Resisting FOMO in college life

College life, especially, life in a residential campus is filled with opportunities to do a myriad number of activities - cultural, sports, literary, technical and so many other things that come in between. And, that is what makes college life so wonderfully exciting. It is like a magnificent buffet with almost every possible dish to …

The inconsistency of Vivekananda as a role model

In many Bengali families, Swami Vivekananda is presented as a role model to very young children, especially boys. This is done through various tales, anecdotes, and his teachings. And, there is no dearth of material to do this. There are picture books, titled "Chotoder Vivekananda" [Vivekananda for youngsters] highlighting his own childhood days; his spiritual …

Regrets when I turned thirty

The following is a slightly edited version of a note that I posted on Facebook way back in 2014. Finally, thirty. Yes. It happened to me too. Dad took time off (from his busy post-retirement days) to pen quite a few lines about this "important and auspicious" day. Lines of immense gravitas and meaning. Something …

Avoiding common mistakes in teaching presentation

As part of the selection procedure for new faculty members, candidates have to deliver two presentations: a research presentation and a teaching presentation. Over the past few years, I have sat through a number of these presentations here at IIT Kharagpur. While the candidates more often than not deliver good research presentations, it is often …

“And so I face the final curtain”

I had posted the following on Facebook on Dec. 3, 2013, the night before I was about to finally leave IIT Kharagpur as a student, first as an undergraduate and then as a PhD research scholar. For better readability, I have slightly edited it. The title of this post is part of the lyrics of …

On following the news

Back when I was in high school, and especially when I was doing my Higher Secondary (10+2), I used to spend a long time - sometimes spanning a couple of hours - each day reading the newspaper. This was back in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Once I started my undergraduate studies, I fell …

Reading muscle, textbooks and foreign authors

The following is a slightly edited part from a YouTube video. Every professional scientist - beginning with a PhD student - has to spend a lot of time reading and when I say reading I mean reading long form, complex passages. And, in my experience there is a general lack of reading habit among them. …

Things to consider before going for a PhD

The following discussion first appeared as a YouTube video: This discussion is meant for students who are thinking of going for a PhD.Now, I know that if you look around on the internet, you will find a number ofresources that target students who are just starting out on their PhD. Thereare also some resources available …

Advice to students on writing emails

I was talking to one of my faculty colleagues about some of the emails we receive from our students that flout some rather commonsense etiquette. So, we decided to put out a list of things that we'd like students to keep in mind while writing emails to faculty members in particular (some of the points …

Dropbox Offline Installer

Everytime Dropbox asks me to update, it does so through a pop-up dialog box. Clicking on Update on this dialog box takes me to a page that downloads the online installer. However, the big problem is that this online installer does not work behind a proxy. At IIT Kharagpur, we are behind a proxy. However, …