2 days in Denmark

"buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz", the alarm on my mobile phone goes off..."buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"...I pick it up, switch off the alarm and look at the time...11am...good, that means I've slept for 4 hours for the second consecutive day...7 am is when I hit the sack last night (or this morning?)...I had been preparing my presentations for the tutorial I was giving at the Danish Neuroscience Center, Aarhus, Denmark on "advanced methods of EEG analysis"...I had prepared the outline on Sunday and expected to have prepared the presentations by Tuesday night...instead, I still had stuff to finish this morning, Wednesday, and I had a flight to catch at 7:45 pm ! I wake up, stretch myself, take my towel and go down to bathe...

come back up, change, go down and make myself a cereal-breakfast...I usually also have an orange juice if I'm running on time, but not today...get my Denmark clothes out, give it to the nearby ironing place and ask to have it ready by 2:30 pm...make my way to the University...I reach at 12 noon, Lizz is already in the office when I enter, she seems surprised to see me...I have about 3 hours to finish my work...any longer would put me in danger of missing my flight...start working...the brain is surprisingly fresh, the concepts clear, but progress is slow...as usual, I've underestimated the amount I had to do...I focus, trying to find a balance between quality and speed...the clock ticks past 3 pm, still work to do...no option but to finish it...4 pm and I finally finish...copy everything onto a memory stick, print out my boarding passes, check my passport is with me, say bye to Lizz and rush out...

pick up my clothes...the ironing guy rolls his eyes at my late-ness...get to the house, pack and call for a taxi...the taxi driver is a friend, we happily chat on the way and we reach the train station...byes and up the stairs, buy the ticket and get on the train to London...reach London at 5:30 pm, get to Liverpool Street by 6 pm and take the train to London Stansted...7:05 pm is the cut-off time to reach the baggage check-in at Stansted, I'm confident I'll reach in time...6:30 pm... 6:45 pm and the train stops at a station...well in time...not so soon ! it isn't Stansted yet, Stansted is two stations away!...the train starts again...for the first time, it dawns on me that I'm in serious danger of missing my flight...what would my supervisor say ?? will he ever fund me a trip again ?? will I be able to get a refund on my tickets ?? 6:55 pm, 7:00...the train pulls up...Stansted ! I run out, into the airport, into the departure lounge...all baggage check-in counters closed, except for one...I rush in and hand my baggage in, apologising...checked-in...I have 7 minutes to make it to the boarding gate...I run, without my bag this time, a small boy in front hears my rapid steps and alerts his Mom to get out of the way, the escalator is full, so I tear up the stairs...my gate is no. 44, there are 99 gates in all....7:10...up the stairs and down the gangway...gate 40, 42, 44...phew ! its 7:14 and people have already started queueing to get into the flight...I fall into line...

into the flight, first time I'm flying on one of these budget airlines...looks more comfortable than I expected...I get a window-seat...am joined by a Danish guy presently...written right across his T-shirt is, "God is great, give glory to Him"...no problems with starting a conversation...he's friendly, earnest and encourages me to go all out for God...we chat and I sleep..."We are now approaching Aarhus" declares the captain on the loud-speaker...get out, get my bag and go into the arrival lounge...there's my supervisor, Doug and there's his friend...how good of them to come receive me :)...not sure whether to shake hands with Doug or hug him, we shake hands...am introduced to Doug's friend, Prof. Sten Vikner from the Linguistics Department...take an instant liking to him...a gentle, smiling, lean, intelligent, cultured man...

we start the drive back...the steering wheel is on the left...conversation is about how Aarhus is the perennial younger brother to the capital, Copenhagen, in all matters...we reach the city and I peer out...yellow-brick buildings, wide clean roads, neatly lined with trees...the traffic moves slowly and orderly-ly...but its dark and I can't see much more...we reach my guest house, they show me to my room and leave...

the room has a large oval-window looking out into a larger part of Aarhus, the room is clean, comfortable, well-equipped and has that 'quality' feel to it...I make my bed and settle down to sleep, feeling fortunate for even having gotten this far...I'll have to wake up the next morning and mentally rehearse the first of my presentations...

"buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"...its 7:30 am, get into the bathroom and have trouble squeezing toothpaste out of my almost-empty toothpaste tube...am I going to have enough to last the next two days ? finish my stuff and come out...its 8:30...need to be downstairs by 9:15...the rehearsal doesn't take long and I feel confident about the presentation, in fact, more confident than I've ever felt...

get picked up by Doug and go to the Centre...classy centre...everything is new and everything is spacious, white and tasteful...what fun it must be to work here ! they even have a place that serves breakfast...go down and get breakfast...maaaaan, what a spread ! pastries galore and bacon and ham and some other unknown forms of meat...I take a little bit of everything, some yoghurt and some fruit juice...I'm usually at my most uninhibited in my first few moments in a new place, this was one of those times...one by one, I finish off the stuff....the best breakfast I've had in a long time :)

upstairs and to the seminar room where we're running the workshop...the people start filing in, 14 in all...different kinds...some Americans, some Mexicans, mostly Danish....Doug is on first, I'm doing the first session in the afternoon...Doug starts and in his own style, weaves a story of the brain, different scales of studying it, different methodologies for studying it, and why ERPs are a useful methodology...impressive stuff...I remember how much in awe I was when I first heard it...a master-class on ERPs, but also a master-class on how to construct a presentation...

we go down to lunch and I'm a bit tense...I'm on next...how's it going to go ?? finish lunch and head back up...I'm on...I feel the expectant eyes on me and I start...from initially being relaxed, my brain goes into mildly-agitated mode...thoughts in the head are not fuzzy but they're not clear either, the delivery is not mixed-up but its not clear and precise either...and the odd stutter happens...I talk fast, for some reason thinking I have less time than I do...and do not feel like I have my students 'with me'...the presentation is well-constructed and neat and I had prepared my delivery, so the general impression is fair, but this is not how I had intended it to go...I havn't properly managed to illumine the relevant concepts :(

I finish and try to sense the the general mood...decidedly neutral...Doug seems fairly happy but is he just faking it ? I have a chance to make amends tomorrow...tomorrow's are the really important presentations anyway...but I'm not a happy camper...

I attend a guest lecture in the Centre for Semiotics....the lecture was supposed to be on 'meaning', but the speaker decided at the last-minute, to change it to 'consciousness as it relates to cognition' ! only in academia...

interesting lecture, lots of speculative theories, lots of familiar ideas repackaged as new, but consciousness has been studied for so long that recycled ideas are inevitable...the speaker made a particularly interesting point that I hadn't thought of in that way...that just as the brain can be considered a network of lower-level networks, society can be viewed as a network of brains, just one level up in the hierarchy of networks...a whole new way of understanding collective intelligence...

the guest lecture finishes and we go out to dinner...Doug, Sten, Tomas (Sten's son), Ken,myself and two others...the restaurant is beautiful...the bricks on the walls visible, low music, dim lighting...the waiter comes up and suggests a two-course meal, full of French-sounding names, all delicious, we accept without hesitation...the food arrives...salmon, beef, venison, a dish that looks like pizza but tastes much better, delicious gravies...and that's just the first course ! we eat to our heart's content, comfortable conversation, and leave...

we come out onto the street...a cobbled street, the street lamps are elegantly designed and give off a warm yellow glow, at the end of the street is a tall Cathedral with two moss-green spires...on the left is the Arts Centre, people just going into it for the last performance of the day...a cyclist passes by...I feel the unmistakeable charm of a small European town...full of culture and taste, the people having known nothing but the highest standards of living and order and politeness and efficiency, a society which has figured out what it wants and has collectively achieved it...a rich, varied and healthy life...

I get dropped back to my guest-room and go to bed...decide to wake up early the next morning to give myself enough time to mentally rehearse the presentations...wake up, go to the bathroom and this time, the toothpaste tube does put up a fight...I decide to attack from the bottom...slowly and systematically, I push any paste from the bottom of the tube to the top, using my index fingers to hold the tube and my thumbs to push the paste up...success ! a blob falls out onto the toothbrush...what am I going to do tomorrow ??

come out and look at the presentation...today's presentation is a hard one, many difficult concepts to explain, I decide to just focus on talkly slowly and clearly...look at the time, its 9:30 am ! the presentation starts at 10:15 am and I have to get there myself today...I take the map and start out, reach the Centre about 9:55 am, but can't find the elusive entrance because it shares a building with the Hospital...20 minutes to go...I frantically search, asking people, but nobody seems to know....one of the Hospital watchmen points me to the hospital EEG facility...no!...its 10 am..."ahoy there !", I hear somebody call...its one of the students from yesterday, smiling at me :)...he can see I'm lost...he points me in the right direction and says he'll join me in a while...I go up and Doug is waiting for me worried, I hurriedly apologise, load my presentation and get ready, a little out of breath....

