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In recent years we have seen a remarkable qualitative change in the techniques used in the field of Theoretical Computer Science - they have seen the introduction of deep and sophisticated concepts and techniques from many different areas of mathematics - probability theory, harmonic analysis, algebra, algebraic geometry and algebraic topology, to name a few - with very dramatic results: many problems that remained open for decades were conclusively resolved.
The primary goal of the workshop was to study and understand some of the most outstanding of these methods. We also saw some examples of problems which were resolved only after the introduction of some powerful mathematical techniques. Our report is therefore organised around the principal mathematical techniques that were the focus of the two weeks of intensive activity - four two hour sessions everyday with only lunch and some relaxing evening walks (morning jogs for some more enthu ones) in between.
Actually one is being unjust to one's hosts. Keenly aware of the soporific state that the pleasant climate and environs induce in visitors to the IISC campus, they had taken elaborate measures, it seems, for non-stop live entertainment in the form of a real life soap opera. For, participants awakened one morning to the news that Veerappan the notorious bandit (who uses only one name, as CNN informed us) had made off with the darling of the Kannada masses, cine-actor Rajkumar. Reports trickling in from the outside world spoke of mayhem and carnage on the streets as an irate mob brought the high tech silicon capital of India to a standstill. For a while the scene seemed all too grim at the thought that perhaps the quarantine would apply even to incoming food stuff. Fortunately this was dispelled with the smell of fresh idli/dosa in the morning breakfast. Although a participant was lost (the intrepid Ravi who even then entertained some thoughts of talking through the Kannada mob between him in Salem and the workshop), the organisers were kind enough to ensure that the heat was off after the workshop on all fronts and we could all leave on time.
Something else was also lost in this drama. As a week of the workshop came to a close, many of us cloistered on campus felt the need for strong stimulants. And Bangalore is where India's first yuppie (as well as non-yuppie) pubs had sprung up over a decade ago, so there was no pressing need for abstinence, right? Well, there almost was! On the first hand, one has to contend with the delightful woolliness of info -- most of our hosts were teetotallers (correction: they wouldn't even drink tea or coffee! Not that they objected to caffeine in a cold cola), so we had to garner info from ``external sources''. Which happened to be a physicist friend whom we knew to be a brilliant genius, but we should also have known him to be extremely unreliable. So Sat (29 Jul) evening had this delightful scene of two autorickshaws, filled with thirsty souls, tearing down the city roads in search of a highly recommended pub. A fruitless 60 minutes later, a call to another friend (not a physicist! but one who studies primates - and, I guess, us!!) revealed that we needed to go back to where we began, and the place was found. BUT! The pub had been de-licensed! Then began another trip to yet another place - this time we gave up the search for a pub and settled for a restaurant which also served beer. Two solid hours had been successfully diverted from beer-drinking to inane gallivanting. And, this was virtually the last beer we got: Sunday night the brigand swung into action, and all of the following week Bangalore went dry to ``avoid law and order problems''. As if this was what caused the problem. Oh well, if the workshop saw some clouded minds, at least it wasn't Bangalore's pub culture to blame!