The IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award 2022

 

It is our great pleasure to declare that the winners of the IPA Rahul Basu Memorial Award have been selected for the period 2020- 2022. These are:

Winners:

Dr. Anupam Ray, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai Thesis Title: Unravelling the Mystery of Dark Matter with Stars & Black Holes.

Dr. Shubham Pandey, Indian Institute of Science Education and research Pune
Thesis title: Performance of High Granularity Calorimeter prototypes for the CMS HL-LHC upgrade in beam test experiments at CERN. 

Runners up:

Dr. Biswajit Sahoo, Harish-Chandra Research Institute, Prayagraj Thesis title: Classical and Quantum Subleading Soft Theorem in Four Spacetime Dimensions
.

Dr. Samir Banik, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneswar
Thesis title: Search for Lightly Ionizing Particles in SuperCDMS and simulation of neutron backgrounds.

The award ceremony will be held as a part of the DAE symposium on High Energy Physics, 12th – 16th December 2022 at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali. The winners will be given a cash prize of Rs.25,000/- each and a citation. The runners up will be presented a citation.

 

 

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022

The Nobel Prize in Physics has gone this time to Klauser, Aspect and Zeligman, for their pioneering experiments which proved the existence of the quantum phenomenon that has come to be called entanglement, by which the wave function of a system can carry simultaneous information about two particles which could be widely separated in space. This notion, which is the signature notion of quantum mechanics is at variance with the notion of locality, which lies at the heart of classical physics. Hidden variable theories were proposed by David Bohm, by which the wave function could incorporate a 'hidden variable' which could encode the additional information, and thus make the wavefunction compatible with locality. However, Bell showed, in a series of papers that quantum mechanical wave functions, and wave functions which incorporate hidden variables, had differing levels for correlations for which bounds could be quantified. This led the way to experiments where the predictions of the theories could be verified. 

Klauser, a really young man those days, put his career on line and devised ingenious experiments from bits and pieces he found lying around in the lab and set up an experiment which measured the polarisations of two photon states where the photons travelled in opposite directions. Unlike what he hoped, the measurements supported the predictions of quantum mechanics. Aspect and Zeligman in later years added further refinements via very sophisticated experiments which incorporated random elements and very large separations into the experiments. Alas, the photons remained stubbornly correlated, i.e. entangled at levels predicted by quantum mechanics, and notions of locality could not be rescued via hidden variable theories. 

 

It is not quite correct to say that these experiments opened the way to current applications ranging from quantum algorithms to quantum computers which rest on entanglement. Entanglement is anyway central to quantum mechanics. However they are extremely important from the point of view of the foundations of quantum mechanics, and notions of locality, measurement and simultaneity which are crucial ingredients of the theory. It is wonderful that theories and experiments which were considered career breakers for physicists have been honoured with the Nobel prize. Salutations to the stubborn physicists! 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao. 

 

More technical references here.

India at 75 : The state of the nation

 The whole world is going to write their version of this, so why not us? India is going to be 75 today, the flags are flying, the newspapers are pontificating, the news channels are screaming, the PM is giving measured sound bytes, the public is bemoaning  the state of the nation; in short, everything is the way it always  is, leave out war and pandemic years. So what new thing can possibly be said? Our take is to compare India now, with its earlier editions.

India at 25 was a really young country. The country was coming out of an era of perpetual shortages and unfortunately, also out of the hope and idealism of the initial years. However,  the angst of the Indo- China debacle, had been wiped out by the successes of the Indo-Pak years.  The economy was turning a corner, even though no one knew really what it was doing.  So were public health and life expectancy, despite the fact that they were rarely mentioned in the public discourse. Indira Gandhi delivered a good IG-ish homily on the challenges yet to come, from the ramparts of the Red Fort. However, neither she, nor anyone else had any notion of the quicksands ahead.  There was no foreshadowing of the internal turmoil, Khalistan, Kashmir  and Northeast, which were to haunt the coming two  decades. The celebrations were muted, though beautiful. Despite the progress, the country lacked confidence, both in itself and its future, despite its significant contribution to the leadership of developing countries.

