Keeping the body and the soul together…

After waiting for a job in software development for CAE for a good 6+ years, not gettting a single job in that field despite shameless hiring advertisements, shameless Internet posturings, shameless interviews in biz magazines (e.g. of Ratan Tata or of Dr. Raghnunath Mashelkar), shameless announcements (e.g. by M/s Jyotiraditya Scindia and Vilasrao Deshmukh, the de-facto IT minister of Maharashtra)  and shameless speeches in general by both Americans and Indians alike (with a lot of money flowing freely only to certain priviledged incompetents even in this field of CAE), I have, finally, to be able to keep my body and soul together, joined the Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Lonavala, Near Pune, India, as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering (a post which is equivalent to that of Associate Professor in the American system), on a salary of Rs. 14,500/- Basic per month; i.e. a gross salary of approximately Rs. 33,000/- per month after including perks and allowances; i.e. a “carry-home” salary (after tax deduction) of approx. Rs. 22,000/- per month; i.e., in American terms, a salary of about $ 9,000 per annum before tax and $ 6,000 per annum after tax, all benefits included). The termination notice period is one month; I have been put on probation for the initial one year.

I had informally shown my interest in May 2008, and had formally applied for the job in June 2008, and, though the interview calls for all such posts had gone out and hirings were made right in late-June and early-July (but not in May), and though the academic term itself had begun as early as July 3, 2008, I was still not included in any part of this hiring process. Several people (including the founder—Prof. Navale) of Sinhgad Institutes had been my past (and close) colleagues (in 1984–85 and in 1989–90), and so, I could enquire about the status of my application with them directly. I did this around mid-July. I did not get to know the real reason why I was not called for the interviews, but I was hired anyway, though even this occurred only after a follow up of about three-four weeks from my side (including putting a third-party friend in between), the follow up being with one of my own past colleagues and friends who is now a Principal in one of the Sinhgad colleges/institutes. The date of appointment nicely read a “symmetrical” August 20, 2008 (write it the British and Indian way to see the “symmetry”: 20/08/2008), and though the verbal promise was for a full Professor’s post, the official appointment letter only says “Assistant Professor.” (Despite typos always being very easy possibilities, in this case, it was not one.) The reason cited was that there were many people with them who had submitted PhD thesis but were awaiting defence; they could take objection. The case of at least one person who is only a master’s degree holder and who was junior to me at COEP during my undergraduate days (in fact entering COEP after I had already graduated from it), but who nevertheless has been made a full Professor without submission of PhD thesis let alone defence), apparently, had not occurred (or had been overlooked). Far more importantly, nothing, apparently, had been made a note of regarding the nature and quality of my research results, one would have to suppose. The appointment is meant for Lonavala, and not for Pune, which means I have to take a daily commute of about 1.75 hours one way (i.e. 3.5 hours both ways) every day of the working week (and for half number of Saturdays in the month also), but, yes, the Institute does provide almost free commute buses which are not Volvo (and which sometimes require commuting while standing, in these faculty-only buses, too.) I could collect the appointment letter itself on August 21, and so, could join only on August 22, 2008. … Tch. One misses historic dates like August 20, 2008. …

After joining, I have been characterized as a useful “resource,” and have been asked to jump in an ongoing course on “Heat Transfer” which was in the process of being taught to the third year undergraduate students. The faculty member who was busy teaching it got his next appointment letter (one at MIT, Pune, only in the month of August (but not in May or July), and so, he could not leave before, and so, he began teaching, but after getting his letter he had to leave, and so, I am now supposed to teach in his place. Out of the six course units in this course on Heat Transfer, only one unit is still remaining to be taught, and I have now to teach it. But the topic remaining is not the sixth unit of “Condensation and Boiling and Heat Exchangers,” which has already been covered, but the one specific unit before that, namely, “radiation” in particular.

My class-room teaching begins on the next Monday i.e. September 1, 2008.

But, yes, this job does allow me to keep my soul and body together. Really speaking, in the particular terms in which the hiring decision was (very likely) actually made, the one question discussed must have been: “And, now, do we let Jadhav-Sir die?,” the answer to which question, evidently, has been made in the negative. der hain, andher nahin.

Yes, you may feel free to wish me luck. (Don’t worry if you did. The whole world already knows I need it—I mean, the “luck”.)

I am still getting to know the place and the people… More, later… (Like, you may look forward to a PDF document containing my notes for the class, to be posted soon enough.)

