Hum Log

A year has passed, with the PhD coming to an end, and new job already becoming 5 months old!
Initially, I was busy finishing off the thesis. Thereafter my parents visited me in Germany, in one of the worst winters ever! My sister and bro-in-law also came for 2 weeks, and it was a great new year meeting after many years.
We took trips within Munich and also visited Salzburg - took the kitschiest "Original Sound of Music" tour. But overall enjoyed the time.
Then I had to start preparing for the trainings for my new job. And once the consulting job started off in March, time went by before I was able to realise it was almost 6 months already.

It has been an amazing experience so far - extremely different way to work than at the university. New challenges, new people, new projects every 6-8 weeks. The start was great, and I met some of the best people in my life. Some of my very good friends, I actually met at this training in Holland. It was so amazing to get to know these people, and interact with them. Amsterdam trip was great too. After we all went our different ways, some of my friends came and visited me in Munich,which was very cool.

I have spent most of the project time in London, and got to see a city, which I had heard a lot about. There are so many similarities between London and Delhi. Park Street feels like Connaught Place (I don't know if it Mummy Chowk or Beta Chowk now). The old office buildings spread out on London along roads with huge trees, feel like Kasturba Gandhi Marg. Even the names of many roads are same (Surprise!)- the ones which the politicians didnt think were relevant enough for political mileage.

I am looking forward to this journey, and hopefully, would have bit more time for blogging in the next months.

25 years of Mobile phones and 850 years of Munich

Mobile phones have existed now for the last quarter of a century, almost the same time as I did. :) But the usability of the mobile phone (or rather Handy, here in Germany) is far more consequential and it has reached magic numbers which fixed landlines were hoping to.
In the same year that is 2008, Munich is celebrating its 850th Birthday. The celebrations have been scheduled for the weekend of 14. and 15. June. Huge stage and road shows and food tents have been organized in the city center. Part of the celebration was also the Open Day (Tag der Offenen Tür) at the Staatskanzlei (Secretariat of the Bavarian state government) on the 14th June. I went there with Bhaskar and Steffen, and was pleasantly surprised at the large number of people hovering around. The building is old but the interiors are apparently very recently redone. The building was damaged during the WWII and was restored recently in the '90s.
After collecting tons of bags, brochures and interesting maps, we went around the building where the Premier minister of Bavaria (Minister Präsident) Dr. Günther Beckstein was meeting with people. Coincidentally, we went to the Staatskanzlei at 15 hrs, exactly at the time when he reached for his public appearance for 1,5 hrs. As we were done with the lower floors and all the various ministries of Bavaria, it was already 1630 hrs when we reached the top floor where Dr. Beckstein was. He was on his way out with his entourage, but somehow he saw me and came rushing towards me. After shaking my hand and asking my whereabouts, he talked to me for 5 mins regarding Physics, Bavaria and the accessibility of the International offices in Munich. There have been pictures taken and I may upload them here soon.
This (5 mins of fame) came a week after an article appeared in the local edition (Garching) of Münchener Merkur about me and my integration into the German society. Also, the Indian connection seems to be a major highlight which has helped me in acquiring job offers from two of the biggest consulting firms. Which out of the two would be the best for my career, I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Munich!