India at 50 was a different cup of tea altogether.  The Congress Party was a rump in parliament, as it is now. However, unlike now there was a rag, tag and bobtail coalition in power (our apologies to their admirers, if any).  Inder Gujral was the unlikely PM, who presided over the lacklustre  Golden Jubilee celebrations, despite midnight parliament and Lata Mangeshkar invocations. Socialist discourse still prevailed, and there was no questioning of public welfare programs.  Punjab was back to being the backbone of India, Kashmir was an ever festering sore, and the ill advised and ill fated Sri Lankan misadventure was behind us. Religious  divisiveness had reared its head via the Ram Mandir agenda,  and the  Babri Masjid had come down,  to say nothing of the terrorist horrors of the coming years. However, the most important  event of the 25 years  was behind us. A terrible fiscal crisis had occurred, leading the way to forcing economic reforms, paradoxically getting the country out of the Hindu rate of growth,  and leading to serious economic development.The plus part of this was a serious improvement of all indicators, the minus was the sense of hubris that always accompanies uneven economic development. As ever, no one really knew what lay ahead, but overall a better days ahead mentality pervaded the country.

So now we are back to 2022, and India is 75, no great age in the life of a nation. How are things now? The BJP is firmly entrenched in power. The Congress is as rumpish as it was 25 years ago. Public discourse is muted, religious divisions are stronger than they ever were before. The economy is recovering from natural and self  made disasters. The recent epidemic has not taught us that to a virus, all humans are the same.  The inequitable distribution of wealth has got worse,  but the impoverished have opportunities to improve their lot which did not exist before. Unfortunately, this has led to pressure to minimise all welfare programs which could improve the lot of the majority of people.  Here, we have to be thankful to the electoral pressures which will prevent the removal of such programs altogether.  Judicial freedoms lack this natural protection and are steadily eroding, with the tacit and explicit consent of the bulk of the population. Who knows what lies ahead? No one, if past experience is any predictor of future events. However, there are two things that makes us optimistic. Federalism has made its come back, quietly, through the back door. The plurality of the nation will be its saving grace, no matter what challenges monolithic structures throw at it. Secondly, India is a young country, but Mother India is an old soul. We will get by, come what may.

Happy Independence day to all from us.

Jai Hind.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

 

 

World Chess Olympiad 2022

 The 22 nd World Chess Olympiad kicked off in Mahabalipuram on 28th July. The tournament consists of open and women's teams,  and has attracted enthusiastic participation from the country, to say nothing from across the globe. Tamil Nadu leads the charge, as befits the host state. After all, 24 of the country's 75 Grand Masters are from Tamil Nadu. The sport (if sport you call it) has benefited from both the inspiration and efforts of Vishwanathan Anand,  who has been a role model, right since he was 19, and lived in Chennai in Besant Nagar. 

Meanwhile,  the state has gone to town over the Olympiad, with the advent of everything from Chess Kolams to Chess Saris. A particularly beautiful combination has been the marriage of dance moves and chess moves in a video  

commissioned by the Collector of Pudukottai, who is a classical dancer herself. See and enjoy.

This blog post is by Sumathi Rao and Neelima Gupte.

Smile or Snarl

The latest controversy in circulation is about the appearance of the four lions in the Ashoka Pillar, i.e. the ones in parliament, as opposed to the ones in Sarnath. Having seen the ones in Sarnath, we vouch they were smiley. Look at the back of any Indian coin for confirmation. The mint does a pretty good job of reproducing the Ashoka Pillar. 

Now as for the parliamentarian lions. Only a privileged few have seen those up to now. However, definitely a snarl, or to be exact, 4 snarls, from the pictures. So what gives? 

 Explanations range from aggressive nationalism to a naturalistic representation of an intrinsically ferocious species. The sculptor's family swears he spent long hours in a zoo near the lion enclosures. In lieu of this fancy stuff, we offer a simple explanation encoded not in an acrostic but in a limerick. 

 There was a young lady of Riga, 

 Who went for a ride on a tiger, 

 They came back from the ride, 

 With the lady inside, 

 And a smile on the face of the tiger! 

 In short, the parliamentary lions are before the ride, and the Sarnath ones are after. 

 Caveats:

 1. These are lions not tigers. 2. 4 ladies might be needed. One might not suffice. 

 3. Kalinga ladies would have to be as foolish as the Riga ladies. 

 We hope our explanation finds some public support.

