Wise always say, What goes around comes around.... Ok ok, I know, its no great saying but a song of Justin Timberlake. But the meaning lingers. It runs quite in parallel to sayings like, what you sow, you reap.... or... you have to settle your accounts in this life... blah blah... crazy stuff huh!Whatever it might be but something like that happened to me today.
I once did some work as a part of my B.Tech project. Frankly speaking, I simply love security protocols and how you can break some codes and make some unbreakable ones of yours. Thanks to Prof. Anish Mathuria for making this subject so extremely exciting. So, my B.Tech project was in that particular field. I did it under Prof. Manik Lal Das way back in my last semester in 2007. Now, as you might already know, engineers are a lazy breed. We avoid as much as we can till we can't. I remember the final semester when all of us enjoyed to the fullest... No lectures.. no exams... just a project with just 2 evaluations. So as expected everyone explored his/her hobby to the fullest and the project work was done only in the last week. Those who were little more careful did it in last 15 days :p There were always few exceptions like Pradeep Dhadda.
Now it happened that I was under pressure with little time left to cook something for my project. I had already broken 2 published security protocols as a part of my project but that was not enough for the panel. I needed to come out with something of mine own. I was having dinner with PD and he was going all ga ga on his project... Boy, he actually did work a lot. But in the background my mind was thinking of any unbreakable code which could atleast last for 1 week till my presentation... then suddenly I saw it. Just like in movies, although not that much clear but I did saw it. And when I went back to my room, after few hours I had my masterpiece. Wow!!! I had devised a protocol which I believe couldn't be broken for 1 week atleast. But I still had few doubts about its validity because no one ever had used the concept I was using in devising a protocol. It was the first of its kind. So, I took extra care of talking to Prof. Chatterji to get my concept verified. Ofcourse, I didn't talked about the code with him but about the mathematical concept involved in that. And there I had a credible alibi... If something would have gone wrong in my presentation I would have taken recluse in that. Well, thankfully my presentation went fine. Got A in my project. My work even got published in IEEE journal and then there was even a chapter in a book with my name as one of the authors which was published by Springer.... wooooo.... great stuff.... a feast which only a handful experience.
Now, its been 3 and a half years to that.... when today as I opened my mailbox I found a mail from the editor of IEEE inviting me to be a reviewer of their manuscript. He referred to me as an expert of the field of wireless communication, on which my project was based, and I don't know how but he was under the impression that I am a doctorate!!!! Dr. Aakash Joshi!!! Of course, I declined the invitation as I am no expert of the field. If this would have come after my B.Tech, I would have happily reviewed anything thrown at me then. But its too late now. MBA has spoiled me. Couldn't remember any of that thing now.... But it made my day in any case.... The work which I did 3 and a half years back is still, I believe, the most significant contribution that I have made so far..... And I am still basking in its after effect :)
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