“I want to play key roles in the development of quantum computers,” I responded once more to the trite question asking what I want to do with my life.  Both the response and the question have become platitudes; they have become protocol like the sup, nm u in an instant message.  Every time I orate with this response it is almost as if I am yelling it at a high pitch (that is with a high frequency of vibrations to it), and then suppressing it within my oral cavity.  Depending upon the erudition of the speaker the resulting question tends to be, “So, what is a quantum computer?”  One more time a bat of ignorance smashes and hurts my head and I just want to cry it out.  And it comes out like this, “Quantum computers will be the next generation computers that are being developed in various institutions around the world such as Los Alamos, NM where a 7-bit quantum computer has already been made….”  My lecture continues to douse their ignorance with satanic knowledge that bombards the brain.  Sometimes I wonder if they comprehend this information or if they are just wondering how and when I achieved this knowledge.

 

The bat of ignorance has bashed me many times and I testify it hurts and makes me want to cry.  In economics class in college I once discovered a girl who did not know how to find the area of a triangle, that being the reason why she could not understand or solve certain problems.  One summer I tutored Algebra I recall a girl who never understood what it means to subtract, although she could follow the guidelines to subtraction, she did not understand word problems involving it.  I am not sad for these two individuals as I successfully disabused their disease, but for our society in which millions of people carry around these little diseases.  These diseases are the fathered by ignorance and mothered by misunderstanding.  I have as much passion for academics as a hearty environmentalist has for the trees and the birds or a hospitable doctor has for his patients.  I am a scientist and researcher bestowed with good graces of the goddess of education.

 

Enlightenment is not bound in time and space.  It can come during gestation or be geriatric.  In the Puranas there is a story of Prahalad, a boy who attained enlightenment during gestation while in many other accounts persons reach enlightenment only a few moments before their death.  I, too, am in a search for this light and keep encountering clues leading to it.  The clues themselves pique my inner self as only an enthusiast like Benjamin Franklin can decipher them.  Only a champion can formulate a new champion, and we see this throughout the history of Nobel Laureates, in the idea that man learnt yoga from the way cats stretch and fighting arts from animals like the tiger, because they are the champions of that.  The reason I am good at chess is because I always played my father who always beat me at it, just like the Williams sisters in tennis.  I even got to writing fiction where the chess pieces come alive and publishing the book, Fierce Game of Foolish Geniuses: The Opening of Chess at age 17.  Currently, I am also working on my next book about Quantum computers based on certain experiences in the fiber optics lab at the university and my own readings.  For an academician like me books (and now also the internet) are the best friends.  If you work with the best and keep faith, eventually you become the best.  It’s that simple and thus, the motto of my company ScientificChess is “Champions of the Mind.”

 

Throughout life, I have always been on the move.  After completing fourth grade from India, a tall wave brought me to the U.S. where a series of travels erupted from Indianapolis.  The sun shone radiantly everywhere from SantaFe, New Mexico to Fairfax, Virginia to Tulsa, Oklahoma to Springfield, Oregon, to Atlanta, Georgia to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Randolph, New Jersey to Marlton, New Jersey, to Fairport, New York to Westborough, Massachusetts, and now Syracuse, NY.  These being merely the places of abode, the authentic stories of the travels are a saga in the self.  A friend from when I was in Fairfax writes to me, “dude that’s like your life in 12 seconds. What happened in between?!”

 

My objective in life is to enrich the world with innovative inventions that cherish humanity.  The approach to achieving my objective is through education and the development of knowledge.  I judge this dream to become a great scientist to be a challenging and fun objective.  I hope you will assist me in upholding my dreams for the advancement of society and benefit of all.  The past remains victorious and the future will be more successful.

 

-Aditya Mittal

Tuesday, December 27th, 2006