Belief according to an online dictionary is “A state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing”. During my school days, I was fortunate to have a good physics teacher who often told us that there is no room for belief in science, science is a collection of facts that can be reasoned using logical arguments and verified by experiments. However, having a had a peek into the world of research, I find that, though beliefs have no place in science, they do play an important role in its formation i.e. they are a significant part of the feelings a scientist posses. I have now come to “believe” that beliefs play an important role in the way we tackle ‘real’ problems. Over the past year I have been trying to find a simple model for financial markets that is able to reproduce what are called stylized facts of the markets. As R. Cont puts it “Indeed, stylized facts are usually formulated in terms of qualitative properties of asset returns and may not be precise enough to distinguish among different parametric models. Nevertheless, we will see that, albeit qualitative, these stylized facts are so constraining that it is not easy to exhibit even an (ad hoc) stochastic process which possesses the same set of properties and one has to go to great lengths to reproduce them with a model.” (OK, if that does not make much sense, what Cont is trying to say is, it is not easy to create a model that captures these features). What was important through the process of this search was that I believed that there exists a model that is simpler than those that are already known (and the fact that my guide Dr. Sitabhra Sinha was very encouraging and shared this belief). I think, this feeling is what gives one the strength to keep at it even after failing the nth time. Although we do have reasons to believe in certain things, I think, it does, finally boil down to that ‘gut feeling’, which, I am referring to as belief.
University of Hyderabad (UOH): Day 2
In the last 36 hours I have been here I have managed to look around the place and now know more about my where-abouts.
The place where I stay is called the participants hostel. It is close to the academic zone (Not sure if they call it by the same name here). The room is designed to accommodate two people, but since IAS is bearing the charges for accommodation, three of us have been alloted the same room. The room is otherwise spacious and even has an ethernet port. The weather here seems to have resolved to fry me alive. It has been quite some effort to make sure I drink enough water to ensure that I do not get dehydrated. I now spend most of my time in Dr. Chaturvedi’s room which is located in the school of physics in the science complex. The science complex houses the school of physics and the school of life sciences– the school of chemistry seems to be present some-where-around. As is the case with most universities the academic buildings here are found on a single road but the departments are quite a distance apart from each other. The university has two other places where one can get food, the students canteen and the shopping complex.I happen to pass by what is called a shopping ‘complex’, the thing has around 7-8 shops, the ATM and a medical clinic. At first sight the place it self appears to be a little messy. The hostel for the residents is located en-route from the participants hostel to the shopping complex. The road, which is now called by me as the academic road also leads to the shopping complex. There also seems to be a lake beside the guest-house complex, quite a murky one, but does attract a few birds. Will be looking around the place a little more as days go by. On the academic front there seems to be little progress, I have been trying to read a work by Wooters et al which discusses Wigner functions on a finite field. Part of my work here will be to try and obtain Wigner functions for the same case but from a different, purely algebraic approach. Dr. Chaturvedi left for Europe today, he has promised to stay actively in touch with me through email. To add to the trouble my laptop seems to be screwed up, does not seem to switch on. Hoping to un-pack the camera and get some pictures soon. That more or less summarizes a sort of the-not-so-eventful today.
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.
