Indian Institute Of Science

If you come looking for us at the Indian Institute of Science, you will have to find the ECE Department first. We are tucked away in the Photonics Lab. It is quite a walk from the main gate because the campus is so huge and full of trees. Inside the lab, it is usually a bit of a mess with wires, laser setups, and bits of hardware scattered across the benches. We don't really worry about making it look pretty for visitors. It is a working space through and through. The air conditioning hums all day to keep the equipment cool, which is nice when it gets hot outside in Bangalore. Most of us spend way too many hours here, sometimes staying late into the evening when the rest of the department has gone home. There is always a faint smell of solder and old books. We have a few mismatched chairs and a small coffee machine that only works half the time. It is not like those high-tech labs you see in the movies. This is a real place where things get broken and fixed again. People are usually focused on their screens or adjusting lenses. We don't have a big sign on the door, just a small piece of paper with the room number. It is 560012 for the pin code if you are sending mail. We just keep our heads down and handle the research tasks assigned to us.