The Chinese Apartheid

The way South Africa was kept out of world affairs, the Chinese should be scuttled away from every global forum. The only way this would be ever possible is, if all conscientious nations come together and decide to boycott China. Economics should not let the crimes of one country be punished more than the heinous crimes of the other.
One person who has shown that he can at least do the hard talking is John McCain. If he can deliver on it, is to be seen. Although, he would not be a change for the US in the drastic way that Hillary or Obama would be, his political wisdom and hard talk could be just what the US needed. For an Indian, it probably sounds utterly unthinkable how a Republican would be good for them. Democrats are liberals fighting to uphold Democracies, but they are always in for an amicable solution. To an outsider, it may seem a bit of Gandhism. But in todays times, these ideals are sadly too idealistic. Not that I agree with Bush. Nor would I endorse many of the Republican policies. It is just for this single candidate, McCain, that I think, he could be a hope. A hope in the darkness that engulfs the entire world - from wars, terrorism, economic crises, rogue nations.
As far as true Indian interests are concerned, there is nothing against the alliances with the US. Even if an useless American commie comes to India to support the Indian commies in their fight against American Imperialism, who cares!? Did anyone ever hear of this woman (or was it a man?), Terrie Albano!? They all claim that US is trying to forge an alliance with India, to curb China and keep it in check. So!? Thats bad? Why?
In the last year alone, China has led over a hundred incursions into the Indian territory - into lands which have been recognized world over as Indian. The present government is asking the revered Dalai Lama to basically shut up, so that the Sino-Indian relationship doesn't sour. Have they forgotten, that it was their own leader who gave the Dalai Lama his political refuge in Dharamsala? And would they ask the Imam of the Jama Masjid to shut up so that the Indo-US relations don't sour? As if it doesn't matter where a major Indian immigrant population is staying!
This Indian government has somewhere in the last year made some progressive decisions, made some progress. But just when you thought, that the Congress was able to think outside the box, come the sops and the minority appeasing dole-outs. If they really want to get the young of the country into their folds, then Sonia would have to do more than promising that her son Rahul would follow her party workers to jail in UP. For starters, she should pull the rug under the Left foot, and call new elections. Show to the common man, how the Left bigots are the problems in the system. Maybe then they have a chance to become the second largest party in the parliament. They are shamefully behind the BJP currently and it seems it would be the same the next time around. As Ms. Shobhaa De wrote, slowly seems clear which party the US favors in the next general elections.
Why is that important? Well, in the light of the statement by the next Presidential hopeful, McCain, that Russia should be ousted to make way for India and Brazil in the G8, it seems the US is ready to go the extra mile in undoing the Indian skepticism. The next step could be the Permanent UN Security Council seat. What is more heartening is to see the way China is not mentioned as an entrant, because as McCain maintains, the G8 is not only about Economics - it is about common civil values, an Open Democracy. Its time India realized the importance of democracy too and threw these commies down the trash. As L. K. Advani said, BJP and Congress are not enemies but adversaries. But thats the difference between Left and the others, the Left is an Enemy, of the state and of the people.

A regular feature

After being absent for a long time, I am writing here almost everyday now. Well, I have a little bit of extra time which I utilize to write here. I would also like to thank someone for writing a comment, although it is difficult to tell because it is anonymous! I would look at the arguments of Mr. Shourie, but I guess the point that I was making was that they should have been actively involved in the process with the government rather than saying a blanket NO. After all, the warmth in the Indo-US relations and the status of the India in the international arena is mainly due to the Look West and Look East policies of the past government.


For the last couple of months now, me and friends try new restaurants in Munich. There have been many good ones and a few bad ones.
The best has been 'Lemar', an Afghan restaurant. The food was a delight, the service and the interiors are great too. A must for people who like spicy stuff like North Indian food. For a change, the taste is NOT tailored to German liking.
The worst was, well an Indian restaurant called 'Sitar'. The food is stale, it seems to be microwaved just before being served and the service is indifferent, bordering on unfriendly.
There have been many good ones as well, like 'Goa', 'Natraj' and 'Sur Bahar' (Indian), 'Man Fat'(Chinese) and 'El Gordo Loco' (Mexican/Colombian). 'Goa' is my all time favorite because of the extremely friendly staff that they have. Also, the ambiance is very congenial and homely.

Last week, I also went to the cinemas after a gap of almost 6 months. We saw "No Country for Old men" but in German and to my surprise, I did understand most of it. The movie was well made, albeit un-understandable! I mean how and why did that guy go on a killing spree? And why did he have to return to kill the wife of the other guy, once he had the money?
Even though I was very proud of my German skills past this experience, I decided to go in for a specific grammar oriented German course. This would start sometime end of next month.

I also finished two books in the mean time, along with reading 'A Suitable Boy' a little further. I read Khalid Hosseini's both books and was really touched by them. I read 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' before 'The Kite Runner' and may be that is the reason, why I liked it more.
A somewhat related piece, this NY Times article sheds light on how remittances to home countries could really be a mountain instead of a mole hill. In fact, if there are real and tangible projects for investments for the development of many small little infrastructure details, I think NRIs would be more than willing to give a cut of their wealth. Projects such as schools in rural areas, electrical plants for the different parts of the country. Organizations such as Ram Krishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram, should make it possible to pay donations via internet for NRIs as well. They have more accountability and social responsibility than all political parties put together and I would willingly give them money for social causes than the government any day.

