SPH vs. Fixed Eulerian vs. Moving Mesh Codes

Recently there have been a slew of papers on comparison of different schemes to solve Euler equations, especially in the cosmological context. The most recent work has been http://arxiv.org/abs/0901.4107 and other papers by the same group. They claim that an unstructured (and regularized at every timestep) moving mesh combines the best features of SPH (constant in mass resolution, Galilean invariance) and Eulerian codes (well-resolved and contact discontinuity). Moving mesh has an additional advantage: the contact discontinuity is very sharply resolved because of small diffusion error ($\propto v \Delta x$, where $v$ is the fluid velocity in a non-moving mesh). Therefore a moving mesh mode does very well compared to a fixed-grid method for problems with large advection velocities. The SPH codes aren't even capable of qualitatively simulate turbulence; they don't get the inertial range because of the lack of interaction of equal-sized eddies. The reason is that all eddies except the larges ones are diffused by smoothing noise. So SPH is not good to simulate subsonic flows and there is no easy fix for this.

Undergraduate degree in Science: IITs vs. IISc?

IISc has started its BS (Bachelors in Science) program this year (http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ug/). I thinks its a great beginning and I hope that the program lives up to its expectations. Comparison of this program with the already mature undergraduate programs at IITs is natural. One feature that makes the IISc program much superior over the IITs is the flexibility to choose majors after first two years. In IITs one has to choose his specialization at the very beginning, based only on the rank and rarely on taste/aptitude. The second advantage that IISc has over IITs, especially if the student wants to go into research in future, is that it was a graduate school till recently, which means that the focus has been mainly on research. Unlike IISc, faculty members have to spend a lot of time in teaching at IITs. The IITs have one big advantage for students interesting in finding jobs right after graduation. They have an extensive alumni network,  good reputation, and a well-set placement routine. So the choice is up to you the student; just don't do something because everyone else is doing it!

Setting up your your mac on IISc's network

Ethernet:

Get an IP address, subnet mask, router, DNS server info from the department system admin. configure IPv4 manually and enter these numbers in the network settings. You'll need to set proxies to connect to the web. Set all (http, https, etc.) proxies; one of the proxy servers is proxy.iisc.ernet.in : 3128 (port number). Get username and password from SERC. you can use a guest username password from the local system admin for the time being. You'll need to fill/submit forms at SERC to get the username/password for the proxy server.

Airport:

Use DHCP to configure IP. 802.1 WPA Enterprise authentication (802.1X is one of the tabs on the panel which appears after you click Advanced tab on the network preferences); create a user profile using the username and password obtained from SERC. You'll need to fill another form for this. There is a wireless network at the main guest house (ghwan) that one can use; I think you'll need some kind of guest username/password for 802.1 authentication (i'm not so sure about this). You probably don't require to connect to the proxy server at the guest house (again i'm not so sure). There are instructions (outdated; and not for a mac) provided at the guest house that you can try to decipher.

Forms to fill at SERC:

There are forms at http://nitss.serc.iisc.ernet.in/ that you can fill to activate VPN to login to IISc machines, activate wireless and ethernet access through your laptop, and to access machines outside the IISc network.

Basically, the upshot is that there are many inconveniences in the name of security. All this could be made much more streamlined and secure!

Installing Matlab from SERC on a Mac:

Goto: http://www.serc.iisc.ernet.in/ComputingFacilities/software/matlab-7.7/unix/brkno4b-1.html.
The instructions for mounting the installer on a Mac given there don't work. Instead try

mount    -t    smbfs   //10.16.2.121/matlab-7.7   /matlab-7.7  

after creating the directory matlab-7.7 (don't use -o guest option). You have to use sudo command at every step. Then you just follow the instructions given on their webpage.





 

Steps to joining IISc as an Assistant Prof.

1) go to health center for medical exam. (ht+wt+urine test+vision test+hernia/hydrocele test) get a signed/stamped letter with approval from the chief medical officer. take this letter to the dept.; this is how you officially join.

