Attending an International Conference: getting funding and visa

The past three months I spent a lot of my time and energy in an attempt to attend the scientific international conference 2007 MRS Fall Meeting, Boston, Mass. from 26-30 November, 2007. I learnt a lot in this process. I have decided to share my experience here as I am sure it will be of great benefit to research students in scientific fields in India.

The first and foremost step in this grand journey is arranging your funding for travel, accommodation and daily expenses. Other than applying to one's own institution/department a student may apply to Department of Science and Technology-Delhi, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Delhi, and Center for Cooperation in Science and Technology among Developing Societies-Chennai. Clicking these links will take you to the sites from where you can download the respective applications forms.

Some points to note are:
(1) You must have a copy of the invitation letter for attending the conference as it needs to be attached with all these application forms.
(2) You should start making efforts to get the original letter of invitation from the organizers as it may take time to reach you.
(3) As you only get partial assistance for traveling you should apply to different agencies simultaneously to cover all your expenses.
(4) These scientific agencies require that you apply at least 8 weeks in advance from the date of your conference.
(5) The sites say that you are likely to hear from them only 3-4 weeks before your likely date of departure. But I received a rather quick intimation from both DST and CCSTDS. Basically it depends on when the committees meet to take a decision on the various applications that they receive.

Once the applications are posted you can start working on getting cheap airline tickets and less expensive places of accommodation in the city where the conference will be held. You may make use of a travel agent for this purpose or check out the following websites: Orbitz.com, Priceline.com and Hotwire.com. I preferred to take help from NCL's official travel agent TCI. The advantage here is that a travel agent can block tickets for some weeks for which no payment is required. While if you were to do an e-booking on your own the airline will instantly deduct money from you account which may or may not be refundable.

Another very important step is getting the visa for the country you wish to travel to. In my case I needed a US visa. This involved a three step procedure: (a) payment of visa fees at HDFC Bank (b) after a gap of 2 working days allowing for processing of the fees fill an online form and secure a date for interview at the most suitable Consulate (c) submission of documents not less than 5 working days before your date of interview.

Do take note of the days on which the Applications Center and Consulate will be closed for calculating the number of working days correctly. For more details regarding the processing check out the following VFS-US website: http://www.vfs-usa.co.in/. This is the site you have to return to for filling the online form (i.e. step b).

At the day of your interview in the Consulate you should make sure that you carry all the necessary documents with you. Place labels so that you do not lose time when taking out whatever paper the Consulate Officer desires to see. Do remember to get a No Objection Certificate from your institute stating that the Head has nothing against your applying for a visa. You MUST HAVE IN ORIGINAL all proofs of the funding that you have secured. When I went the first time for an interview I had only partial funding and so the Officer raised an objection. According to him since I was going to attend a scientific conference I could not fund it from my own pocket eventhough I could afford it.

By the time I went for my second interview I had received ample funding to cover all my expenses. Despite that the Officer put the decision on my visa application on hold. It seems now even those going only to attend a scientific conference in the US have to fill the Technical Qualifications Questionnaire. The Mumbai US Consulate website (http://mumbai.usconsulate.gov/hitechbs.html) says that applicants should take a filled copy of this questionnaire, their biodata and copies of their publications along with them at the time of interview.

I unfortunately didn't know this last piece of information beforehand and hence I could not receive a decision on my US Visa application well in time. So after putting in all the efforts I had to cancel my trip to Boston. It was disappointing but that is how you gain experience which equips you for the future.

Diwali memories

This diwali I happened to miss my school very much.

I remembered how a day before diwali no one would be in a mood to study. There used to be a lot of excitement in anticipation of the last two periods which were declared free for us to enjoy. Against the rules students would bring crackers. In between classes surprise checks were organized by the Senior Appointments in an attempt to confiscate the contraband. Despite that bursting of (diwali) bombs before the allotted time would take place breaking the monotony of the classes.

