Sometimes I write my thoughts down.

So, I haven’t blogged for a few days now. It’s partly that a lot of things no longer seem quite as novel as they did to begin with, so I don’t have as much urge to write huge essays on everything, and partly that with all the travelling and long days I’m just knackered and can’t be arsed!

Since I last wrote… well, firstly let me reassure you all that I’m fine after my bout of illness! The next day, after work, we were taken to Mysore art gallery and saw lots of interesting paintings of Mysorean kings and Hindu folklore, and also some Indian musical instruments and games. The next morning, at 6am sharp, we left by road back to Bangalore to catch a plane to Pune, and thence by road to Mahabaleshwar for the conference. This last part of the journey was spectacular. In contrast to the mainly flat area around Mysore and Vellore in the south, here we were among the northernmost reaches of the Western Ghats, and soon we were facing hairpin bends (which were not fun given the reckless manner of Indian driving!) and magnificent views. The lower slopes were fairly dry and barren, but as we neared Mahabaleshwar the hills were suddenly covered in a jungle of trees and shrubs. Around 4000ft above sea level, Mahabaleshwar is a former hill station, and one of the furthest south, so its favourable climate (it’s at least 10degrees cooler up here) has made it something of a tourist attraction. Caroline has family friends here, so knows it well, and has been saddened to see the jungled hilltops being cleared for hotels and resorts. Amusingly, the authorities have attempted to compensate for this by levying a ‘pollution tax’ (i.e. a toll) on vehicles using the roads around the town. This afternoon we went ‘sightseeing’, which involved about 4 or 5 vehicles ferrying 30 or so delegates around the narrow, twisting roads and stopping every now and then to disembark en masse to snap a temple or scenic view. Don’t get me wrong, the views were absolutely spectacular, but it just felt far too touristy and shallow. This place is far too nice for a conference, if you see what I mean – it’s a place to take in slowly and deeply.

So, the conference. I’ve yet to make my mind up about conferences. Yes, they’re an important part of academic life, and it’s always good to be able to present your own work, but there’s also an awful lot of triviality. To which I have contributed, of course – my talk hardly pushed back the boundaries of science – but I’m not sure I have enough enthusiasm for all the studies which simply confirm or slightly refine what we know already. Then there’s the people: on the one hand, it’s important and useful to ‘network’, but it does get tiring answering and reciprocating the same questions and making small talk. Or maybe that’s just me. Anyway, this evening was the last night and so we had the obligatory conference disco, at which it is obligatory for the young ’uns to sit around and laugh at their bosses who are extravagantly waving their limbs around to the beat and who almost certainly haven’t let their hair down like this since the last such event. They will then bounce over and insist you join them, which you decline, aghast, but follow soon afterwards as you realise you’re just being antisocial. Was there something similar to this at Durham, Bob? Apart from your boss not being there, of course.

So, conferences… they’re funny things.