My thesis topic and an announcement

I have finally decided upon my dissertation topic. The thesis title will be "An approximately optimal strategy for procrastinating in graduate school". It is easy to see that finding the exact optimal strategy is undecidable. The proof is by contradiction: First of all, you cannot procrastinate indefinitely, otherwise good sense will prevail and you will be kicked out of the department. Now suppose there is an optimal strategy that enables you to waste "x" amount of time during the course of your PhD, while leaving room to convince the professors that you are actually doing some work. Then surely you can waste "x + \epsilon" amount of time for arbitrarily small "\epsilon" and no one will notice. Thus, the strategy you chose was not optimal to begin with, and we have reached a contradiction.

The good thing about this project is that I can provide experimental evidence supporting the claims (citing my own procrastinating journey through graduate life) in addition with theoretical results. The work will have serious practical impact and this in turn will increase the chances of me getting a job after graduation.

Announcement: From today onwards, I will be posting once a week (possibly every Sunday). It should help the viewers better digest and dissect the intelligent opinions propounded by this humble author.

Kobita

I wrote this the night before my Madhyamik Physical Science exam. Just shows how sincere a student I was! :-)

Morichikasomo tomar alo
Kano amai path bholalo?
Cholte giye andhar raate
Alo amar chilo na haate,
Bhebechilum tomar kache
Alo bodhhoi lukiye ache.
Sei aloke pabar tore
Elam ami tomar ghore.
Obak hoye takiye dekhi
Charidikei andhar eki!
Charidikei kalo,
Sei kalor majhe dariye theke
Tumio khojo alo.

23

Not so long ago there was a kid who used to go to school, play cricket, watch sunsets (he was always a late riser), and loved to dream. He was afraid of spiders, cockroaches, drawing classes, and wanted to remain a child forever. Time flows by. He went to college, made some great friends, graduated, had a fair share of joy, sorrow, love and heartbreak.

The kid turned 23 today. Let us see what life has in store for him.

Love at first sight

I met her in the library a couple of months back. She was mysterious and beautiful. I immediately fell in love.

Now I keep thinking about her for hours, being unable to concentrate on anything else. I have tried my best to approach her but it has not been easy; progress has been very erratic so far. Sometime she opens up, sometime she ignores me completely.

If you are a true friend, wish me luck.

Want to know who she is? She is the problem I am currently working on.

Five facts about me

1) I work in TCS (Theoretical Computer Science).

2) I work hard.

3) I am fond of SODA and WINE.

4) I am ambitious.

5) I am an atheist because I want to get a job after graduation.

Hello World

I like to go out for a walk, sometimes for hours. It helps cheer me up when I feel depressed or demotivated, and on other occasions serves as a good pass time. Today was one such occasion that prompted me to take an evening jaunt across Duke campus. While contemplating about the existence of cosmos, the purpose behind our existence, and other serious issues of dubious importance, I suddenly discovered the three defining characteristics of a graduate student life:

1) Dedication

2) Motivation

3) Procrastination

It is the third characteristic that is most significant, for it ensures that one fine day you open a blog, and start writing a post not knowing what to write after all.

Welcome to my corner! I am an ordinary boy living in this extraordinary world; a hopeless geek wishing to articulate his own feelings and opinions but failing to do so with an amazing degree of accuracy.

I will try to come up with regular (and short) posts. If you are reading it, do leave a comment. I am a junior researcher and nothing excites me as much as good peer-reviews :-)