The Revellers

Yes a hand-drawn rickshaw

I remember last year during the DAAD meet, I was mostly part of a small group, and had even been particularly harsh in my blog about a group of merrymakers sitting at the back of the bus creating ruckus. The seats have changed this year around, and I found myself amongst the backbenchers. The Waterloo group (with support from the Western Ontario group from London) was the most vibrant sub-group during the meet. For the 5 days in Toronto, we laughed like anything. And we were suddenly back in school. Everyone were at their perverted best.
On Day 1, we decided to get over with the one thing, which in my case, took three years coming - A visit to a strip-club. The fact that entry was free, as long as you order some drinks, went well with us. I would rather skip the details of our experience at the risk of disappointing the readers. From movies, I used to have the impression that the strippers dance around poles and strip down to minimals. It was mostly accurate but regarding the extent to which they strip, let's just say that I was wrong.

On the second day, we slipped out during the Ontario Museum tour and went to Eaton Centre for some shopping, not for the love of it, but mostly because everyone else of our group went there. We hung around in Dundas Square, where a band was performing live. Afterwards a group of people were playing a game called Ninja. Kind of a fun thing. We joined in for sometime.

The Eaton Centre

At Dundas Square, these exotic bikes were all lined up as if for an exhibit

The following day we were forced on to a Niagara encore. What is supposed to be one of the natural wonders of the world, somehow interested none of us anymore. There was no excitement on seeing the falls again. After getting off from the bus, we didn't even go in the direction of the falls. We just walked the streets joblessly. The up and down bus journeys were more exciting though- Bada Don, Angry birds, Tamil songs, and a lot of fun. We teased the couples in the bus, deriving school-boyish pleasures out of it, and at that time it didn't seem silly at all.

On the boat cruise, there was good food. While helping myself for the second time, some random girl from Calcutta, who had already made herself infamous, tried to give me some baseless advice regarding eating habits in a very rude manner. It felt good to blast her off.

The sunset looked beautiful. The island to the south-west of Toronto downtown had a busy runway, and flights taking off and landing every now and then metres away from the boat made a wonderful sight. Soon after sunset, there was a disco arranged for us on the boat. The MITACS organizers hit the floor first and urged us to follow suit. We did so albeit in an ungainly fashion, except for Rohit, who was finally living up to his dancing reputations.

Poor Expectations and a Great Comeback

We were all in our formal clothing, most of us feeling uneasy about it. The first day couldn't have been more boring. After checking us into Humber College, MITACS arranged for an Opening Reception somewhere in downtown Toronto, where we were expected to socialize. Maybe they wanted us to realize that we are bad at this, and should do something about it, which brings us to the next 4 days of workshops.
After the first day experience and from previous year's experience, I was almost certain that the next few days would be torture for us. But against all odds, the workshops did manage to impress us substantially. The major positive about the workshops was that they were interactive in nature. It kept us busy and thinking. We were taught how to present and advertise ourselves, how to manage and plan projects and some psychological stuff. We solved puzzles, presented consultancy plans,  made Lego-kit windmills, designed business cards (mine said "we deal in dark matter") etc. The instructors were excellent communicators too.

On the second day, there was an assignment for each table to come up with one point that is essential for a constructive conversation. Vishnu's group said 'good listener'. Next was our turn. I was the speaker of the group. We had written down some points, but didn't have one single phrase. We were looking at each other undecided as to what to say or which of the points to choose, when suddenly Irene whispered 'reciprocation', and immediately I faced the instructor and repeated "reciprocation". And then I thought "What?" and the instructor repeated my thought "What?"...I realized what was coming up, and said 'reci-pro-ca-tion' once again to buy some time...."Can you please elaborate on what you mean by that?", he said with a smirk across his face. Somehow I managed the moment, by making up stuff then and there: "It is the method by which... umm... when a person talks, the other person reciprocates.. umm...  that is...umm... he shows agreement to what the other person is saying." And then I glared at Irene.

