I mostly interacted with students like me from all over the world in the conference. Well, not from all over the word actually, of course there was barely any representation from third-world/ developing countries. The conference was in Dresden which was a beautiful quaint city, it looked very much looked like the city of my dreams. Everything was easy- walking on the roads, pubic transport, going for a run, cycling to work- everything was so easy compared to India. The catch was that it was expensive, one way tram tickets cost 10–12 euros so about 100–120 INR for public transport. I absolutely hated the food there though- fully bland, just put some cheese and vegetables in a bread?? Non-veg was equally boring too- put sliced meat and cheese in a bread, that’s it??
It got me thinking that people in developed countries do not have to waste their headspace into trivial things like getting from one place to another, so they can be more at peace and be way more productive than us.
The most important takeaway of the conference was that it gave me a glimpse of the direction my field is headed towards. I realised that 2D cell culture systems are obsolete and mechanobiology is now moving towards 3d- model organisms and organoids. I felt so lucky and underqualified to be in the same room as some of the bests of my field, I hope that changes soon. I was also so lucky to have the chance to listen to some of the greatests of my fields in person. Like any other conference there were talks, poster sessions etc and I’m going to skip all of that in this article.
The best part of the conference was the steam-boat dinner.
The cruise started around 6pm when it was still bright as day (Summer in Europe) and we cruised along the river till 10pm. I had champagne for the first ever time in my life, and had the best wine I’ve had so far. It was so beautiful to watch the sunset and the sky turn its colors as we slowly hummed along the river with good music playing and chitter-chatter and laughter all around me.
I hate social situations, especially if it happens to be with people I haven’t met. But somehow on that beautiful cruise, sipping fine wine with ‘strangers’- I felt so happy! The people there were all so nice and open to talking to others, that’s mainly what conferences are meant for. We start talking about our work, our institutes blah blah blah and as the days progress in the conference we get to know the others better. I met some really nice people living in Dresden itself who offered to show me around the city. It was about 11pm when we got off the cruise. The sun had set by then and beautiful Dresden was lit by warm yellow lights. Our ‘tour guide’- a PhD student at one of the MaxPlancks of Dresden took us to ‘Altstadt’ part of Dresden, which transates to ‘Old city’. Dresden was the capital of one of the old kingdoms in Germany, so there were a lot of big beautiful churches and castles littered across the city with cobbestone pavements. We also walked on the old bridges of the city and saw some street musicians performing. It felt so surreal walking past all of that.
Overall, the science in conference was top-class, but all the personal interactions were my takeaway from the conference. I wouldn’t say I made friends for life there, in fact I’m not even in touch with anyone I met at the conference except for seeing their occasional tweets; But for the first time I enjoyed being with a bunch of people I’ve never met and that to me is a new life experience.