2) the dept. will send the paperwork to the main admin. office and you will get further forms to fill out in few days.

3) get in touch with the Estate office (Kannan + Sridhar) for housing assignment. Asst. profs. qualify for D-type (2 BR) quarters. you have to pester them continuously to get the apartment repaired to make it livable. they do not function coherently and you'll have to talk to them very clearly and pester them to get the apartment ready on time.

4) open bank account at campus SBI. get a form from them and fill it out. you need to get a referral from one of your colleagues. you'll need an address proof; department can write a letter saying that you have joined the department and you can use the department address. you'll need two passport-size photos. you'll get a debit/ATM card and a pass-book. don't forget to apply for internet banking.

Its a good idea to get 10 copies of your driver's license and 10 passport-size photos. You need them for everything!

other things:

1) bsnl and airtel have best signal in and around campus. there is a bsnl vendor on campus near the estate office. i find that i am dropping a lot of calls on my prepaid bsnl sim and i am thinking of switching to airtel. i'll update on how airtel does.

2) there are several eating options, both on-campus and outside. i like prakruti veg. canteen near the main gate and the tata book house. tea board is right next to it. then there is faculty club but you'll need your ID to be able to use it; you an ask a colleague to help with lunch. the main guest house serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner but I think you have to be staying in the guest house to be able to use this. on yeshwantpur side there is a fast food place near the yeshwantpur circle/fly-over and rajini andhra restaurant just opposite it.  there may be many more options; i'll expand on this as i discover more.

3) you can buy a bicycle at RR bikes near yeshwantpur circle/fly-over; its on SC road (see the map below for subedarchatram Rd.). there are a lot of used-bike dealers on triveni road close to the yeshwantpur fly-over (see map: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=13.01897,77.557844&spn=0.001672,0.002221&z=19&lci=com.panoramio.all,com.google.webcams). You can also buy a helmet on Triveni Rd. There are a lot of bike repair shops on the same road. Remember prices are negotiable.

i'll add more stuff as i discover more things.

The Cosmic Baryon Budget

Among many surprising facts of astronomy is that stars contain a negligible fraction of the total mass in the universe. Most mass (~80%) is in the form of the mysterious dark matter. The minority baryons (comprising rest ~20% of the mass) are distributed in different forms (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9712020). At the current redshift most baryonic mass is in the X-ray halos of groups and clusters of galaxies; followed by mass in stars (most of the stars are in spheriodal components of galaxies); and by neutral and molecular gas in galaxies. Groups, the biggest baryon reservoirs, are diffuse and extremely difficult to observe in X-rays and therefore their baryon content is quite uncertain.

At high redshift (z~3) the conditions are rather different. The cosmic density is much higher and thus the cooling time is shorter. Moreover, almost all halos are less massive than 1.e11 solar masses, and hence  are cooling efficiently. At that redshift most of the baryons are in the form of neutral Hydrogen clouds embedded within  ~ 100s of kpc from galaxies. These `clouds' show up in Ly-alpha absorption of background quasars. Some of these clouds are optically thick and are known as damped Ly-alpha absorber (DLAs). The total mass estimated in these clouds is roughly equal to the total baryonic mass at current redshifts. Comparing the baryonic distribution at z=3 and z=0 then suggests that most Ly-alpha absorbing clouds (and stellar outflows generated by stars formed due to the cooling of these filaments) are shock-heated to X-ray temperatures at z=0 and fill the groups and clusters of galaxies.

Moreover, the total baryonic mass fraction at z=0 and z=3 agrees with the baryonic mass fraction calculated from big-bang nucleosynthesis. This implies that most baryonic mass in the universe is in detectable form; this is a good news for us astrophysicists as we can try to account for all of it.

A week to go!

Wow! The time has come to say good-bye. I am moving to India in a week. There was no time to feel anything till now, but I'll probably feel nostalgic once I am in India. I have spent last 10 happy and productive years in the US but I am very excited about my move to IISc Bangalore. Its the next phase of my life and there is lots to do and achieve.