First Quarter Top 10

10) Pranab Mukherjee : Seemed to be in the background for a long time but then emerged as one who speaks his mind and went ahead getting the N-deal in order when the whiners were still whining!

9) Anil and Mukesh Ambani : The richest Indians, need I say more!

8) Lakshmi Mittal : The man is still well known but nothing spectacular happened in the last months, neither a marriage nor a merger.

7) Shobha De and Vijay Mallya : One is a firebrand columnist/author whose articles on various issues plaguing India have made even the dead politician cringe and the other is poised to put India on the global map, the latest being the F1 atlas. Although Force India finished 12th, it IS a start. As for Ms. De, the articles "Me Marathi" and "Patel Rap", should be in the grade 1 text books.

5) L.K. Advani & Narendra Modi : Advani, with his high-pitched, slow talking, has managed to bring out many hypocrisies in the present day government. Modi on the other hand, steam rolled into the Gujarat Vidhan Sabha, crushing the opposition without raising Hindutva himself, rather the terrorism issue. If only they would seriously get a coherent picture of the needs of the country and support the Cong. government on certain issues (read N-deal), it could garner a major political good-will as well as the tag of an intelligent party.
Safety, sovereignty and secularism are key issues which this government has failed in. With the growth rates which the country had in the last years and the unique leverage of India, the government has failed miserably to take a stance on any international issues of relevance. To top it, they have irritated the Hindu sentiment with Sethu samudram project, Afzal hanging delay and the scholarships for Muslim students. That is NOT secularism - in true sense of secularism, there should be equal laws for everyone - look west! What we have is pseudo secularism.

3) Tarun Vijay : His articles are historically interesting as well as very contemplative. Not that all he writes is perfect and he does have a tendency to harp on the same point again and again. But the columns are very well researched and it brings out a hypocrisy we are living in India, pushing the country to very unsafe territories.

2) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan & Amitabh Bachchan : In Switzerland, I was asked who is the actor who is always called "VJ" in his movies? The answer was simple :)
There is a generation which has watched Bollywood on TV there and recognize Big B. That is true Star Power. As for Ms. Rai aka Bachchan, we are waiting for the Pink Panther, although what happened to the Last Legion?

1) Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar : Big big Stars, both of them in Germany. Shahrukh was always loved by the people here, more so after the Berlinale. And Koffee with Karan is probably the only TV export from India, moreover it is even dubbed in German!

The Sitting Duck

Here comes the socio-political blog. Mainly on two issues which are current and probably applicable throughout the world. One being immigration and displacement of local population and the related issue of religious fundamentalism, either separately, or in a way influencing these issues.

Kosova has elected to become an independent country and it has been supported by many countries, for what has been called the right to govern by local community. This has had some very angry reactions from either side, pre and post elections. Talking to colleagues from other Balkan states (other than Serbia, that is) one thing becomes clear - there is no clear solution. Macedonia being the smallest of the emerging nations from erstwhile Yugoslavia, has currently a similar problem where there are "new immigrants" from neighboring Albania since the last 50 years and have almost outnumbered the local population, are demanding an independent region from the parent country. Similar stories come from many parts of the world (Turkey and Kurdistan, some African countries) and accepting the Kosovan verdict once, could be a precedent for the other pending problems. It should not, but would it?

Kashmir and Tibet are problems which are nearer home for an Indian, but as one myself, I would argue they are Different! How? Kashmir truly had its local population removed post 1980 due to terrorism, and to have a referendum now would be an untrue representation of the feeling of the "locals". Seeing pictures of homes, schools and colleges and temples which have been targets of the terrorism from a Kashmiri friend who recently visited Srinagar, I was quite upset at the way the Indian government has let the problem hang in air. There is nothing worse than displaced families searching for their roots. Why are they in their own countries, lands treated like visitors? Even worse, why do they have to lose their heritage? And just because a failed neighboring state instigates terrorism and the national government is too lame to call a spade a spade, lest its vote bank evades them. Have they ever thought, that if somebody votes for you because they are banking on you to compromise the national security, they are actually the ones who need to be thrown out? But how would they? They only want the power!