 This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

Rabindranath Tagore 7th May 1861

We  missed celebrating Rabindranath Tagore's birthday by several days. Well, better late than never, so here goes. Here are three of  Tagore's celebrated works, two short stories and a novel.

A  clip from Charulata, the well known  movie based on Tagore's short story, Nashta Need.  The first is the well known song, O bideshini. Tagore, Ray,   Saumitro Chatterjee and Ray's muse, Madhabi Mukherjee. The singer is Kishore Kumar. He wrote  a very sweet letter to Satyajit Ray (Manek Mama) which essentially left the choice of fees  to him!

 Video link

The first scene from this movie is equally famous.  Charu moving from room to room in her house, following the hawker's cries. It is clear she is bored out of her skull.  The rest of the movie follows from her family's attempts to keep her amused and occupied.

The second is a celebrated novel, Sesher Kobita, sometimes translated as `The last letter' and sometimes as `Farewell my Friend', the eternal love story of Amit and Labanya, who went and married someone else, so that they could remain eternal lovers. The logic of this was always lost to conventional minds (a.k.a yours truly), but certainly makes for a sweet story.  A recent take on this one starred Rahul Bose and Konkona Sen Sharma.  See here  the official trailer.

The last is a short story `The Castaway', the tale of Nilkanta, a castaway who finds refuge with Kiran and her husband Sharat, and who is made a great pet of by Kiran. Unfortunately, Kiran's brother in law  Satish, arrives on the scene, and occupies all her time, leading to great jealousy on the part of Nilkanta, and also to stealing Satish's prized possession, a swan shaped inkstand, out of spite. Nilkanta leaves, Kiran finds out, and covers up for him.

Tagore's portrayals of women have always been sensitive and nuanced. He also portrays a society where they occupied privileged positions.  It is surprising to think these stories were written a hundred years ago. Contemporary comments make it clear this was a small segment of society (perhaps people like the Tagore family)  and was far from being the norm. Nevertheless the charm of the stories lies in  their emotional veracity, which is sometimes lost in translation. This is where the power of the movies lies, they  speak  to audiences which cannot access the originals.  Charulata's largest audience is in France, and Konkona's movie reaches out to a panIndia audience.  While some of Tagore's work has been filmed by Ray and other great directors, a huge body remains unfilmed. We wish some guild of  film makers would take up this challenge.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao. 

Tamil Nouvelle

 

After years and years, a food post. And what could be more appropriate than a new take on Tamil cuisine, viz. Tamil Nouvelle.   Last week saw a trip to the aptly named Swaha restaurant in Besant Nagar. Right on the beach, next to Chandralekha's famous bungalow, this typical Besant  Nagar bungalow has nice outdoor space as well as indoor space, and in this sweltering weather, air conditioning which works. Astonishingly, this is Chennai's first take on Tamil Nouvelle, and perhaps the first anywhere.

 Meals start with an amuse bouche, a pastry shell with  tiny onions, yes precisely, vengai onions, and a dash of tamarind, with a sliver of rava dosa on top. Works well.  Drum stick soup is anyway a tried and trusted  staple.   Since this is a vegetarian restaurant, mock meat prevails. Hence kola urundai ends up being jackfruit urundai.   Now who would know that stuffed katrikai, koshambari and sambar rice and appalam could look so fancy and fashionable! Deserts depart from the Tamil theme, and hence do not live up to  the hype, despite generous sprinklings of jaggery. Maybe they should try ada pradhanam with vanilla ice cream. Italian and Pan Asian food is on the menu, for them as want it. Svasa is the outdoor area for  those spirited types who like innovative bar plates. In short, very well worth a try. Upcoming guests, interested? Come soon.

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.

P.S.  Yes, Sumathi, I know you didn't go. Will take you. Ashoke can stick to the spirits supplemented by a steel dabba from home!

Rahul Basu (04/03/1956-05/03/2011)

There are a hundred places where I fear 

To go, -so with his memory they brim 

And entering with relief some quiet place 

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

 I say `There is no memory of him here!'

 And so stand stricken, so remembering him. 

 Edna St. Vincent Millay. 

 

This blog post is by Neelima Gupte and Sumathi Rao.