Virial Shocks in Galactic Halos

This paper (Birnboim & Dekel 2004; http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0302161) performs a global 1-D linear stability analysis of the virial shock in a self-gravitating dark matter halo. The authors relate the pressure and density of the post-shock gas (using $d\ln P/d\ln \rho = \gamma_{\rm eff}$) and perform a stability analysis on the perturbations of the pressure and gravitational forces, assuming hydrostatic equilibrium. $\gamma_{\rm eff}$ depends on the cooling rate; for an adiabatic ideal gas blob $\gamma_{\rm eff}=5/3$. They derive a critical $\gamma_{\rm eff}$ for the shock stability in presence of cooling; only for $\gamma_{\rm eff}>\gamma_{\rm crit}=1.43$ is the post-shock plasma stable. In presence of cooling, the effective adiabatic index is given by
$$\gamma_{\rm eff}=\gamma + \frac{r_s}{2 u_1} \frac{q}{e},$$
where $r_s$ is the shock radius, $u_1$ is the post-shock velocity ($<0$) and $q$ is the cooling rate and $e$ is the internal energy. This instability criterion can also be expressed in terms of the upstream variables and is roughly equivalent to $\frac{t_{\rm ff}}{t_{\rm cool}} \lesssim {\cal O}(1)$. A similar criterion was proposed by Rees & Ostriker 1977 (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1977MNRAS.179..541R) for efficient cooling of gas to form galaxies. They argued that if $t_{\rm cool}<t_{\rm ff} \sim t_{\rm snd}$, the gas cools to sub-virial temperatures ($10^4$ K), and the cool gas falls on a free-fall time, unimpeded by gas pressure.

Both these papers find that stable/quasi-steady, pressure supported IGM is formed only for a halo mass $\gtrsim 10^{12} M_\odot$. While RO77 and other subsequent papers envisioned a hot, shocked IGM, BD04 showed that a stable virial shock is formed only for $\gtrsim 10^{12} M_\odot$ halos, and that the gas accretes in the code mode (at $\sim 10^4$ K) for lower mass halos, as observed in recent numerical simulations. BD04 also performed 1-D Lagrangian simulations of shock formation with DM + gas, starting from cosmologically consistent initial conditions. Their numerical simulations agree with their linear stability analysis. The critical halo mass for forming stable shock ($\sim 10^{11.5} M_\odot$) is fairly insensitive to metallicity, angular momentum, baryon fraction, power spectrum, etc. An important effect that BD04 may have missed is feedback heating; in presence of  feedback heating the virial shock can become stable as feedback heating provides the post-shock pressure to support the shock.

Recently Dekel and collaborators have argued that cold streams are responsible for star-forming galaxies (SFGs) with SFR~100$M_\odot {\rm yr}^{-1}$; however major mergers are likely responsible for the rarer sub-mm galaxies at z~2 with SFR~1000$M_\odot {\rm yr}^{-1}$. Major mergers are responsible for $< 1/3$ in total star formation.

Classic papers in Astrophysics

I want to read and understand some of the classic papers in Astrophysics and summarize them here, for later reference. Hopefully I get down to this sooner than later. I'll probably choose them based on my current interests and taste. I want to do at least 1 per week.

Galaxy Formation : Environment vs. Halo Mass

Galaxies grow primarily by the cooling of the intergalactic gas accreted by dark matter halos. Numerical simulations have shown that the gas accreting in dark matter halos <~ 10^12 Msun is not heated to the virial temperature, but instead is accreted via the `cold' mode (see http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0407095). For halos less massive than this critical mass, the cooling time of the gas at the virial radius is shorter than the dynamical time, and thus a hot hydrostatic atmosphere is not formed. This recent paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.5046) argues that, in addition to the halo mass, the environment also plays an important role in galaxy formation. They have simulated two large (~ 20^3 Mp^3) cosmological volumes, one centered on a void (underdensity) and one on a cluster (overdensity), and compared galaxy formation in these different environments. As expected,  stellar/light density is much smaller in the void simulation than in the cluster simulation. Their simulations reproduce galaxy downsizing, i.e., the peak star formation occurs in lower mass halos with decreasing redshift, for both the void and cluster galaxies.