Why Publish Only at Conferences? Why Not in Journals?—A Note

A special note concerning why I chose to publish my recent PhD research results in conferences held in India, rather than in the usual academic journals published abroad (notably in/from USA), is available for downloading as a separate document from here: [PDF format, ~91 kB] . Though a PDF document, please note, it has been written pretty hastily. As such, it might undergo minor revisions. Read it if interested.

Update on August 16, 2008, 9:18 PM IST: The PDF document has been revised today; the URL remains the same.

An Idea on Visualization of Cultural Contexts

I have had an idea on visualization of cultural contexts, for quite some time now (for years, actually).

The idea is something like this: Using software, plot geographical maps, say, of nations, and show their evolution in space and time as a dynamically evolving series of pictures (perhaps suitably faded in/out). … In short, animations or movies depicting nations… The idea can be extened to many cultural contexts as well…

For a simple implementation, think of a world map in a 2D window and a slider for the time variable. The slider can be moved up or down manually, or it could progress on its own once put in the auto-mode. Maps of all kingdoms or nations existing at a given time appear on the world map. (With software, you can easily zoom in/out and handle a lot of data simultaneously.) As the time-slider moves, geographical extents of the nations also move, creating a movie of sorts in the process. The movie visually shows how the kingdoms or states originated, expanded, contracted, or got absorbed in other kingdoms, empires, etc.

In short, something like the evolution of soap bubbles (dynamically collapsing, growing, changing shapes, etc.), but on a geographic and historic scale.

In case the description appears too impersonal, then think of providing links from cities or locations on the maps to important historical personalities—their pictures, movies, speeches, ideas, etc.

What I said above for political maps can also be implemented for maps of regions of influence of cultures and ideas. … How different cultures spread from their points of origin outwards… For instance, think of the Greek culture, the Roman culture, the Indian culture, etc.

You can also have evolving history of the spreading of languages.  Also, of technical know-how, gadgets and devices in daily use, mathematical ideas, calender systems, art, literature, games of sports, coins, units of measure in daily use, myths, religions, philosophic ideas, political systems… Almost anything big and small characterizing people, societies and cultures. … Why, even manners of dress and of culinary practices!!

Also, movements of people (individuals or groups) could also be superimposed on these evolving maps. (Good print illustrations, say in coffee-table books, do show such things, say using thick arrows. The point here is, all such things can now be dynamic.)

You can have a globe-based (i.e. 3D) visualization for the geographical base too. (Thereby removing all argumentation related to distortions in maps etc.)

The whole thing could be provided as a Web-based service. If so, it could link good informative Web sites together.

The evolution of political landscapes (just as an example) could be provided as standalone animated GIFs (or Flash movies, etc.) too.

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Another feature: On such a map, it should be possible to choose a particular location (say, an ancient city like Rome, or Varanasi, or Cairo), and, upon right-clicking on that location, the software will pop up a window giving a detailed scyscraper kind of visualization of the “layers of history” of that particular place, rather like geological layers in appearance, each layer being depicted using a different color. Each layer would correspond to a certain time period at that geographical (spatial) point.

This will help one realize the “depth of culture” of the place, so to speak. (That is, depth, as measured by time alone, which is not a very good way to measure the “depth” of an idea… Things related to conceptual linkages like extent of abstraction, scope of referents subsumed… these are the real issues in gauging the depth of an idea..)

Not all ideas are equal and not all cultural influences are equally strong. Some are stronger of influence than others. Some periods are brief but leave a far more lasting legacy than others. (Just think of the century-odd period of Socrates-Plato-Aristotle.) Some influences persist over short areas but for too long a period. (Consider the worship traditionally done in a North Indian village, of Ravana—not Rama.)

All such things could be brought out by directly depicting not just the layers of history but also the processes of diffusion (of languages, religions, arts, food, cultural influences, ideas, etc.) over time and space.

The software will prove to be far more instructive than merely timelines.

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I kept the idea to myself because I thought someone or the other surely must have thought of it. (Esp. after I saw the timeline and other multimedia features in Encyclopaedia Britannica, in its 2000 CD edition.) However, apparently none has.

I don’t subscribe to the altruist-collectivist philosophies that often ride on movements like “open source,” “wiki-this” and “wiki-that,” “anti-patents-movements,” etc. I think ideas like these (altruist-collectivist) are destructive of all culture.

However, I also am not always interested in taking out a patent on every patentable idea that occurs to me. That’s how I am sharing this.

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Written (in an email) on July 23, 2008. Revised and published here on August 10, 2008. [And yes, I sure will post my thoughts on water availability in India real soon, as promised a couple of posts earlier or so...]