Background:

More than 40 years ago I visited India for the first time. It was to be a short exploration of yogic centers, but I became attached to the circle around Neemkaroli Baba in the the Himalayan foothills and stayed for seven months. It was during this time that I got together with my companion, Ray Gwyn Smith. We had always planned to go back, but the years passed. It was not until 2001 that we found the opportunity to return. The occasion was my invitation to a conference called "Einstein Days" at the Visva Bharati University, or VBU, in Santiniketan, north of Kolkata. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Visva Bharati means the communion of the world with India.

We passed through Kolkata on the way. It seems that Kolkata is the Boston of India, in that so many of the great universities and institutes are located there -- Presidency College,the University of Calcutta, Jadavpur University, the West Bengal University of Technology, the Indian Statistical Institute, and the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, among them. But we were shocked by the darker side of India that we had not seen in the Himalayan foothills, such as the ritual slaughter of goats.

The conference venue, the VBU, seemed to me to be the UC Santa Cruz of India. My fascination with Tagore and Bengali culture began there. After the conference we wished to return to our old haunts, but that was too expensive, so we compromised and went to Darjeeling for a short holiday.

Since that visit with Ray in 2001, I have returned to Kolkata more-or-less regularly, in 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2012. Thus series of visits was initiated by a Fulbright grant in 2003. Just now I have arrived home from my sixth trip to Kolkata in 13 years, and I am looking forward to maintaining this routine, thanks to the recent renewal of my Fulbright grant. My mission in India over these years has been to further the development of my subject, Complex Dynamical Systems theory and its applications. And on the side, I am enhancing my knowledge of classical Indian philosophy and music.

Here, then, is a brief report of this latest visit to India.