I must also add that I did not agree to some of the things they taught - be it the way of differentiating people on crude psychological bases and behaving accordingly with them, or be it the overemphasis on alertness. They had a fancy for tricking us with purposely mis-spelt words in unexpected contexts, to drive in the idea that we should always be watchful. What they didn't realize is that if we were to be so watchful all the time, it would hamper our concentration. In terms of reading, this translates as 'it would take ages to read anything'.
And while the windmill did get built in the stipulated time, by the 3rd attempt, it was more because of familiarity and practice than the planning that we were taught. However, the planning techniques involving time charts and money charts are important and can be useful in large projects.

My room in Humber College

Among other notable events, on the penultimate day, there was a fire alarm, that made us evacuate the building through emergency exits. There were many fire brigades and firemen all over the place, only the fire was missing. After about half an hour, we returned to our respective workshops.
Inbetween these workshops, we had some good, and some okayish meals in the same Chestnut Conference Centre. Sometimes there were speakers over lunch, and on the final day there was a panel discussion.

I chatted with Ed and Lorena a few times. They had seriously done a great job in arranging everything  including this Industry Week and making it a great experience for everyone. Although I have one grudge against them, for not giving us permission to go to Wonderland, and instead forcing us to Niagara Falls and a Winery. In fact they should have informed this to us earlier, because had we known this, we could have gone somewhere else during the weekend when we had gone to Niagara. They also arranged for a government event, again expecting us to socialize. Some did, but I believe all the high profile people went home with the idea that there is some kind of a serious food situation in India. Everytime when snacks were being served, like a bunch of famine starved people the students would come and jump into it from wherever they were, irrespective of who they were having a conversation with.

There was a visit to the Parliamentary Building too, where I did not pay much attention to the details. And then there was an enjoyable Boat Cruise and final celebrations on the Ontario lake, giving us the great downtown Toronto view once again. The whole programme ended with certificate distribution to all the students and a photo session amongst the MITACS fellows that continued forever, even after we left.

Uni pics

  Engineering 5 building - all the buildings are internally connected by these tunnels

 The public library

 Dana Porter library

Signatures of Banksy all over the place - mostly by some amateur artist, but you never know...

Inside the Student Life Centre (SLC)

At the University Plaza

Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics (one of the premiers in the field)

 The Physics Department building with the observatory visible at the top

 Dana Porter library from the Physics dept terrace

Through the telescope in the Gustav Bakos Observatory

The first Wednesday of every month is when Robbie gives a short lecture to amateur astronomy enthusiasts and then shows them some celestial bodies through the telescope in the Physics department obseravtory. Vishnu, Keerthi and Adarsh came along one day and we saw the close-up of the moon and also Saturn along with a few of its satellites. The ring was clearly visible. On another occasion we saw a Binary star system.

Of Dark Matter and Dwarf Galaxies

The field of astronomy has the ability to keep everyone from 7 to 77 mesmerized, be it by its sheer magnitude, beauty and variety of structures, its deep mysteries or the possibilities. Before I talk of my field of work, I need to give a general introduction in the simplest way possible, and of course I assume that the reader has some basic ideas like what a light year is.

Our life is centred around the Sun. The nearest star from the Sun is slightly more than 4 light years away. Take a moment to try to comprehend the distance, and then consider that the Solar System is a part of a galaxy (Milky Way) that is 100,000 light years across. And this galaxy harbours 10^11 stars. Just like satellites orbit around planets, recent observations have yielded that there are small satellite galaxies around most major galaxies including the Milky Way galaxy. These are called Dwarf galaxies and have a very low surface brightness.
The nearest major galaxy from Milky Way is Andromeda, and on a clear night it is visible to the naked eye like a haze. It is smaller than Milky Way and it is 2.5 million light years away. And if you think that these figures are huge, learn to live with the fact that there are about 50 galaxies within the local group of galaxies, and about 100 local groups form a supercluster of galaxies. Our Milky Way is one of the 4000 odd galaxies in the Virgo Supercluster (110 million light years across). And that is nothing compared to the farthest object detected (about 13 billion light years away). One must also realize that the farther an object is, the light coming from it is farther into the past.

