Auld Lang Syne

Hey Diary,

Let's catch up for New Year's.  What's been happening?  Another trip to Pune, another trip to Chennai, and some intense math conferences here at TIFR.

So Anupam, one of the mathematicians in Pune, told me I ought to visit again, to check out the area more and, you know, be sociable.  This time I decided to take a bus, to compare the traveling experience.  The total time is comparable, but the bus station is inconvenient to reach, and involves taking a train anyways.  It was fun to visit Pune again.  The math professors there mentioned various troubles facing the math group, but at every turn we agreed that all problems would be solved when the new director Raghuram arrives.  (This is the guy who brought me to India.)  I stayed at the Guest House again, which spoiled me with meals; most likely I will stay there for a couple months starting this summer.

I learned more about riding in rickshaws.  Sreekar (Do you need to review my Pune entry?) composed for me a handy guide of Hindi words I can use when talking to drivers.  Learn some with me:

age (pronounced 'ah-gay') = ahead
buss = stop, enough
age se right, age se left = ahead right, ahead left
kitna = how much
acha = good
tikhai (pronounced as the letters TK) = good, it's fine

Try them the next time your taxi driver is Indian!

Here's a picture of me with Baskar at "Little Italy".

I usually suggest Italian food for dinner.

Unfortunately I somehow lost my blogging camera.  My best guess is that an Artful Dodger removed it from my pocket while I was on a public bus, but I really don't know.  It's tricky to keep a hand on both your wallet and your camera while maneuvering through a shaky bus.  That bummed me out, but one of the blog's biggest fans (my mom) has sent me a replacement camera, so it should be business as usual for the New Year.

The next week I returned to Chennai.  I wanted to give Amri a solid visit, and had a cute idea for a little project with him, using that paper of his (Do you need to review my Chennai entry?) to understand when certain matrices are conjugate to their transpose.  I toured a little bit with one of his students Anil, visiting a pleasant beach area called Mahabalipuram.  Anil is a big enthusiastic fellow who reminds you of Tigger, and a ४ ball juggler.   We showed off a bit on the lawn while I got sunburnt again.  Over the next week, Amri and I had some clarity on the conjugation problem.  We reduced the problem to a smaller beast, christened the Jackalope.  We plan to play with the Jackalope for a few months, and then submit what promises to be a delightful paper on our findings.

Can this be tamed?

I didn't take any photos of Chennai for the obvious reason, but I did jot down the words of an amusing sign found in the library:  "DON'T TEAR BOOK PAGES / INSTEAD / PLEASE ASK FOR XEROX COPY".

A funny thing about TIFR is that it's busiest when most people are on holiday.  For Christmas break, it's been nothing but workshops and international conferences.  There's a huge one happening here this coming week.  So I've been seriously distracted schmoozing it up with old friends and going to math lectures.  After I finish this DAI entry, I'm meeting Moshe Adrian to show him around Mumbai.  (Why don't you come visit?)

To quickly address some miscellaneous topics:

•  The yoga class I was going to fizzled out when the instructor left, although I had paid for three months. There's this weird economy here of paying for something before you get it, and then not quite getting what you expect.
• The Banyan Tree Jugglers still meet, although it's tough with the conferences.  We have club juggling but not yet club passing.  Lately, some of the little kids from Dipendra's party have been showing up.
• A few weeks ago I arrived home to find the sign "CLEANING BETWEEN 2:30 PM TO 3:30 PM" on the door.  For whatever reason, my apartment gets cleaned by like five dudes every weekday here.  On a related note, there is nowhere to lock up my valuables.  Since I now have an orderly place, I've been inviting people over, even hosting a New Year's Eve celebration last night, mostly with expats.  

Reflecting on old friends, so far away...

So hey I'm taking off for a couple weeks in February to properly tour India with some old yoga friends from Norman.  Said adventure will be so epic that it will span three blogs.  I'm excited.  Are you?  Happy New Year!