They argue that the ratio of tcool (cooling time at the virial radius) and the Hubble time (halo age), which is roughly a function of entropy and is relatively independent of redshift, determines the specific star-formation rate (sSFR). If tcool/tH is small, sSFR is large and the galactic mass can double in the Hubble time. At high z, because of a large cosmic density, tcool is shorter than tH and sSFR is large for all galaxies, both in void and cluster environments. However, at z=0, not only the massive halos (as predicted by the 'cold mode' scenario), but also the lower mass halos in high temperature/entropy cluster environment, have low sSFR such that they can't double their mass in a Hubble time. Thus, in addition to the halo mass, environment also plays an important role in galaxy formation. But fundamentally it is still tcool/tH which determines sSFR; temperature/entropy in cluster environment is higher and tcool/tH>1, and hence sSFR is suppressed.

Some studies compare tcool/tff and some compare tcool/tH. If there is feedback heating which roughly balances radiative cooling, as in the intracluster medium, the relevant ratio should be tcool/tff. In absence of heating, tcool/tH seems more appropriate. It will be useful to study these important timescales in more detail. Clarification: tcool<tH is absolute minimum requirement (necessary but not sufficient) for efficient cooling; since tcool is minimum at fewx1e5 K, that tcool is an absolute upper limit for efficient star formation.

Many more Jupiters than Stars

In this very exciting paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.3544), based on microlensing experiments which monitor the sudden increase in the luminosity of the Galactic halo stars due to gravitational magnification by a foreground source, the authors have obtained the statistics of lens masses. The duration of the amplification even is ~ (M/M_J)^0.5 days, where M_J is the Jupiter mass. Thus, you need higher cadence  (shorter sampling of the stellar lightcurve) to see smaller mass lenses. The authors find an excess of events at ~ day timescale, corresponding to the Jupiter mass objects. They claim that these Jupiter mass objects are either free-floating, or are farther by >10 AU from the central star, and are more common than main sequence stars by a factor of ~ 2. Out of their 474 evens only 10 have an Einstein time (duration of magnification event) < 2 days; although their number is small the probability of lensing by smaller masses is also lower (proportional to the square of the lens mass), so their real abundance is larger.

The lensing statistics reproduce a good fit to the stellar mass function but requires a bump at the Jupiter mass. The argue that these Jupiter mass planets are kicked out from their stars by dynamical interactions. Another possibility is that  they are Jupiters formed at large distances from their stars, but this is less likely because such systems would have been detected very commonly in nearby directly-imaged planetary systems. With even better cadences they may be able to constraint the number of free-floating lower mass planets. Let wait and watch!

Why are low mass halos not forming stars?

The mass to light ratio of galaxies is minimum for a Galactic mass halo (~1.e12 Msun). For both smaller and larger halo masses the stellar mass, and hence the luminosity, decreases relative to the halo mass. At larger halo masses star formation is believed to be quenched due to AGN feedback, and at lower halo masses momentum feedback by supernovae has been blamed for suppressing star formation. This paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.2376) suggests an alternate possibility for explaining lower star formation efficiency in smaller mass halos (<few 1.e9 Msun; to quench star-formation in galaxies larger than this still requires supernova feedback). It suggests that lower mass halos (with low metallicities and smaller gas column densities) cannot form molecular hydrogen, which is a pre-requisite to form stars according to recent observations and modeling. This is a simulation paper which uses a simplified equilibrium model for molecular gas fraction depending on the UV background, metallicity, dust, neutral hydrogen density, etc. and calculates the star formation rate based on molecular hydrogen fraction. Using this prescription the authors are able to get the reduction in stellar mass fraction in halo masses less than few times 1.e9 solar masses. Their model also predict neutral hydrogen in lower mass halos because it has not been converted in the molecular phase or stars. 