Now I would throw in another weird observational fact about space. It is expanding. This term can be misleading at times, and I would use a line from Wikipedia: "It is an intrinsic expansion—that is, it is defined by the relative separation of parts of the universe and not by motion "outward" into preexisting space." A clarificatory diagram on this point and for a better idea of distances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Embedded_LambdaCDM_geometry.png

To explain this phenomenon of expansion, Big Bang theory was developed, and the mathematics of it yielded the fact that what we see forms only 5% of the total mass-energy. That includes the massive bodies forming all the stars including black holes and the energy emitted from these mostly in the form of photons. Of the remaining 95%, the theory attributes 23% to dark matter and the rest 72% to dark energy. Frankly speaking, at the moment we know very little about dark energy. However for dark matter there is evidence, and a clear characterization of its properties. Dark matter is made of non-baryonic (don't mind the terminology) particles which don’t interact with light but have gravitational effects. Basically light passes right through it without any effect as if transparent, and the only way we know that there is something out there is from the gravitational pull of this mysterious dark matter on other visible celestial objects.

The early universe was very uniform. However the small irregularities as has been reproduced by simulations, resulted in clumping of dark matter into haloes. All present day galaxies are nested in these haloes. Observational data of the rotational velocities of galaxies (its variation with radial distance) is also suggestive of the presence of dark matter haloes around them. If there were only baryonic (normal) matter in galaxies, all matter would have lost their energy by radiation, and would have got clumped together. 

According to numerical cosmological simulations that predict the evolution of the distribution of matter in the universe, there seems to be enough observed normal-sized galaxies to account for dark matter distribution, but the number of dwarf galaxies found so far is orders of magnitude lower than expected from simulation. For comparison, there were observed to be around 50 dwarf galaxies in the Local Group, and only around 20 orbiting the Milky Way, while the predicted number is of the order of 1000. This is called the Dwarf Galaxy Problem.

And this is where I come into the picture. My internship is about developing a code that can find these missing dwarf galaxies from astronomical images. I have been trying it on a few of these images (1.5 GB each) and their cutouts, and when the procedure involved and the set of parameters used produce satisfactory results, the code will be uploaded onto the cloud, that will use the processing powers of hundreds of idle computers to process the 2000 odd 1.5 GB images (cloud computing) and give us the results. Let us see if we can find any new dwarf galaxy(ies).

On a separate note, one of the softwares I have been using for the detections is called Source Extractor. It is available under the name of Sextractor, and all its commands start with the word sex followed by a space and then the rest of the parameters and commands. There is a command to set the OS type and it goes as
>>sexmachine = 'linux'
In addition to allowing physicists their daily dose of 'sex' humour, the software also helps them in detecting celestial objects.



One of the astronomical image cutouts having a major galaxy (Spindle Galaxy - NGC3115) to the top-right. There is a dwarf galaxy, possibly a satellite to NGC3115 in the left part of the image, 2/3 distance from the top (forming a haze with a bright centre). Other objects in the image are stars (the ones forming a plus sign due to the photon overflow in the pixels) and the remaining multitudes of bright smudges against the grainy background are all galaxies from other clusters, each of roughly the same size as the Milky Way, and each a home to a zillion possibilities. All this within 1/3,000,000 of the entire sky.

Two and a half men in a boat - Part 2

The view from the campsite where we landed

We went around to explore the new place. A few log benches were present around a campfire area, about 10 metres from the shore. That was the only sign of previous human occupancy of the place. Well.... not quite. There was one more arrangement for campers. At the end of a trail leading away from the glade, there was the Thunder Box.... a huge wooden chest like thing connected to a deep pit, used to answer nature's calls.
About 20 metres diagonally from the campfire area, there was an open and more or less flat area with four trees at the corners, allowing for tying the tarpaulin. The tent was set up in its shade in a jiffy (Experts already!). We made sure everything was stable, and then went ahead to unpack the other stuff.


The utensils were kept outside, but the food was all placed in a small bag, and a rope was used to tie it up to a tree. This arrangement was to keep bears away. apparently bears have a liking for most human stuff including diapers.

The bag containing food waiting to be hoisted up to the branch

Vishnu and I decided to get into the water. Cold sparks up the spine initially. But then it became normal. We were wearing our life jackets and that kept us floating, as we tried walking off to the edge of our limit of having our feet grounded. We discussed the idea of swimming a few hundred metres across the channel to the island, but felt that it would be too exhausting. No argument could get Irene to enter the water. She was too scared of it.

