First week, first impressions

Hello from Eindhoven! It has been a great first week. Heres how it went.

The Particulars of the Journey

The adventure started on the drive to the Sahar international airport : The car broke down on the way! It seems that the wire connecting the car's battery to the ignition got loose on the rough roads. It was not a hard problem to solve and the ever helpful Mumbaites nearby offered their full assistance and we were up and running after a little delay. My family and I were scheduled to have a nice dinner at one of the hotels near the airport as a final send off, but because of the delays introduced by the cars misbehaviour, we had to settle for a dinner of dosa's and pav bhaji at the Air port snack centre. I didn't mind this at all, infact I positively enjoyed it.

Once I was inside the airport, I was in for another adventure. The Alitalia official told me that my baggage was overweight and I would have to shed a few kilos! So there I was in the middle of the airport unpacking my bag. I got rid of nearly all the food, and that was enough to bring the luggage down to size. Not a big problem.

The flight to Milan departed at 0135 on October 24 and was on time. I landed in Milan ahead of schedule at 0630 local time, a flight of 9 hours if you count the time zone shifts. Since my connecting flight to Amsterdam was only at 1515 local time, I had a good 8 hours to kill, so I decided to look around the city.

I took a bus from the Malpensa international airport to the Milan Central station, a drive of 50 mins. The drive is very picturesque. I walked around the Central Station area for quite a while and also had a traditional italian pizza at a road side cafe. They do not embellish it with anything. There is just a tomato sauce, mozarella cheese, and olive oil. Very tasty.

The Malpensa International airport:

The Milan Central Station, in all its grandeur:

I made my way back to Malpensa international at around 1300 local time. I had a through checkin so I went directly to my gate and waited for what I thought would be a couple of hours. Boy, was I mistaken!

Alitalia, living up their wonderful reputation of being able to screw up just about every flight, cancelled my flight to Amsterdam. Whats worse is that they took a full three hours to re-schedule us. Now this was a problem as the original plan was that my colleague Jeremy Weissmann would meet me at Amsterdam Central Station at 1700, which was my original time of arrival, and would lead me to Eindhoven where Mrs. Dijkstra and my professor Wim Feijen would take me to my accomodations. But since Alitalia took so long to reschedule, I told Jeremy to go home and that I would manage somehow on my own.

The flight was eventually re-scheduled to depart at 2020. A full 5 hour delay. The arrival time in Amsterdam was 2230 which meant it was likely that I would not get a train to Eindhoven because it was late. I did not worry about this as I was instructed to call Mrs. Dijkstra as soon as I landed in Amsterdam. She said she would arrange something for me.

From then on there were no hiccoughs. There was a hilarious episode where a Dutch family got totally incensed when Alitalia did not issue boarding passes for their children and would not allow them to board. There was alot of shouting, some of that in Dutch. Those who have heard Dutchmen speak would know that it is a really harsh language. Even in the most polite conversations Dutchmen sound like they are fighting. So when this Dutch family was actually fighting, it was a spectacle. I was thinking of taking my camera out and recording a video of it, but decided better of it -- they sounded really angry and I like my camera too much.

I landed at Amsterdam Schiphol International airport at 2245. It is a huge airport and the aeroplane has to cross a auto-highway to go from the runways to the terminal. It must be a spectacle for the cars on the highway to see the gigantic Boeing 747 rolling merilly on a flyover above them. I would not want to be in a car passing under that flyover!

Anyway, I collected my luggage and stepped out at 2315 or so. I was looking around for a phone booth to call Mrs. Dijkstra when I heard someone call out my name. Boy, was I schocked to see Mrs. Dijkstra and Wim Feijen standing there waiting for me! They actually drove all the way from Eindhoven from Amsterdam to pick me up, a drive of one and a half hours one way. I was touched by the care they showed.

And there was a whole lot more to be touched by. Mrs. Dijkstra brought a blanket and a pillow so I could sleep in the car. She said I would be tired since I had already been travelling 30 hours at that point. When I reached my room, I found that she had stocked it with with enough food to tide me over the first few days of my stay (because markets would be closed till 1300 on Monday morning and I might be hungry, you know). Wim Feijen said "She is just like a mother". She really is.

I went to sleep at 0300 October 24. I woke up at 0900. And now the really interesting stuff happens.

Impressions and thoughts

The first thing that struck me is how easily I got used to the new place. I took the organization, the cleanliness, the civility, and all these little details in my stride. I was as immune to it as I am to the chaos, dirt, roguishness ( remember the public trains), of Mumbai. I appreciate these things, but in the larger picture, they really don't matter much. Thats lesson one.

That said, the area I where I live is really beautiful. The following picture was taken just behind my space box, 40 seconds from my front door.


The thing that has really got me excited about being here is the department I am part of. Everyone here is very nice and friendly, and very experienced too. I have already found out that there is a lot to learn. The intellectual level here is far higher than what I am used to. Back in India, I considered myself a confident speaker. I could make arguments pretty smoothly and was usually satisfied with my performance. But the level of discourse here is raised so that I feel distinctly clumsy when I speak. The following epigram from Loesje has become more and more applicable to me "I think very hard before I say something stupid".

Whats most exciting is that there is so much to learn in the next eight months, so much to improve upon. Before I came to Europe, I was looking forward to the adventures that followed from the freedom I would have by living alone with only myself to answer to. In my mind, these adventures revolved around romance, travel, and things like that. Now I am of the opinion that the greatest adventures would be found within the confines of my own brain. There are so many levels to be discovered and mastered in that little space at the top of my body.

Also, having Edsger Dijkstra's cupboards just a few doors down the hall from me is really exciting. See for yourself :


Being part of the Eindhoven Tuesday Afternoon Club (ETAC) is also a priveledge. Read this for more information about it. I have attended two sessions of the ETAC and both of them have been instructive. I managed to participate more in the second one than in my first. I beginning to see that there is no silver bullet to designing elegant solutions. There are always considerations that have to be made at each stage of the design. At the ETAC, these considerations are made very explicit, making it a great forum for learning how to design elegant solutions. Here is a picture of the latest formation of the ETAC:

Standing, from left to right: Wim Feijen, R.W Bulterman, Tom Verhoeff, Arjen Mooij, Jeremy Weissmann, Apurva Mehta.
Sitting: Rob Hoogerwoord.

Finally, I have never really lent much weight to reputations. But within a week of being here, I attach even less weight to them than before. For example, Mrs. Dijkstra was one of the most normal old ladies you would find. There were no airs about "being a Dijkstra". And that is how the people are over here. There is no one "too big" or "too small". Everyone is equal and can be approached in that spirit, from the most senior professor to the most junior student. This is a sharp contrast to the setup I have observed in India, and it is wonderful.

Till next time..

So much for my first week. I plan to update this blog atleast once a week. Not all posts will be this long though.

In closing my first post from Eindhoven, I shall make a prediction about what I think my last words of my last post will be. I hope to make Dijkstra's following words about his time spent at University my own:

"We worked very hard, never slept enough, often never ate enough, but life was incredibly exciting." -- EWD1166.

A request: For all those who a reading this blog, please email me at the following address with the subject of your mail as "Dutch Adventure". This goes to all those whom I email regularly as well. The email address below contains obfuscations to avoid spam. Please remove all spaces. Also replace the DOT with '.' and the AT with '@' (without the quotes). I hope to get many emails! The address is :
amehta AT win DOT tue DOT nl