Large Cool-Cores vs. Coronae

Recently it was shown that most clusters have entropy cores (http://arxiv.org/abs/0902.1802) at scales of few 10s of kpc, and if the core entropy is < 30 keV it is very likely to show cool filaments or radio AGN. However, this paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.2006) suggested that the core entropy is not a well-defined quantity in all cases because some clusters show high density, low temperature coronae associated with the central BCG at much smaller scales (< 5 kpc). The paper shows that strong radio emission is seen in all systems with cool gas, either in form of traditional large cool cores or small coronae. Thus, non-cool-core systems which show radio are very likely to be unresolved coronae systems. Now the question arises whether the coronae show cool filaments as the systems with large cool cores do?

Missing Baryon Problem(s)

This (http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.3273) paper talks about two missing baryon problems: one, the global one, that most of the baryons (accounting for all observed sources, stars, cool gas, ICM, Ly alpha forest, etc.) in the universe as a whole are missing. The second missing baryon problem is that most galaxies (like our own) are severely baryon poor. Numerical simulations suggest that rest of the baryons are in the difficult to observe warm hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). This paper argues, based on observation of pulsar dispersion measure, OVII absorption, etc., that most of the baryons are not in the Galactic halo. Moreover, from the lack of correlation between AGN/stellar feedback indicators (e.g., stellar fraction, bulge mass) and the missing baryon fraction from a galaxy, these authors argue that the baryons are not missing because of outflows driven by feedback. Rather the baryons never fell into the dark matter halos in the first place!

Baryon budget in groups and clusters of galaxies

This (http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.1726) is a very careful study of baryon budget in massive halos (M_500>5.e13 M_sun). They find that the total baryon fraction (including ICM gas, BCG+ICL+stars from other galaxies) in halos > 5.e13 M_sun is only slightly smaller than the universal baryon fraction (f_b=0.17; their Fig. 2). Thus clusters represent a fair sample of baryons in the universe, considering that the small deficit from the universal value is within systematic uncertainties, and that they only go out to R_500 and not R_200. Moreover, the fractional contribution of stars to total baryon budget increases with decreasing halo mass, such that (mass of stars+ICM)/(mass of stars+ICM+dark matter) = universal baryon fraction. Their other finding is that the ICL+BCG contribution can be dominated by the ICL (which can account for 80% of the ICL+BCG light); thus it is important to account for the diffuse ICL. The fractional (ICL+BCG)/(ICL+BCG+other galaxies) contribution decreases with radius in all halos (Fig. 5). The volume integrated ICL+BCG fraction of total stellar light decreases with increasing halo mass (Fig. 4); thus ICL is more important in groups than in clusters. This paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.2230; Fig. 4) shows the baryon fraction going to much lower halo masses. The baryon fraction decreases quite rapidly with the decreasing halo mass for masses smaller than ~ 5.e13 Msun (this is the "missing baryon problem").

Cluster Richness as a measure of cluster mass

Because of sensitivity and wide sky coverage (e.g., SDSS) galaxy clusters are most easily detected optically as an overdensity in galaxies on the scale of ~ Mpc. Here (http://arxiv.org/abs/0709.1159) is a good paper that goes through the details of calibrating richness (N_200, number of early type galaxies larger than a threshold luminosity) with mass measured from weak lensing shear profiles. They bin their ~ 13,000 clusters using 12 bins in N_200 (total luminosity of elliptical galaxies can also be used) and for each bin they obtain average weak lensing shear profiles which they convert into matter density profile and enclosed mass profile and obtain R_200. They find a rather tight correlation between N_200 and M_200, and argue that richness can be used as a good mass proxy (Fig. 11). They have to account for several mass contributions, e.g., the mass profile of the central bright galaxy, miscentered halo component (if cluster DM is not centered on the central bright galaxy) , neighboring halos, etc. They find that NFW is a good fit to the DM density profile. The concentration-mass relation they obtain is also consistent with simulations. They find that their best fit BCG mass is correlated with M_200 (Fig. 14). Its still a puzzle then why the SZ signal predicted by M_200-N_200 relation is larger than what is observed!