Tibet is another flash-point. Right from the time, the Dalai Lama was given political refuge in India by Nehru, there have been thousands of Tibetans in India. And the ones I know are extremely hard working, honest and very sincere. The government at the risk of losing the "goodwill" of the other monster neighbor and its own commie ally, doesn't do anything at all. Well, if it did nothing that would have been fine, but to not even speak out a statement to maintain peace in Tibet is basically accepting the Chinese position - which they dare not. The politically correctness at the cost of being a coward is too high. China has huge parts of India under their control, simultaneously claiming many other parts as well. When the defense chief says the truth about Chinese incursions, the government basically snubs him instead of accepting the yellow fever. George Fernandes as a defense minister had claimed that China is India's enemy number one. Well, in many cases it has been proven to be the case, whether its the Nuclear proliferation to Pak or the attacks of army positions in Arunachal.

The religious bandwagon jumping to the cause of these "new immigrants" is another institutionalized attack on civilized society. The Al Qaeda has supposedly joined hands with the ex-(ISI backed) terrorists in Kashmir, becoming a bigger force and to have lax security in the country spells doom for all. The recent splurge of attacks and terrorists being apprehended in South India basically reiterates what Vajpayee had said long back in '00, that distance is no security. Well, the speech given to the US Senate proved prophetic with the 9/11 attacks a year later and although US has learned the lesson hard way but closer home, India still needs to learn the lessons. So much is the fear for rubbing a certain section of the population the wrong way, that the entire nation is being subjected to massive National threat. I am sure, that it is only a minority among the minorities which doesn't want Afzal hanged, and it is only a minority which wants the women suppressed in their society.

Why does Indian police not have training collaborations with Israel? Why doesn't the Indian police buy the latest equipments from the European civil societies? Why does Taslima Nasreen have to leave India and blemish the government representing the entire country for being as fanatic as religious fanatics? What do the Red parties want us to believe now, that they still stand for our development? Is it time we ban the nationally damaging Commies, as in the developed west?

Long time no see

After a long hiatus, I am back! Well, not quite the Schwarzenegger way, but almost. (why?..that comes later!)
In the past months, I gave an invited talk at the Max Planck Institut in Dresden, visited Delhi for 3 weeks during Diwali, then I spent three weeks in February trying to measure at ETH, Zürich. In between, I also published my first paper.

The talk was very well received, we also tried to get a collaboration working, where in I go and measure at their set up and they get samples from us. I would have to clear some details but it should be a fruitful collab. The talk was basically on the paper I had published in the Applied Physics Letters on the donor binding energies of AlAs. In Dresden, I also met Sameer Sapra, who was in Munich for the first year of my stay here. Then he moved to Dresden to be with his wife and now, has moved back to Mumbai, India for a permanent Professor position. Congrats, Sameer!

In Delhi, I reached a day before my birthday and really enjoyed myself throughout the trip. I spent the first 5 days meeting many of my relatives, especially since, many of them I was meeting after 3 or 4 years. Thereafter, I flew with my parents to Hyderabad to meet two other relatives. I hadn't been to Hyd since '92 and it has changed even more than Delhi! Huge malls entailing even bigger traffic problems. Its a hip city, but in dire needs of City re-planning. The newer parts coming up in the High Tech City are magnificent.
Delhi itself, with the Metro, has become extremely navigable, especially from Dwarka. The trains are well maintained and if, the people continue their "well-mannered" traveling, it could be something Delhiites would be proud of for a long time. I sincerely hope that we do not have another Kolkata Metro tragedy on our hands. The shopping malls in Dwarka and Rajouri Garden are not bad, but they could have been a bit more creative with the designs and the landscaping. It is just too boringly square and the parking a mess! But what really made an impression on me, was the prices. If the price of a pair of jeans was making my jaw drop, my mother was calling it "normal" leaving me to wonder, when did 50 € jeans become normal in India!

I came back end of November to a very warm winter (again!). Then I was offered the possibility to fly to the US for the American Physical Society March meeting. I had got invitations from Northwestern University, Stanford and University of Maryland, College Park to give talks after the meeting. Also, it would have been wonderful to meet my sister after 4 years. Albeit, the US Visa officer in Munich didn't think it would be so wonderful! She refused me a Visa on the grounds that I had insufficient reasons to come back to Germany. If I were in a permanent job and had a better salary (well, my current salary is very very good if you were to use current euro to dollar exchange rate!), she would have thought about it. But for her, I was definitely a pure "illegal immigrant" material. How do I explain to her, that washing dishes and laundry for paltry amounts of money is not my idea of an American Dream! Anyway, we have another big conference coming up in July, in Rio. Hopefully, the Brazilians have a more relaxed criterion.

