About me

Washington Island, Door County, WI

Hi,

I am Kaushik. I am a PhD student in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I work in the area of advanced process controls. Presently, I am developing algorithms and tools for distributed model predictive control and trying to apply them for supply chain optimization. Technically speaking, this should not be Chemical Engineering. I belong to a community of  engineers, who are deeply interested in mathematics, statistics, optimization and programing  and chemical processes just happen to be the domain of interest of the algorithms that the community develops. I happen to be in a PhD program, because I was inspired to do “research” while I was finishing my Masters in IIT-Bombay.  I happen to be in Chemical Engineering, because while selecting a seat for my undergraduate, I chose Chemical Engineering at RVCE Bangalore, as the alternate choice, Instrumentation and Control Engineering, was just too long to keep repeating to relatives and well-wishers. 

I have varied interests in life, and my ambitions after PhD rapidly oscillate (and as a controls person, I should hate oscillations) between an academician,  a management consultant, a Wall-street techie, an industry practitioner, to a social worker (NGO kind, working for spreading primary education to poorer sections of India). Presently, I am itching to return to India, in any career capacity, although,  I am not sure, if the desire to work in India will be burning after 3 or 4 years when I graduate.

Since starting the blog, in November 2005, my blog has been a constant friend for me. I write mainly about memories from the past, life experiences and such. Ocassionaly, I write about books that I have read and loved, movies that I loved, and journal-isque entries about current events. I even venture to write about current issues and my thoughts about them. I want to write more about politics and sport. I hope that I get to writing them.  On really rare days, short stories appear out of nowhere, and occupy every inch of space inside my head, and those days, I use this blog in an attempt to tell the story inside my head. But, these days are really rare.  Finally, on really really bad days, when it seems that all happiness is being sucked out of me, I tend to write really cryptic posts. I really like to read my posts again and again, and do it often, as it brings a smile on my face.

Late in 2005, I was listening to “Wish you were here” by Pink Floyd, and that inspired me to name my blog after the song. I cannot find much reason for naming it so, but for the reason that the song is still one of my most favourite songs. I especially love the lines towards the end

We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have you found? The same old fears.

It just sums up what I generally write about : “The same old mess in my head”

Hope you enjoy reading the blog. I would love your thoughts, comments and suggestions.

You may email me at narasimhan [dot] kaushik [at] gmail.com

Thanks!