Useless effort

Meanwhile water was getting boiled on the small gas stove to make it drinkable. Two of us started collecting splinters and twigs that would be used for the fire in the evening. There was plenty lying all over the place. I got bored of it too soon, and rather decided to saw off pieces from a fallen trunk. The idea was more to use a saw for the first time than to get wood for the fire. (Rowing for 17 kilometres and then this, definitely my arm muscles have never been busier.) However all this effort was wasted as the trunk was damp, and didn't catch fire at all. But we are getting too far ahead in the story. In the first place there was a serious problem as to how we would start the fire. Here I should give a briefing on this. The first requirement is something highly flammable but that continues to burn for a long time. Birch wood which looks like paper, may be used for this purpose but may not be found so easily. Next some splinters and dry small twigs  are required, that will help build the fire. Once the fire is up and steady, slightly larger branches can be added because if they catch fire they will sustain the fire for a longer period, without anyone having to pay attention to it.

As an alternative to birch wood we were given a candle like thing as a fire starter and sustainer. Somehow we had lost it. It seemed we were doomed to be in the dark. We decided we would attempt to light a fire directly with splinters. But there was still an hour till sunset and two till darkness. Vishnu and I again decided to set out in our canoe for a short trip around the islands. One was inhabited by campers, the other didn't have a camping spot, and as we neared it, we found thousands of inukshuks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuksuk) bordering the island.

With our inukshuk

We decided to park our canoe here and explore the island. After making our own inukshuk, amputed though it was, we tried to make our way into the island. A machete would have come in handy, as it turned out to be difficult and risky to force our way through dense foliage where possibly no one has set foot in recent times, if not ever. Suddenly Vishnu noticed some white sheet like stuff lying on the ground. Rolled up patches with small brown marks in some places. It was exactly what we needed. We didn't have to confirm with anyone that it was birch wood. We went a few steps ahead into an opening and there we saw lots and lots of it lying all over the place. All the trees around us were birch trees, and their white bark was kind of scaling off. We were overjoyed at this serendipitous discovery, and returned to our canoe, our hands full with birch bark.

It was getting dark by the time we reached our camp-site from our pilgrimage. Following the prescribed method, we got a steady fire soon enough. Here I could do with a flashback. 3-4 days ago, when we went shopping for food and equipments for the trip, Rohit and Madhavan were with us. The part they were most interested in was having roasted marshmellows by the bonfire (just like in cartoons, they said). They went to the extent of finding roasting sticks and marshmellow packets in the departmental store. Vishnu and I, on the other hand, not knowing about its popularity, declined the idea. Yesterday again, after we had collected all our equipments from the outfitting shop, the girl who was giving all the instructions was casually confirming that we must be having marshmellows with us. When we said we didn't, she exclaimed with an expression of "then why have the fire!!!" So we were left with no option but to get a pack of marshmellows. And so back at Parkside Bay Camp, we were sharpening a stick each. The procedure was to put the marshmellows in the fire, heat it till golden, but it shouldn't catch fire. The outer part became like a crispy coating to the gooey molten core. It tasted amusing.


As it became darker, we could see another camp merrymaking in the distance... songs, whistles, shouts. A persistent bird had been calling plaintively and irritatingly ever since we pitched camp here. Initially it gave us a feel that we were in the wild, but gradually it started getting on our nerves.
Sometimes our fire showed signs of dying off when left unattended for long, but everytime we saved it at the very last moment, collecting more twigs from time to time. Inbetween we had some coffee, and finally noodles was being prepared. We were very hungry and ate a lot. It was eleven, when the fire finally died off, and we doused it off completely. The starry sky thrilled me once again. But suddenly in the distance towards east, we saw a flash of lightning. And then another. We sat by the shore till some more time. It felt nice. Vishnu and I shared one more cigar (there were 5 in the pack we bought from Niagara, and we only had them on special occasions). Meanwhile we could feel the clouds approaching us. We could already hear the thunder, faint rumble though it was. We estimated that it would hit us around 2-3 am. We read the instructions for a thundershower just in case, and the plan we decided upon was to run to the end of the trail in the direction of the thunderbox, as it had less tree cover, thereby reducing chances of getting affected if lightning strikes.