In Zürich, I spent three months, doing basically nothing. Its a city which is very similar to Munich but very different. The similarities are in the orderliness and the cleanliness, but the whole mood of the city is very different. It is a very rich city, with around 35% bankers. The after work party scene is really funny, with people coming in around 6 pm, dancing and then going back to work at 9 pm! I made some good friends at the University where I was working in the group of Prof. Ensslin. But unfortunately, their system was having so many problems with sample stick first and then with air leaking into the cryostat that I got no useful data from the measurement time. I did go one evening to Basel as well, with Miklos, Yashar and Thomas Müller for the Carneval or the Faßnacht. It is a must! Colorful, thematic, vibrant, it really is very enjoyable especially with a group of friends. The language in Basel is even more different than Zürcher Deutsch, which is at least understandable.

Among all this, I have also started applying for jobs. I am interested in pursuing a different field after handing in my thesis, more towards finance. I am enrolling into a German course, specially designed for jobs, finance related having strong grammatical inputs as well. This starts end of April and is necessary because I make very silly grammatical mistakes. Conversationally, I am now pretty fluent and I understand almost perfectly. Writing is easier as well, since I have time to come up with the correct grammar. But, there are still some small things like "in die Küche" or "in der Küche"? My main mistakes come with these kind of conjunctives and genitives.

At last, I also got to meet Stefan Schäck. It was nice meeting him after long, especially with his new long hair (for the Landshuter HochZeit) and chubbier cheaks ;) His PhD work on hybrid cars at BMW seems much more useful than our low dimensional electrons.

The reason for the Schwarzenegger style re-entry? Well, I am going to the fitness center for the past 1 month now regularly and it really is showing up...slowly but steadily. And why no politics in this blog? It would come soon in the next one :D

Indo-US Alliance

The partnership with US or any other country should be seen as a partnership between "Democratic nations". Any one who opposes this partnership is opposing liberty, free speech and growth. Any country which has chosen democracy and economic open markets has prospered - whether it is the US, West Europe or Japan. The Indian commies' favored choice of China, has also prospered only when it has allowed free markets in zones. If they are so opposed to the military exercises vis a vis the Nuclear deal, they are in principle supporting the Chinese military alliance with Russia and other Central Asian nations - a country which invaded India even after having a peace treaty. That's what they want to be labeled as Anti-National, they might as well be.

A partnership with democratic nations is always beneficial, even though we may not see eye to eye on various issues. It is not important to tow to the line on every single issue with the US, as the European nations have shown, but the health of a country's openness, is what matters for the development. Ask all those who have so-called drained their brain, why they decided to go to the US and not China?

India has long tried its hands at various games of political bigamy with Non-Aligned Movement and a social economy. It just doesn't work, we cannot have balance when we put our feet down on two uneven boats. Although, I am against putting any ban on any political thought process if it is not against the National interests - like they have in the US on communism - if the communists are interested in only hampering a nation's progress, they might as well be dealt with like that. At a time when the economic progress is the boost which is helping the country put itself on the world map, if anyone wants to be productively critical they can still come up with extremely logical and useful solutions to the nitty gritty problems faced by North Eastern Indians or about building more and more airports and making roads on to the mountainous regions, tough to reach today. Not only would that integrate the country, it would improve infrastructure.

The whole argument about belittling our security concerns is also very childish. The 123 pact says that in the event of a " strategically necessary Nuclear test" we are allowed to do that. Without the need of the strategically necessary test, we are quite well placed at the moment and in principle can use this deal as the basis to start processing more and more Nuclear material from within the country such as Thorium for energy resources. That way we have other energy resources, if the need be for another test. I am pained to see the political parties behaving in such a manner just because they are not at the helm of affairs. The past government had a near perfect International Policy and they were the ones bringing India in a strategic partnership with the US which has resulted in deals and War games like this. They should congratulate this government for building on the foundations laid by them, and not oppose them. They should be the first to understand how important it is for like-minded nations to work together against a world slowly being infested with extreme fundamentalists.

A nation such as ours still has a long way to go before development reaches every street corner. Giving everyone an equal chance - and that means everyone, regardless he is a minority or even majority - is a must. Why should only those in the West reap benefits from the brains which we lose to them? Why cant we create opportunities and environments which would draw them back? And why the f"%& do we crib about development and finding friends who would lead you to that path?