here's two anecdotes:

Early on in college, one of the first friends I made said, "Oh I totally thought you were white-washed," in response to hearing that I lived in India for a year and learned to read/write/speak Marathi and Hindi. I was offended and wanted to lecture her about a variety of topics including the label "white-washed" and her definition of it, but I think I kept my mouth shut. Her first impressions of me, for whatever reason, made her believe I wasn't "that Indian". Was I offended b/c she didn't think I was Indian enough at first? Or offended that she would even try to label me in the first place? Maybe both. (white-washed: when someone who is not caucasian or white acts like they are, ie in this context my friend thought I was more "American" than "Indian".)

On this trip, one of the graduate students that I chat with in lab asked me if I eat food with my hands, and I said "yes most of the time." His response, "Oh so you're really Indian!" (Then I said, "Well I wouldn't have lasted this long in Shibpur if I wasn't, I would have left the first week.") So in this guy's definition, eating with hands is considered "really Indian." I also got a few responses like this when I told people I am vegetarian, they seem to think that's "very Indian" as well. I wasn't really offended by this but it just got me thinking about the whole concept again. I understand that's how our brains work, we like to categorize and label things with similar properties. But I try not to do that to people and their personalities, I think it hinders their potential and makes me have subconscious expectations for them that they may not want or deserve.

And of course, I get the same question at least 5 or 10 times on every visit to India, "Which culture do you like better, Indian or American?" Ugh. I try to be polite and lucky for them my Hindi or Marathi is not developed enough to be rude or arrogant or sarcastic on purpose (my usual attitude in English as many of you may have experienced), so I say, "I like both, I don't have to pick one." And actually I don't even know what American culture really is by definition.

So, how Indian are you? I'm sure there's a Facebook quiz for that.

Happy Journey! Pune and Kopergaon

Last week I went to Pune to visit some family. I stayed with my mom's cousin, Sunil Mama, and his family and got to see my cousins that I hadn't seen in 9 or 10 years! Got to see some nightlife and grab some drinks (quite a luxury for me now). Pune is definitely somewhere I can live, it has all the conveniences of a modern metropolis w/o without the major congestion and traffic. I told Sunita Mami I'd come live there if she found me a job!

I went to Kopergaon Sun - Wed to visit Dada Baba (mom's dad). He threw me a dinner party for my graduation so I got to see tons more family from his side, aunts and uncles and cousins and nieces and nephews. I was afraid he was going to make me give a speech but he didn't, he just basically introduced me, said that I finished my PhD, working in Calcutta, told everyone about my stipend (I'm not sure how that's relevant but somehow indicates my level of success?) and also said something like "She has no plans for marriage so who knows when we'll see her again or get to celebrate with her" haha so it was nice he said that up front so I didn't have to deal with those questions. He then did "satkar", its basically giving me flowers and a shawl, as an official introduction and welcoming. He also did this to 8 other people so the attention wasn't all on me, he also embarrassed my cousin by telling everyone about her marriage/love story (which was quite scandalous for the small town I'm sure), so that was HILARIOUS. I don't think he realizes how funny he is. He is still so active for his age. His memory is very good, he didn't even write down all the details of my introduction or anyone else's introduction. It was cool to spend time with him, and it would be interesting to pick his brain about all the stuff he knows, esp. about agriculture and science.

Back in Pune, I got to see some tourist sights like the Pateleshwar Temple and Saras Bag. The Pateleshwar Temple is an old rock cut cave temple from the 8th Century right in the middle of the city! Well the city limits grew around it, but how cool is that, to have an ancient temple down the street from your house?

After seeing all those people after all this time, I was definitely tired of answering questions like "So what are you doing in Calcutta", "Why did you come to India? Aren't the facilities and schools better in the US?", "When are you going to get married?", "Are you going to marry an Indian or non-Indian", "What do you like better, India or America", "Oh are you dieting?", "Eat some more food". Basically the same questions from 50 different people, it gets tiring after a while!

History Lesson: Dalhousie Square

On Sunday Feb 28, I took a guided walk through Dalhousie Square (aka BBD Bagh) at 7am. The streets were calm and empty, a very rare sight; vendors were slowly opening their stands and cutting up vegetables and beginning food preparations for their stalls. It was a great time to take in the view and take pictures.

Dalhousie Square was the main part of "White Town" Calcutta, where the British mainly resided. The old Fort William was first here, as well as the first hotels, restaurants, business offices etc that the British establish. (see fb pics)

Random information:

The first US export to Calcutta was ice. (??)

Dalhousie Square was named after Lord Dalhousie, governor general of India from 1847 - 1856, and was later named BBD Bagh after 3 Indian independence activists: Benoy, Badal and Dinesh.

Dalhousie Square has been declared one of the world's 100 most endangered sites by the World Monument Watch.