Conference dairy - 1

I am currently attending a conference that is known to be very intense with respect to both the schedule and science. The experience has been very rich both for the science I am getting to learn and the social aspects of meeting people from a diverse backgrounds. I have enjoyed being here so much that I think it is worth sharing. I have been told that I cannot use the name of the conference any where as well as not talk about science. So bear with the arbitrariness in both. 

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I have attended international level conferences before. A few times I was just a participant. Many times I have presented posters. But this is the first conference where I got an opportunity to make an oral presentation. And since the conference is being attended by some really important people in the field, I was kind of really nervous about my presentation. I wanted everything to be right and in place before hand so I don't have any nasty surprises during the presentation that would compound my tension. Since my talk was scheduled to be the last one in the session, I was told to connect the computer to projector and set it up so no time is wasted before my presentation starts. Sitting through the talks preceding mine, I was so nervous that I could barely sit steady. When it was time, my face was splashed on the screen, the session leader introduced me and invited me to the dais. I went there, stood in front of everyone and saw that the laptop screen was empty. First I thought it was the screen that timed out. No. I then thought it must have gone to sleep. No. Is it in hibernation? Turns out the computer for some reason that I still can't figure out had shut down. I was standing there with all eyes on me waiting for the computer to restart and the session leader was growing impatient. I would have thought the embarrassment will give me a heart attack. At least that is what I wished would happen. But surprisingly, I was alright. Even the earlier nervousness had disappeared. My heartbeat had returned to normal and I really felt relaxed. The science part after that went off smoothly. And I think the talk was overall well received. All that ends well etc. 

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In the session following my talk, there was another presentation by a researcher from Japan who is working on a similar problem. He had some really interesting data and some very important observations. Unlike mine, his talk went off without any technical glitches and overall he made a very good presentation of his work. But he was in great discomfort as soon as the discussion (Q & A session) began following his talk. It was clear that he knew the science to explain the questions that were asked. But he had a great difficulty in articulating them probably because of a lack of fluency in english. It is the reality of times we live in that english is the language of science today. And it becomes very difficult to communicate the science we do, however excellent it might be, unless we have at least a manageable proficiency in english language. For me, this experience has forever settled the debate on what should be the language of instruction in schools, especially science teaching. 

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I have met a female graduate student at the conference who has come from India. She works in one of the premier science research institutes. She has apparently got some kind of funding from Indian government to support her travel to the conference. As it is the rule imposed on all Indian researchers who get government funding to travel abroad, she too flew to US by Air India. And as any human being (or animal) that has travelled by Air India will tell you, she too had a harrowing experience with the carrier. Apparently, she had to fly (by Air India) to New Delhi to catch a connecting flight to New York. Midway through the flight, the plane was re-routed to Lucknow. The passengers were informed that the change of route was due to bad weather in Delhi. But when some of the passengers grew suspicious and demanded an accurate explanation, they were told that the flight had to be re-routed since there was not enough fuel to reach Delhi (on a regular, pre-planned route). That's how irresponsible the operations in Air India are. Consequently, the flight reached the original destination after a couple of hours delay. Meanwhile, the passengers (like this grad student) who had to catch a connecting flight spent a few nervous hours worrying about the prospect of having to deal with Air India's front-desk employees to find alternate flights if they missed the connection. I have often heard from friends before about this bizarre Indian government rule of requiring to travel exclusively by Air India, if they want to avail the government funds to travel to conferences, workshops etc. abroad. This rule apparently has to be followed even if ticket prices are lower with some other airline. I think this is just a waste of very limited budget allocated to research in India. In fact, I think it is an unpardonable waste of tax-payer money to keep Air India alive. But it is an even bigger sin to force the research community to waste their meagre funds on this white-elephant. 
Update:
Apparently, this grad student's travel for the conference is supported by DBT (the person wasn't very clear on what program of DBT gave this funding, but a little Google search tells me it might be the CTEP). As a scientist-bureaucrat who must have put up with this proxy-funding of Air India nonsense many times through his career, the incumbent DBT secretary Dr. VijayRaghavan should initiate steps to put an end to this practice. If required, it must be brought to the attention of the S&T minister and Prime Minister.