Already missing Chennai

The week has been quite hectic, starting with me having to pack for two months away from home, finishing things and wrapping up something I was doing at IMSc. Having taken the Charminar express yesterday, I reached the city today morning. I took the MMTS to this place called Lingampally and from there reached the University of Hyderabad around 10.00 AM. At first sight the university seemed familiar, a huge campus with buildings spread apart from each other, ofcourse much lesser vegetation when compared to IITM. To my surprise the accommodation provided is very good except for the fact that we will have to share the room with two others. After settling down in the new place the next logical thing was to go meet your guide. So I met Dr. Subhash Chaturvedi, as I was told he was a very nice person and got onto explaining what he wanted me to do during my stay here. He also told me that I could use his room. But the meeting was interrupted by someone who wanted to speak with Dr. Chaturvedi. I was asked to look around and come back after 10 mins. But then since it was time for lunch we decided to break and meet again around 3.00 PM. The lunch was nothing close to what I had expected – another sweet surprise, the food was not spicy (!) and they had curd. After lunch I went back to meet Dr. Chaturvedi. He talked for a long time trying to put things in perspective, while I tried to understand what was going on. I must confess here that I would be very happy if I have understood atleast 50% of what he said. Around 4.30 PM he left leaving the room key with me. An air-conditioned room with a refrigerator, black board, entire shelf loaded with infinitely many books (unfortunately most of which do not match my current interests) and a computer with internet connection all at your disposal! [@Akarsh, I wish I could see your face when you read that!] Wow! What followed was some productive work along with a lot of mixed emotions. While the room was pretty nice, cozy etc the place was nothing similar to the departments I have seen at IITM or at IMSc, both places are filled with people who interact with each other a lot. There I was, pretty much locked up in a room, trying to tame mathematical monsters which I could not tie to the real world. I was pretty much cursing myself for having come to Hyderabad more so because of the fact that Dr. Chaturvedi will be leaving from here on Sunday (a day from now). I hope this is just the first day effect and things start falling into place.