the students arrive and its time to start...Doug had finished his presentations yesterday, so its going to be me the whole day today...Doug hands me control of the lap-top...here goes...I start and start well...the breathing is slow and I'm able to relax, the thoughts are clear and the speech is precise and measured...I come to the difficult part of the presentation, slow down even more and invest effort into explaining it, I'm rewarded by the light of comprehension in quite a few eyes...they can see how the method works, how cool it is and what cool things they can do with it ! I can also feel Doug's approbation...I continue talking for 2 hours and we split for lunch...Doug comes up and tells me I did a 'good job' :)...yesss ! after lunch, the plan is to demonstrate conducting a real EEG experiment after which the plan is to demonstrate some data analysis...the EEG experiment goes smoothly and then, its onto the data analysis...we open up MATLAB, project it on the big screen and after getting over some hassles with importing the data, I do some MATLAB programming and analysis on the lap-top, while everything I'm typing and all the graphs I'm inspecting, are being watched by 14 pairs of eyes on the big-screen...thankfully, there are no slip-ups and the results of the analysis are decidedly impressive....I can feel the general mood of the audience turn from appreciation to admiration...we've impressed...

its 4 'o' clock, the end of the workshop, Doug gives some closing comments...and then, we get a spontaneous round of applause...it was spontaneous because it started simultaneously and went on for longer than it would have, if it was polite applause...Doug and I look at each other and smile :)

students come up and tell us how much they enjoyed the workshop, and Doug, me and Ken chat about the past two days and other things...I'm quite talkative, mainly from the pressure release and the satisfaction of having done something well...it makes suchhhh a difference...we go to Sten's office and decide to go shopping, then dinner and head home...

we visit a mall...I buy a key-ring for a friend and a top for my sister...and find a Chinese restaurant to eat at...an all-you-can-eat-buffet...conversation is relaxed...Sten and Doug have known each since their PhD days at MIT 22 years ago...they tease each other, pull each other's legs and argue about linguistic anomalies...beneath all this banter, it is also easy to sense the mutual respect and affection of a genuine friendship...when I'm their age, those are the kind of friendships I want to have built up...

I get dropped off at home in a decidedly euphoric mood...the workshop has gone well, my supervisor is happy with me, some of the students in the Centre want to collaborate with us because of our analysis expertise...a couple in the guest-room next to mine are having a shouting match but it hardly makes a difference to my frame-of-mind :)...I pick up the Bible and turn to a page randomly...

Psalm 128
A song of ascents.

1 Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways.
2 You will eat the fruit of your labor; blessings and prosperity will be yours.
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your sons will be like olive shoots around your table.
4 Thus is the man blessed who fears the LORD.
5 May the LORD bless you from Zion all the days of your life; may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem,
6 and may you live to see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel.

I'm not one for dramatic Biblical moments...I like to think of myself as relying more on the God-instituted means of hard-work and perseverance rather than relying on his miraculous intervention in my life on a daily basis...but in this case, I did feel like I had turned onto a page that was meant for me to read...and felt that God was simply saying that, as long as I fear Him and walk in His ways, everything will be fine :)...family life, professional life, everything...but only if I fear Him and walk in His ways

I read a bit of Discovery of India by Jawaharlal Nehru, and go to sleep...wake up the next morning...we're leaving at 1:30 and they're picking me up at 11 am... go to the bathroom and its time for the final battle in the toothpaste war...I roll up my sleeves, look hard at the tube, and start pushing paste upwards from the bottom...no result...could it be that there is absolutely no paste left in the tube ? and could it be that I will have to travel today without brushing my teeth ? it wouldn't be a first, I have visited the House of Commons without brushing my teeth...I decide on a different strategy...I fold the tube along its longitudinal axis, and push the paste upward...Hercules couldn't have expended more energy when he was holding the earth above his shoulders....then, I hold the neck of the tube like a syringe and try to squirt the paste out...a bit of paste bobs its head out and bobs back into the tube...hope ! ...I place the toothbrush directly below and squirt hard again....a massive blob comes and lands on the brush...at Aarhus, Denmark, I gave a tutorial on EEG analysis for 2 days and coaxed toothpaste out of an empty tube for 3 days :)

I finish and come out...pack up, eat the grapes Doug bought me for breakfast, clean the room and go out to wait for Doug and Sten...they arrive presently and we begin the drive to the airport...Doug and Sten in the front, chatting away happily, me in the back, listening to them and also looking at the beautiful bright autumn colours of the leaves...we enter the countryside and I start reflecting on the trip...what have I learnt ? on a professional level, I've learnt how important it is to talk slowly and clearly while giving presentations....on a personal level, I've learnt a lot about how to conduct genuine relationships and live enjoyable middle-class lives, by watching Doug and Sten....on a spiritual level, I've learnt that it is the most important thing to fear God and do what is right in His eyes, and everything else will fall into place...just as they always have.

Amen.