Finally at 12.30 we got into our tent. The setting was perfect for some ghost stories but we were too tired for the unearthly. It has been a day where we did a lot and everything for the first time. We were soon deep asleep. The persistent bird continued.

I woke up to an orchestra. It was about 5am. There was faint light outside. No signs of storm or rain. And a thousand birds were chirping, at various pitches. Different melodies combining to give a grand effect. Add to that the snoring from either side of me, and it was quite some music. I tried moving a bit inside a tent, and found that my shoulders muscles were sore from exercise. Deciding it was too early, I went off to sleep again.

Morning coffee

The morning was spent in packing up. We were supposed to leave early, but the earliest we could do was 11 am. However this time we were really fast and made the return in 3 hours including the portage. There were a few hiccups though, once with direction, I said we had to go left, while Vishnu and Irene said that we needed to go right. It took quite some convincing, which I realized is quite difficult, when the listener cannot turn around to face me. On another occasion our map flew off from the canoe and floated on the water (they accounted for this possibility), and we had to make rounds till we could retrieve it. The remainder of the journey was more of a snake boat race. I was wearing my gloves today which made it easier, and we commanded each other from time to time for changing sides of rowing depending on our course.

We had told Shaun that we would return by 11 am, and that if we are delayed by more than two hours, he should know that something is wrong. We were delayed by three but no helicopter came our way. After all Shaun has gotten used to our ways. We reloaded the canoe to the car, took it back to the outfitters place, got some souvenirs, and drowsed off while Shaun drove us back. Irene met her relatives at Wonderland which was on the way. She went with them to Niagara (I wondered how!). As for me, I was completely spent. Spent, but happy and satisfied by our whole canoeing-camping experience.

Two and a half men in a boat - Part 1

When Jack Sparrow turned down the offer of being our canoeing and camping trip guide due to some financial constraints after agreeing initially, I was almost certain that we can't go for the trip that Vishnu and I had been looking forward to for ages. It being the first time, we thought we would need a guide, and the weekend chosen was very busy(3 day weekend + summer finally here). We contacted Parks Ontario and decided to go on our own - Vishnu, Irene and I.

On Canada day, all of Canada was on the move, and we were in something we had not expected in our dreams. A traffic jam extending for 30-40 kilometres on a Canadian highway. For that stretch, the car speed never crossed 20 kmph. Finally when we reached the outfitters place, it was late in the afternoon. We got all our camping equipments, got our canoe, learnt our J and C strokes, tried to canoe in a straight line, ended up making arcs. A tutorial was provided on setting up a tent, and making a campfire.

 The canoe on the car

Then came the important question of where would we put up for the night. The motels were too expensive for our liking. Finally we made best use of our camping equipment by deciding to camp outdoors at a lakeside place, privately managed by a big old guy wearing black ("You will know it's him when you see him"). It was good practice for us too before the real thing.
In the evening, we went to what is called the Ragged Falls. The rocks at the bend of the falls make an excellent viewing and resting spot in the backdrop of the thunderous spectacle 2-3 metres away.

Ragged Falls

After returning to our campsite, we chatted in the open, the insect repellent creating a barrier between us and them. Shaun joined us for a while. Over 'Hau Mau' cigarettes, he told us as to why he misses his country, and why in spite of that he would hate to return. Some fireworks for Canada Day made me look up to the sky, and I was left speechless by a light exhibition of a different kind. The night sky was speckled by tens of thousands of stars. I remember seeing such a spectacle only once as a kid, at my grandfather's place in the village. Such a sight is so rare, that it suddenly made me feel that I was on a different planet altogether.

Next morning, when I went to the lake to get fresh, I noticed a strange thing. There was a mist just above the water surface upto half-a-metre extending throughout. I realized that the water was being evaporated then and there, and it was moving along with the water flow forming its own eddies at times. After everyone was up, we started off for the Smoke Lake entry point by car. We collected our Camping Permit and finally set off in our canoe at 10.30 am. Vishnu up front, Irene next, myself at the stern. We checked the map and for a start decided to stay somewhat close to the right bank - 10 metres away or so. The sky was gloomy, the forecast gloomier. Smoke lake loomed large extending till the horizon up ahead. The banks were our only companion for the moment. Gradually as we gained confidence, we moved farther away from the shore. We took one visible target at a time keeping track of our position in the map every 15 minutes or so. Being at the hind section, I was largely responsible both for propulsion, and direction. It took some time getting used to, but apart from some lapses towards the end, I made myself proud. 