Universal pressure profile for galaxy clusters

The utility of galaxy clusters for precision cosmology (in particular to constrain $\sigma_8$ and dark energy eq. of state) depends on our ability to determine their mass precisely from observations. Systematic scatter (and bias) in mass measurement needs to be reduced to better than 10%. This paper (http://arxiv.org/abs/0910.1234) uses the representative (a fair sample reflecting their real abundance) of  REXCESS clusters, and fits a generalized NFW profile to observational pressure profiles out to R_500. The scatter in pressure is much smaller at each radius than density, temperature, or entropy (something already emphasized by simulations). Pressure profile has smallest scatter at R_500 because inner parts are affected by cooling and outer by unvirialized clumps. Since SZ effect probes the pressure, this implies that Y_SZ can be more tightly correlated with M_500 than Y_X, and can improve cosmological constraints. Moreover, since SZ signal is not dimmed at high redshifts, SZ can be quite powerful in constraining dark energy and departures from non-gaussianities in the primordial power spectrum.

Planck SZ vs. optical scaling relations

Many observables (e.g., Y_X, Y_SZ, N_200) are correlated with the halo mass. This enables obtaining mass function of halos at different redshifts, which is a sensitive probe of dark energy. However, different observables are biased differently. Thus it is necessary to cross-caliberate different observables. This paper

(http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.2027) shows that optical richness (which is calibrated against weak-lensing mass measurements) based prediction for Y_SZ is >~ twice larger than what is measured by Planck (Fig. 2). Y_SZ measurements are consistent with predictions of X-ray models applied to the same sample. Richness (number of elliptical galaxies > a cut-off luminosity within a fraction of virial radius) must have a large scatter for a fixed profile of the ICM. This is a puzzle that must be resolved if richness can be used for precision cosmology!

Physics blog

I'd write more about my Physics readings, a drastic change of flavor. This will help me write the gist of what I am reading and help as a quick reference. I aim to read at least a paper or two everyday.

Law vs Ethics & Govt. vs Anna

Its very encouraging to see the kind of momentum that Anna Hazare has gathered for his fight against corruption in India. He does not have a big political base, but his voice resonates with millions of Indians (especially young Indians; I am proud of you!) . Government has tried to suppress him but popular support and his will were too strong to yield. Some people in the government have argued that Anna's approach is unconstitutional. Although technically correct, their argument is lame. Laws change with time as the society evolves. In old times (and even now in some societies) it was fine to stone people to death, but with time as the society evolved the laws (and constitutions) changed. Similarly during the British Raj it was ok (by law) to ban newspapers which encouraged people to demand for independence. People were arrested for peacefully protesting against the illegal and unethical government. It was justified by law! So laws are not written in stone, they change with time, with changes in society and popular aspirations (at least this is how it should be in a functional democracy). Thus, although it is technically unconstitutional to introduce/modify/question bills outside the parliament, it is very reasonable to have an open and broad discussion with the citizenry at large on such a critical issues as corruption. I hope the government does not go into the technicalities, but understands the significance of this issue to the common man. If it doesn't, I am pretty positive, it will later regret its decision. Common citizens' participation on this is even more important because a large fraction of the members of the parliament (MPs) are tainted in one way or another; we, the common people, are afraid that the cartel of MPs, irrespective of their affiliations, will not write a strong law that will rein them in. Anna we are with you!

Future of Education?

