Update

I have quite a few things to tell...

My PhD defence at the University of Pune is already over.

I have also received post-doc offers, one from a group at MIT Boston, as well as another one from the University of California, Berkeley. The two offers followed within hours of each other. The jobs are in the computational sciences/engineering areas; the people were impressed by what I did in my PhD as well as my iMechanica writings.

However, the US visa picture is not yet clear. If this continues to be the case, I might actually have to leave both the post-doc offers alone, in which case, I might actually end up joining an "industrial" job instead, one with the parallel processing group at Microsoft Research in Hyderabad, India. They have offered me a group leader's post, and the perks are pretty good too.

...Keep watching for the update...

Update on April 2, 2008 (Indian Standard Time)

I received one personal message from an iMechanica member, the opening line of which said: "Dear Dr. Ajit, Congratulations on your dual achievements..." Well, it made my day...

In response, let me say (to him and to all others who believed the above part of my posting):

APRIL FOOL!

----- 

More seriously, none of the specific items in the original message is true. Each one of them was meant as a joke. The following, however, are true:

After 5.5 months of tussle between COEP and University of Pune, they still have to appoint an examination panel for my PhD examination; for all you know, the "tussle" could be as per directions received from Delhi; for all *I* know, Delhi could be asking them to delay it so as to coincide in some convenient way to Nuclear Deal or US elections or whatever. In any case, my thesis defence will take place only after the referees get to see my thesis, which will happen only after examination panel is appointed, which will happen only after Dr. Narendra Jadhav (the vice-chancellor) signs on the letter appointing them, which will only happen after Mr. Prakash Wani, the Dean of Engg at University of Pune (and, a prof. at COEP), will forward the University of Pune office the list, which, I came to know from the clerks in the University, has not happened yet. (The clerks themselves will take some time for processing too, of course, not to mention the outward/inward processing.) So much about University of Pune and my PhD.

About MIT and Berkeley. Long gone, of course, are the days when the Statue of Liberty meant anything to anyone influential or non-naive (in or out of USA). Further, gone are the days of the sputnik, cold-war, and the perceived US need to be superior through better research---the standard of a second-hander, of course. Gone, in fact, even are the "Killing Fields" days. What today remains in US is not even a shadow of such a past. In science, what, instead, has taken over is the "State Science Institute" culture. (For more details, see Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.) As such, talented people elsewhere should not expect to receive just treatment from Americans in response to their individual desserts. In particular, MIT, Berkely etc. must remain out of the reach of most talented foreigners---except for a handful few who "fall in line" or otherwise are bureacratically or otherwise acceptable. "Why rush" are the standing orders from Americans to talented individuals elsewhere. The people who in fact are more faithful to Americans than to truth or talent (e.g. editors and perhaps also the owners of dailies in India like Sakal) are carrying out these instructions out quite faithfully---with more faithfulness than what a dog could possibly show towards his owner. After all, these are intelligent human beings; metaphysically, anything that loyal humans can do must exceed dogs' desserts. (The issue is not loyalty. The issue is: loyalty to principles vs. loyalty to people. The former would do justice to someone like me---by opening up opportunities in the best places in the USA; the latter would convert the second-rate people from other countries into worshippers (rich worshippers) of Americans because the Americans are powerful.)

A part of the same shameful behavior is Microsoft's refusal to give me a job, and in fact, their participation in the rich Americans' games of monitoring each and every concrete aspect(s) of my life, both when I was in the USA and now when I have been in India. And this, despite, the moral support which I had once extended them when they were facing breakup into several companies. (The effectiveness of my moral support is precisely brought out by the fact that American news media till date go crazy about what I do, and try to throw obstacles in every possible way in my progress.) Today's Americans (and this includes Democrats as much as Republicans and others) do not necessarily believe in returning a good turn by a good turn. That's what all this proves. Once again.

The update is over. If Americans (and powerful/priviledged/rich Indians) continue such games, the only thing that anyone like me can look forward to is a life of misery, unearned guilt, social pressures at every step, unexpected obstacles and delays in every part of work or value, humiliation, being made an object of ridicule via incessant follow-up in news media, etc. But yes, they still have not yet come down to outright killing someone like me---I suppose so. Tthough I have been beaten once, physically, in Pune, in the year 2001, and have been threatened with life twice, (once with a knife barely one inch from my nose---and with ten onlookers who did nothing). I suppose, both beating and threats had arisen out of my adherence to rational ideas. As per this supposition (of mine---namely, that I still may have been allowed to live, not have to die, after all), a lecturer's job in a private engineering college (but not in COEP---as I was tactfully told) is what I should look forward to, if I wish to keep my body and soul together. I am responding them by further waiting for some more time for a suitable job in CAE software development, or a suitable postdoc in USA, and if neither comes through, then, since I do not wish to commit suicide so soon anyways (even though it's been seven years of unemployment), by running private coaching classes in mathematics, applied mechanics, etc. for (perhaps mostly the second-rate) students of engineering in the University of Pune---the way so many people have already been doing anyways. But, of course, though MIT and Berkeley people do not say so, I do know the worth of my PhD work---the nature of what I have already accomplished and its future potential too. I also know what I can do once given the right chance, and what humiliation it would be for me to have to earn through coaching for MI, MII, MIII, AM, of University of Pune. So, the day that I release my first advertisement in the local newspapers (very likely, Sakal) for my coaching classes (or by being a teacher with an already existing coaching class), would also be the first day that I would begin bringing my postings here to a "tabula rasa" state, one after another, in sequence, one at a time. This is not a threat, but would constitute a just response to the identity of the treatment one has received from Americans (and powerful/priviledged/rich Indians). Spelling and grammar errors throughout this posting are regretted but shall not be reworked upon; I can't care for them that much---given the moral poverty (as judged by objective means, not religious) of those people among the audience who are powerful, who could have already made the difference but chose not to. One can't care for them.---can one?