Indian Ameri

Life by all means, gives us opportunities to take control of our opportunities. Period. “I sound philosophically dumb with that statement” What I meant to express is, “ahhhh….. Never mind” I just went through a phase of solid questions (questions related to research and not life…. :D ) and my mind is racing at a prophylactic pace with all the graphs, simulations, plots, concepts, etc I just saw in two days of this awesome (Rhino from Bolt Style AWESOME) conference.

Day 1 (yesterday), started a bit queasy where my mind was hoping to get a good answer, for my belief in making it to this conference all alone (of course, I paid for self too). Good thing was I met three really really “REAlly” big shots who were very keen in knowing my interests in their fields. While, the funny debate between the chair of a session and the attitudinal British graduate made me laugh out on the open (which also got some equal smiles from the crowd, and a heavy “Your dead” stare from the British ‘Lady’), I managed to use it to put some casual talk with the session chair. Thanks to that, I was ‘well’ introduced to a European Faculty, who through peer discussion, turned out to be one of my reviewers for my Langmuir paper.

Somehow, the jolly good mood, turned out to be a pleasant 20 minute break with some ‘very old’ ladies, who packed my gifts with the respective wrappers. In fact it was fun to tear the paper, cut the sides, fold the wrapper, hold the tape, get the bow, add the label, and finally give a tip to these Lions club Ladies. The better thing that happened during this interim was their discussion of “He is a good boy. Isn’t he?” (I don’t remember the last time I was called a ‘good boy’ or even a ‘boy’ :) ). Lunch break went super awesome, as I managed to move around the Barnes and Noble crèche just to get the perfect gift for my nephew.

Although my brain screamed ‘post doc option’ ‘post doc option’ ‘post doc option’, post lunch session turned blurry with sleep taking control over my eyelids. Gave up on the last talk, and returned back home in the subway (which somehow, always keep me interested in the strange world)

Today (a few more hours to go), was the balancing act to day 1. Ended up screwing a potential post doc opportunity by continuing a discussion with regards to a dumb question I posted minutes ago meeting the faculty. While this should have turned trivial, its essence was manifested, when my memory failed to elicit the face of a faculty whom I’ve been trying to meet from minute 1 after I saw his talk. Cursing my memory as usual, I ended up sitting in this ‘out of the bloom’ faculty’s talk. (Oh Wait… The British Lady just went past me, and yet again threw a scary glare at me). While, I was strategizing a way to use his student (who was the second place poster winner at AICHE), to get myself acquainted into a discussion, the mention of the students name in a Science and Nature Nanotechnology Paper just threw me overboard. I just acted cowardly from meeting up with the faculty. Now, I have about 90 minutes, to get myself back on stage, and meet him, and one more faculty.

Yikes…. I’m about a minute late for the next talk. Break’s over. Adios… Cheerios…. Wish me luck before I yuck again.

(Post day 2's conference: Made sure I rocked the day as it ended. Had a 15 minute solid discussion with a MIT-co-Harvard Group of faculties, who were in a fix solving an issue. Good that my skills in multiple equipments finally paved way for such a discussion. And a million thanks to that unknown stranger who asked a simple question and provoked me into asking a second question with a comment. It made the group of faculties approach me after the session. "It's true that, everything happens for a reason")