I think so! See Sal Khan's TED talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html

and

http://www.khanacademy.org/

In a nutshell he is suggesting that internet technology can be used to make good quality lectures and tests available for everyone. Anyone, even those without educational opportunities -- he gives the example of a child laborer from Calcutta -- can come home and go through these at his/her leisure. He points that a lot of kids cannot keep up with the pace of the traditional classroom and lag behind as a result, and if the basics are not strong rest of the material will just go over the top. Online learning can help students master the basics at their own pace and then only after they are comfortable (which the online tests are very good at measuring) are the advised to advanced to the next level.

The role of a teacher is not diminished in this setting. Since it is straightforward to track the learning of students -- thanks to the software tools -- the teacher can spend time with their students on their weaknesses. The advanced students can tutor their friends stuck at topics they have mastered. The whole classroom experience becomes much more productive than the traditional way. The learning experience becomes much more collaborative, as it is in the real world. e.g., if someone wants to open a business he/she does not just read books on this and take tests. He/she talks to friends who are business-owners, he/she surveys the web, and so on. Why shouldn't we aim for education that helps everyone in a real sense! The negative impact of grades, classes, exams, etc. are much less deleterious in this system and they learn what they should in a productive way.

I hope teachers -- especially those from areas with limited access to good quality teachers -- try these online resources to make the learning experience more rewarding and productive.

O bureaucracy!

I was in India for a short trip from March 13th to 20th and experienced the government bureaucracy firsthand. I'll describe two occasions where I saw the perils of excessive and often unnecessary rules.

I went to IISc Bangalore for three days to look for housing; I was exploring both on-campus and off-campus options. I find on-campus housing quite attractive because campus is lively and facilities like gym, swimming-pool, etc. are easily accessible. So a helpful colleague took me to the housing department and introduced me to the head of the housing department. According to him the housing situation was quite grim and I would only get a quarter a rank below what I qualify for. I was quite amused how much seniority mattered in all these matters! He told me that there were two houses on-campus and two houses in Vijnanpura, a housing area owned by IISc about 3 km away from the main campus. We had to go to another person a few rooms away to collect the keys to the on-campus houses. The on-campus houses were very small and didn't get much sunlight. I was quite disappointed! At Vijnanpura we had to locate a guy to get the keys of vacant apartments. In fact that guy showed us the apartments that the housing head told us were empty. He told us that there were even more vacant apartments. Vijnanpura apartments were definitely bigger and better than the on-campus houses. When we returned to the head of the housing department he mentioned that there were 6 more houses available at Vijnanpura. So our trip was wasted and I had to once more go to Vijnanpura, this time with another colleague. And finally I selected a house that I liked the best. I had to write a formal application to hold the apartment for me. There was also a possibility that a bigger house may become available at the time I join. I was really surprised when the head of the housing department told me that there was no map for the Vijnanpura campus! All in all there was unnecessary time and energy wasted on a task which could have been done more effectively had the process been more systematic and streamlined.

The second experience was at Jaipur Development Authority (JDA). This was much different as my father, who knew a senior officer at the JDA, was with me. We had to obtain the papers for a new house that we bought in Jaipur, with myself as the owner. We went to my father's acquaintance's office and he called another person (initials BS) to guide us through the whole process. First he took us to another officer who was in-charge of one of the zones of JDA; the officer responsible for our zone was on leave. Then he took us to the accounts department where people said that it could not be done today because the accountant was on leave as his brother had expired. Then BS talked to one of the several people sitting surrounded by mounds of files and papers. My father recognized one of the clerks who had worked on our papers on a previous occasion. Only after he finished his tea did he open our file and prepare our papers. In the same shabby office we met my father's friend, a big property developer, who my father said hanged out a lot in the JDA office to quickly get the paperwork done for his apartments. We got the signatures from the lady Tehsildar of zone-8 (the JDA zone our home belonged to) from the office next door. BS left us and didn't go into her office. Apparently the lady officer was pretty strict about the paperwork. After getting the papers prepared from the clerk and signed by the Tehsildar we went for signatures from another officer to approve the house title. He pointed that signature from the Engineer (to confirm the dimensions of the property) were missing and were to be completed before his approval. Then BS went and got the signature from one of the engineers. After he came back -- we were waiting in front of the office of the officer whose signature was required in the end -- we found that the officer was not in his office. While in reality the officer had locked his door from inside so that he would not be disturbed by unimportant people. We (BS and myself) went out once again to the copy-shop to make copies of our papers. When we came back the officer was in meeting on another floor. We climbed one flight of stairs and reached the office where the meeting was. The guys sitting outside the office -- there were these in front of all offices making sure only influential people disturbed the officer -- told us that we could not go in. But then one of them alized that BS worked there and let him in. Finally we got all the signatures we needed before getting the title.

