A Past

This is the season of conference deadlines (STOC/SIGMOD/SIGMETRICS and many others), holidays, and the surge and ebb of traditions. In a break from a tradition, I have put myself outside the process of conferences (and embraced the holidays), and am now willing myself towards the end of the year. I will be away in India for a week, and on reflecting, found myself thinking of my alma mater, IIT Kharagpur (the least known of the IITs in Theory CS---there is always a linear combination in which one leads---but it is a gem of course). The CS dept is celebrating its 25 years of existence this winter. I remembered the last time I visited the institute, it was 10 years ago, and googling yielded this blurb by Devdatt Dubhashi. This and other pasts often intrude in strange ways: watching a movie in a theater far away from Kharagpur, if someone yells "Tarapodo!", the legend lives on; in a party in the village, I see Umesh and remember his fantastic lecture at Kharagapur in 97.