Acknowledgements... all of it!

Well, here is the 'thesis acknowledgements'. I mean, not just what I roughly wrote in my thesis but all of it - including the edited, deleted, and suppressed parts and also my feelings when I edited, deleted and suppressed them. Of course, the version that was actually inserted in the dissertation is a shame! 

Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Supervisor of yours truly, whose invaluable advice, counsel and guidance made this thesis possible. She has always inspired me with her insight, quest for perfection and incomparable passion for science. She was patient with me when I was being stupid and ensured that I understood even the smallest subtleties. The freedom she gave me, both academic and non-academic, was unbelievable. Just after I joined the Institute, we used to play cricket in the afternoon. She, almost every evening, found me searching for the ball in the bushes and shrouds around the Institute ground when I was supposed to be busy finding out why the integral was diverging or something like that. And yet she did nothing. Every time I, hunched or on my knees, froze in the middle of the bushes while she, on her way out, smiled at me and said, "Searching for the ball? Very good!" (No, I must keep at least this part formal..) Her constant encouragement and constructive criticism have immensely helped me to grow into the student of physics I am today.

I thank the Director of  the Institute and the Chairman of the Department of yours truly, the Institute for providing me with the facilities required to carry out my thesis studies. And there ends my positive reasons for thanking anybody related to the Institute for my thesis. I have faced a great many difficulties while dealing with the office and administration. I think I should actually thank them for their non-cooperation for it made me confident that I can deal with literally any obese and illogical office-staff with a huge inertia and unbelievable idiocy (Reading up to this, Ma looks at me with angry eyes and I delete the last few lines). I also thank the administration of the Institute for their cooperation.

My deepest gratitude to all my teachers from the Department of yours truly at the undergrad college of yours truly and the Department of yours truly, the University who guided me through my early days of learning. Its them who kindled and inspired my desire for pursuing a career in research through their outstanding teaching. its them whom I turned to whenever I was stuck in a problem - academic or non-academic. I shall be forever indebted to them for what they did to  a shy, inconfident and stupid boy from a small town.  (Crap! I don't have that much space..its already about a hundred and sixty pages. I have to keep it short and within at most two pages. I can write an entire acknowledgement for them and they deserve it. But I can't do it here.. ).

I have been blessed with many wonderful friends during this journey. A heartfelt thank to SG, my good friend and colleague, with whom I shared a lot of good times, great foods, fantastic movies, outings, common concerns and discussions, scientific and otherwise. She was truly my comrade in arms while implementing those grand schemes for coming late and covering for each other, leaving work unfinished and the Institute early for even the most disgusting movies and more than frequent chicken tandoors at lunch when we were supposed to pay the shortest visit to the canteen and get back to bug-fixing (No. My supervisor will read this). Apart from their unconditional love, special thanks to PKM and RS for the movies from PKM's unbelievable collection and for the delicious sandwiches from RS's kitchen. They made my procrastinations all the more worthwhile. I should also thank RS for not killing me at least a thousand times over these years when I called her a dot. Thanks to PKM also for not murdering me when I pulled his wife's legs, although I am not sure whether dots having legs is geometrically possible (If I put this in the thesis, RS will certainly kill me this time). I shall forever miss those outstanding outings with SG, RS, PKM and SM who travelled with me a lot, had fun and made my last four and a half years memorable. On this note, I must mention how yours truly and SG enjoyed planning how to skilfully manage a couple of days thereby allowing us an outing as well as avoiding any hard feeling regarding our procrastinations with anyone (read 'the supervisor(s)'). (Can't go there either..for obvious reason). I have been fortunate to have great friends like SM, SJB, MG, IC, SGo, AKD, AD and BR with whom I grew up as a student and shared many jokes, thoughts, worries and ideas. I can not thank them enough for their unending love, concern and support. Let me specially mention SM and SGo who tolerated me whenever I attacked them with countless questions regarding thesis and submission. I, being ever confused, checked every tiny step with them and they entertained me all the time (Okay.. that's enough). Also, thanks to SuC, DM, SS, SC, MP and all my junior and senior scholars of the Department of yours truly, the Institute with whom I shared workspace, tea-breaks, rule breaking (I probably should not write this - might attract unpleasant questions), scholar-room parties and a large part of myself during this period.

The list of persons who helped me, directly or indirectly, in completing this journey is a very long one and hence very hard to include in the full. I shall try to mention them in groups. At this point, I must mention our canteen for their constant supply of disproportionately expensive and yet unhealthy food. All my senior scholars have thanked them for their cooperation, supply of food and what not. I guess I can only thank them for they made me re-realize how wonderful the cooking at my home was - a thing I almost forgot after I started my higher-studies in the city. Besides, I must thank all those food-joints outside the Institute who, however monotonous they might be, kept me alive in those days when the canteen-foods were too exotic to consume (Too long.. and immaterial.. to hell with canteen). Thanks to SB for having the sole power and authority to update/upgrade/change/repair/maintain the scholar-room computers and doing absolutely nothing. You taught me that one can never deal with an unwilling staff with the sole authority unless he/she is transferred/retired/killed in an accident. The experience did enrich me. It is you who delayed my first year's work by not attending to the computers and panicked me enough so that I sped up and finished well within time. I thank you for that. (This is waste of space as well..)

Last, but not the least, I would like to thank my loving parents for being so supportive and understanding all these years, in times of failures, frustrations and a few small successes (I am not writing this just because they are going to read my thesis one day or the other, mind it). They have never always allowed my unwillingness to do anything non-academic and made me socialize on gunpoint took care of every tiny aspect of my being when I buried my nose in work (Is this going too far..?). I owe a lot to them for always being a source of encouragement, guidance and comfort (Okay..this is definitely enough). Besides, I would like to grab this opportunity to thank all my family members for their constant love and support (Shall I mention individuals.. ? Oh..such a long list..forget it).

Jethu, I did it! Missing you, as always..