We were not done yet. We had to go to the title issuance office, managed by private contractors. We obtained a checklist of documents which we marked point by point. BS acted as the required witness at several occasions when I had to sign the documents. While BS was helping us, at all times he was greeted by a lot of people in the hallways, etc. It seems he is quite popular. At one point, while waiting for the photocopies to be done, he told me that his two high-school kids were preparing for engineering entrance exams. This time during my visit to India, all high-school kids I met or heard about were preparing for engineering entrance exams! Its like a mass hysteria! Getting back to the story of title. We finished the checklist and went inside a chamber enclosed by glass and aluminum and deposited our registration fee. My father recognized someone who helped him with registration of another property. There were private brokers -- who obtain property documents for not so small fee -- wandering around the issuance office, like bees wandering around the flowers. Finally my papers passed through the hands of a few clerks and I was asked to pose for a picture in front of a camera attached to a computer and finally our title was printed out after our efforts of four hours. After this ordeal my father told me that we were lucky that our work was done, and that to get this work done without knowing someone at the JDA can take months!

After these two incidents I was thinking that so much time and effort can be saved if the number of steps to get even the trivial things done is reduced! I wonder if the large population is responsible for the government employing people for useless work that can be done away with, with little streamlining! Making a process unnecessarily complicated makes the brokers thrive, who pay some money to officials to get their clients' jobs done in a timely fashion. I feel that the people in the bureaucracy want to keep the mechanisms unduly complicated so that they feel that they are doing something useful, at the same time ensuring that they get paid for the favors that they do to the brokers and influential people. I hope all this changes with time!

Moving to India

After living and working in the US for 10 years -- first five years single and the last five years with family -- I have decided to move back to India! Big moves are always tough, especially if they are opposite to the `current.' By `current' I mean the trend that most Indians are (still) so eager to move to America and live their American dream!

Friends (especially Indian friends) ask me Why? Why now? What about efforts required to do mundane things like getting an electricity connection? What about delays in all small matters -- big or small -- because of general incompetence and unprofessional approach?

I really do not have very objective reasons for my move. This decision is based on a lot of changes I have seen. Most importantly now-a-days good people willingly go back to India. Its no longer true that qualified Indians want to live in the US at any cost. Indians in India are willingly taking measured risks to realize their big dreams, rather than just striving for a comfortable life in a government job. These are good signs. Not everything bodes well though. There is corruption everywhere; everyone assumes that such things are a way of life. Hopefully, with so many changes happening so fast, there will be positive changes too. There is a big pool of young people, full of ambitions, willing to work hard to realize them. I am placing my bets on India's youth, and I hope, we the elder generation are helpful guides rather than hinderances in their path.

There are personal reasons for our move. Family support is extremely useful with kids. Grandchildren and grandparents have a special bonding and the grandparents are the happiest of all with our move. Both our grandparents and our kids' grandparents (i.e., our parents) are very happy. About why now? Our eldest daughter will start her school soon and we realize that with each passing year the chances of our move will diminish.

I have decided to revive my blog after 5 years to document our bold move. A lot has changed in last five years. From a single carefree graduate student, suddenly I am a responsible father of three kids! I will try to record most important steps of our move, what works best and what doesn't, adjustment to India, etc. I'll also try to make observations from the perspective of someone who has only indirectly experienced the fast changing India for the last ten years.