The first post

Hi! Welcome to my little corner of the Web! I am not sure about why you are here, and perhaps you too are wondering about it. This first post is a good place for me to tell you what to expect here.

Primarily, I plan to write about things that I do for a living: materials science, physical metallurgy, microstructures, and simulation techniques (in particular, phase field models). Thus, you can expect thoughts, opinion, commentary, suggestions, and speculations on various aspects of these fields. I know, I know, ... these areas are not as catchy and interesting and important as the theory of evolution or cosmology; but, I plan to just play with the hand that I have been dealt.

Like so many others, I too find that when I put my thoughts down in writing, things become clearer to me. In fact, even as I write this post, my real reasons for this blog are coming into better focus. So, you see, the main reason for this blog is purely personal (did I hear someone mutter "navel-gazing"?). Having said that, I do want to make sure that what I say is sensible to those who happen to read this blog. So, I promise to do my best to write clearly, coherently and convincingly.

In addition to fields in which I have some professional training, there are others that I dabble in purely out of personal interest. I certainly cannot claim competence in some (or, even all) of them, but I do expect to write about them. So, you may occasionally find thoughts and rants on very many other things such as economic development, stock markets, sociology of science, etc. I do realize, however, that I have to draw a line somewhere; as of now, I draw it so that I will not have to discuss murderous muttheads and other such topics ... ;-)