Meanwhile we got company... some other canoes, whom I often turned into competitors. But before we got to the portage, we let them go ahead and diverted to at a small secluded bay with a rugged stream/waterfall connecting it to some other lake. For long, from time to time, we had been hearing menacing howls from the distance. We considered possibilities of coyotes coming to our campsite. Finally we met the real creatures behind the scene.... a pair of Common Loons, the duck-like bird in the Canadian notes, floated past our canoe near the stream.

The Common Loon

The Algonquin park is pockmarked with thousands of lakes, some connected, some not. Over the 7500 sq.km. of its extent, one could choose short routes like we did as starters, or one could opt for fortnight-long camping trips to the wilder interiors of the park. For going from one lake to another, one might have to cross small sections of land inbetween carrying the canoe and equipment. These are called portages, and are mostly less than a kilometre long. The one connecting Smoke lake and Ragged lake, was about 200 metres long, and it was quite a Herculean task, transferring everything at one go. The canoe was relatively light - 23 kgs, almost as heavy as the two bags having everything we needed for the trip. At the end of it, we had chocolates more to restore our energy than for the taste.

Like in the picture

The canoeing continued over to the Ragged Lake. The wind was largely against us, making our task more difficult. This lake was very weirdly shaped with many inlets and narrow through passages. We decided to go around a large island, instead of a shortcut which would have required skilful maneuvering through half submerged tree stumps.
At Parkside Bay, there are 20-25 campsites each independent and away from each other by 250 metres or more. Our initial intention was to capture one of the islands which had a single campsite. It so happened that a party at a camp we were passing by overheard our conversation, and informed us that the island was already taken. So we chose another spot, but as we rowed till near it, we realized that it was taken too. Opposite to the island, in the mainland shore we spotted another of the orange posters from the distance. No one seemed to be near that. This site was ours!

Finally reached the camping site

The complete route - Smoke lake to Ragged Lake (portage in red),
in a map showing 1/50 of the entire Algonquin area

More advice

Some meetings are not very important in the course of World Domination, but you can never be certain. Today I met a strange character who was extremely pissed by the lack of information at the University of Waterloo. He went like "the buildings are after the names of people and have no information about the departments". He wasn't too wrong either. Actually all the engineering buildings (1-5) have multiple departments, and in some cases the departments are spread over more than one building. He wanted to reach the undergraduate admission office, and even with my help, it took us 30 minutes to reach the place, only to realize that the office was closed. Then he wanted to meet some of the profs, but it happened that they had all just left for some office party, leaving this old man fuming.

Despite the day getting wasted, he invited me for coffee as a sign of gratitude. And then he spoke of his life. He was originally from Pakistan, and he had a messed up life but still was quite successful. He got selected into too many things, and he didn't make the right decisions at the right time. A potential Harvard student ended up in Queen's University of Canada, studied economics, became a professor and remained single for the rest of his life (he dated many women during his age but never found anyone suitable). He had a lot of free advice for me, career advices - where all to apply for PhD, why I should consider IAS, and what are the possibilities that it would open up in the long run.... and then social advices - what I should do to date someone. In this regard he started off with "You must be having a girlfriend" - like that is the most obvious thing. On getting a no, he said "Either you are not trying or trying at the wrong places. Do you hang out anywhere with other students?" "Yes, sometimes in the grad house." He bluntly retorted "Wrong place. You should be going to the undergrad house." And he was like talk to the girls here, they are very open.. ask them out for a movie or something. I was like I am here for only three months. And he said, "How does it matter? You should enjoy the present..." All this coming from a guy two generations older than me... seemed kind of funny.

We talked of loads of other things... from the current social scenario in India, to the snobbish behaviour of many of the South Asian immigrants towards the newcomers, and about how he belonged more to Canada than to Pakistan. Before going back to Toronto, he left me with a thought: "You may be having the maximum freedom possible, but more than freedom you need to be well informed to make the right decisions...."