A Manifesto for Science & Math-Ph

The artistic nature of math

Mathematics is a highly reproducible form of art.

Wrapping my head around Applications and PhD - 1/n

I talked to Sam and Ayan recently. Sam is doing his Master’s at University of Edinburgh, and Ayan is doing his PhD in Geometry and Mathematical Physics at SISSA. They both have a Bachelor’s in Physics and a strong interest in mathematics. It triggered some good discussions on applications and the nature of a PhD, which allowed me to understand and appreciate the process behind intellectually, instead of a pressure to follow a set of common narratives. Later, I also reached out to Gab, who is pursuing a D.Phil at University of Oxford. I will also note my observations and learnings from very close interactions with Abs, which can sometimes get easier to overlook. Abs is pursuing her PhD at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. [All names are morphed for privacy reasons.]

On Career, meaning and social change

All my life up until this instant, career is the only thing I was supposed to work toward. A career which provides (stability/security). All the narratives I’ve ever heard from the society I have been part of is to get a good job and settle, disconnected from the issues of public or environment. Not a nudge towards its meaningfulness or contribution to the public. I do see where such ideas stem from (begs a different and broder question), but in this blog, I uncover some of my inclinations towards a ‘meaningful’ career, and analyze different nuances associated with a background in science, especially in abstract math and theoretical physics.

Personality, Character and Health

Honestly, it’s not just that our mental healths are tending towards abnormal, it’s also the expectation of how normal it should be. Everyday we are all tested towards how productive we are, how hard we work to land our jobs, and how quickly we recover from things that perturb us.

An atheist's visit to Hindu Monasteries

Dad and I travelled to Sringeri Math and Udupi math last week. More than 5 years ago, my parents had planned to get my Upanayana done in Sringeri Math but ended up doing it at the Mantralayam Math. But they prayed that I shall seek darshan from the Sringeri peethadipathi after the Upanayana. So that was the motivation for the trip. And we covered beautiful places surrounding these places - beaches and a waterfall. I had quite a nice time thinking about various aspects of Hindu Philosophy, Science and Nature. While I share my thoughts which arose during the trip it’s good to cover some history of Hindu/Indian Philosophy on the go.

Post Compuslive Slow Down

It was the last week of the seemingly low-key month of an year, September. But behold the beautiful sunshine! I had just watched a brilliant video on our indulgence in compulsions (imposed mainly by the marketing industry backed by the current notions of economic development) rather than what we really want to do. It was also during this time, that I had resumed playing Valorant after almost 3 years and also started watching a new web series on Netflix.