The Great Ganesha

Are you seriously considering a Ph.D.? Most people I know have had the thought cross their mind once or twice in their lives. You know who you are: You’re in a dead-end job; or you’re finishing up your Master’s and the job market is down; or you’ve just finished your Bachelor’s and the real world [...]

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Was reading the news this morning and I came across the following quote: ?It?s just the most fantastic thing to be free. It was an appalling experience…occasionally quite terrifying.? ?It became hard to imagine normal life. I dreamed several times of being free, but always woke up in that room.? [link] It’s from BBC journalist [...]

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Being of the academic persuasion, a side-effect of essentially having no real-world experience yet (I’m working on it), I find it quite amusing that people are so swayed by the so-called university rankings lists that come out every fall. In fact, many, many years ago, when I was applying for my undergrad here in the [...]

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September 5th is Teacher’s Day in India. It’s the birthday of an ex-president and teacher Dr. Radhakrishnan. When asked by students to celebrate his birthday, he requested that instead, people should celebrate it as Teacher’s Day. In addition to my dissonant ramblings (I am a grad student and teacher, after all), plenty of other events [...]

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(Sing to the tune of Summer Nights from the Grease motion picture soundtrack.) [Me] Summer doldrums, make time so slow-oh! [Adviser] That’s an excuse? We’ll never let you go! [Me] I’m working hard, in the library. [Adviser] You call that working? Get down on your knees! [Me] A-a-ging, i-in grad school, getting a uh-uh P-h-D! [...]

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And then there were six… One of my students just dropped the class. A girl majoring in Dance, she somehow found herself in my class. Even though it’s a class for non-majors, the math is pretty hard for someone who cannot think quantitatively (think: most American non-math-major undergraduates). So I had my first casualty of [...]

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A recent article in the BBC brought to light something interesting. For about 700-800 years, starting in the first or second century BC, the Indians were sending pepper and other spices to the Romans from Muziris, a seaport located in Kerala. The spices would make their way to Egypt, from where they would then be [...]

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Started teaching again last night. So far so good. I've decided to blog about the teaching on a regular basis now. Sort of like blognitive therapy, if you will. The frustration and anguish associated with dealing with American undergraduates can, to put it mildly, get a little excessive. As I have said earlier: Teaching is [...]

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One way is to work hard through your undergrad, develop an interest in a subject, apply to grad schools and get in to a grad school. Once you're there, slog through the coursework, pass your cumulative exams, work hard through your dissertation research, all the while grinning through the frustration of being overworked, underpaid and [...]

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There's a guy at UW-Whitewater (that's University of Wisconsin) who's been an undergrad for 12 (count 'em!) years. That's right. So, fellow PhD's, if you look at your life passing you by. If you see your friends getting richer, settled, married, etc. If you think to yourself, "What the hell am I doing here?" Take [...]

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