Once I remember how we'd hidden patakhas in our classroom cupboard and locked it. Whenever an Appointment would come we'd say that the cupboard monitor had left the keys at home. Luckily for us that day our class teacher was absent so that was one less lie.

Other than protecting our loot time was spent by giving teachers "Happy Diwali" greetings cards made on our own. I would give cards selectively to my favourite teachers.

After the 6th period all students were left on their own. Everyone would come down to the grounds. It was utter madness. Some of us girls would huddle together while the boys would have a field time bursting crackers wherever they wished. So however careful you were you wouldn't know where the bombs had been left to explode. While this was scary and the noise deafening I would still love it all. The part I'd wait for was the really long ladis that were specially bought by the school authorities to be burnt. Once lit the noise would last for quite a few minutes!!

Men and leadership

Found this hilarious quotation in yesterday's (7 November, 2007) Times of India:


Only one man in a thousand is a leader of men,
the other 999 follow women.
- Groucho Marx


I absolutely agree... truer words were never spoken!

Garfield and Ron on a diet

Jab We Met

Watching the latest Shahid Kapur-Kareena Kapoor movie Jab We Met has prompted me to write this post. The film story is that the hero-heroine meet on a train. Aditya Kashyap (Shahid) is escaping from his troubles. Geet (Kareena) is on her way home. They get off the train at one station and end up missing it. There after begins a journey which the two take together all the way from Ratlam to Bhatinda and then to Manali. At Manali they part ways. Geet stays on to meet her boyfriend with whom she wants to get married while Aditya returns to Mumbai to begin life with a new found vigour. Do they meet again? Do they fall in love? That's for you to see.

The concept of Jab We Met is not new. There have been quite a few before where the lead pair embark on the journey and as it ends they fall in love.

A classic example is Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahi. Pooja (Pooja Bhatt) has run away from home. Raghu Jaitley (Aamir Khan) is a reporter for whom she is a khabar (news). A misunderstanding occurs in the end and Pooja decides to marry Deepak. Her father (Anupam Kher) reveals her the truth while taking her to the mandap. Pooja pushes Deepak aside while taking the pheras and runs away for a second time to meet Raghu in the same bus where they'd come across each other first.

In Pyar Toh Hona Hi Tha, Ajay Devgan decides to help Kajol to get snatch her lover back from the arms of another woman. In this process however they end up falling in love. In Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Vanraj (Ajay Devgan) takes on a journey with his wife Nandini (Aishwarya Rai) so that he can unite her with Sameer (Salman Khan), the man she was in love with before marriage. But when that moment arrives Nandini tells Sameer "pyar karna maine tumse seekha lekin pyar nibhana maine apne pati se seekha hai". With that she returns to join her husband.

Even though all these stories sound similar what sets them apart and makes them endearing and entertaining is the odyssey each couple takes. Its like the lines of the song Shahid Kapur sings "manzil se behtar lagne lage hain yeh raaste" (these roads look better than the final destination).

Nothing as interesting (read meeting Shahid Kapur) has happened to me on any of my journeys. I do remember however my first sojourn by train with a friend and no parental guidance in the holidays following 2nd Year of BSc. We were going to Pune from Delhi in order to work on a summer project. There was this really talkative Uncle-Aunty. In the middle of the night they were joined by their daughter who was even more talkative. They went on chatting keeping us awake till it was nearly morning. When sleep left our eyes completely these people decided to doze off. It was very bugging. I hadn't said anything earlier because I had thought they were going to get down sometime in between and that's why they were behaving the way did. That clearly wasn't the case. So later on when they got up I had a nice fight with the daughter who didn't even have a ticket and had been occupying our seats. Angry she went to the topmost berth and fell asleep and didn't come down until we reached Pune!! The other thing that I remember is me getting off at one of the intervening stations and buying some cold drinks. My friend and I saved a part of it and only when we set our foot in the guest house room did we drink it while raising a toast to an uncomfortable journey which we were not sure would come to an end.