Subhadeep Banik

Senior Scientist, Faculty of Informatics

University of Lugano, Switzerland

Email: subhadeep.banik@usi.ch



About me


I was born in 1982 in Kolkata (WB). I completed my B.Tech in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering and M.Tech in Automation and Computer Vision from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in 2006. I received my PhD in Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata in 2015.

I was a Post Doctoral Researcher in DTU Compute at Lyngby and at Temasek Labs, NTU Singapore. Currently I worked as an Ambizione fellow in the LASEC group in Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne since June 2017. I am currently at USi in Lugano.

Running Records

I am an avid long distance runner. It is more of an addiction now for me ... Some of my records

Some tips to long distance runners. While running always try to run/land on your toe-tips and never on the entire feet or heels. Otherwise this leaves you open to chronic heel ailments like plantar fascitis, a condition I would not wish on my worst enemy. Try to run on softer surfaces like grass lawns or athletic tracks, or even on treadmills. Avoid concrete roads or similar hard surfaces: if this can not be avoided make sure you wear proper running shoes and always land on toetips. For beginners, try and take it slow initially and build up your stamina. When I first started running, I could only run around 2 km but I gradually built up lung capacity, calf muscles etc.

Research Interest

Source Codes

Doctoral Dissertation

Publications

Resource-Constrained Encryption: extending Ibex with a QARMA Hardware Accelerator. 

Accepted in 34th IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures and Processors.

 in Europe Conference (DATE) 2024.  




E-books

A few books that I have read

Interesting Links

Check these out.

 


Favourite TV Shows

I have been watching American and British TV shows for about 10 years now .. here are a few of my favourites

Breaking Bad

Creator: Vince Gilligan

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Dean Norris.

Story : A terminally ill Chemistry teacher starts cooking crystal meth with his former student in order to provide for his family after his death. Flawlessly acted and directed, this show has taken Television to a whole new level of aesthetic brilliance.

 

 

 

Better Call Saul

Creator: Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould.

Cast: Bob Odenkirk, Jonathan Banks, Rhea Seehorn.

Story : The trials and tribulations of criminal lawyer, Saul Goodman, in the time leading up to establishing his strip-mall law office in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

 

 

 

Blackadder

Creator: Richard Curtis and Ben Elton

Cast: Rowan Atkinson, Stephen Fry, Hugh Lawrie, Miranda Richardson, Steve Mcinnery.

 

Story : They say that no one makes comedy better than the British; Blackadder may be just the reason why. The show follows the hillarious adventures of Blackadder as he caters to the whims and fancies of the royalty and aristocracy around him.

 

 

 

Coupling

Creator: Steven Moffat

Cast: Jack Davenport, Gina Bellman, Sarah Alexander, Kate Isitt, Ben Miles, Richard Coyle.

 

Story : This is probably the most hillarious adult comedy ever made, some of the episodes had me literally in splits. The show follows the misadventures of six friends as they try to find their bearings in upper class London.

 

 

 

Yes Minister

Creator: Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn.

Cast: Paul Eddington, Nigel Hawthorne, Derek Fowlds.

 

Story : The show follows the adventures of a British cabinet minister and his permanent secretary as they pursue a game of cat and mouse to outsmart one another. The series is genuinely funny and is suitable for family viewing.

 

 

 

Arrested Development

Creator: Mitchell Hurwitz.

Cast: Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Portia De Rossi, Will Arnett, David Cross, Tony Hale .

 

Story : After his father is arrested for illegal use of company funds, level headed son Michael Bluth must take charge of his dysfunctional family as he tries to keep the plummeting family business in tact, even as he attempts to be a role model to his teenage son. Perhaps the best comedy show to come out of US in ages, the episodes contain a brand of extremely witty humor which is fascinating to watch.

 

 

The Shield

Creator: Shawn Ryan.

Cast: Michael Chiklis, Benito Martinez, Walton Goggins, Jay Karnes, CCH Pounder, Kenny Johnson, David Rees Snell.

 

Story : Inspired by the Rampart Scandal that rocked the LAPD at the turn of the century, the show follows the lives of the officers of a corrupt police division in Farmington City, Los Angeles.

 

 

 

The Sopranos

Creator: David Chase.

Cast: James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Drea De Matteo.

 

Story : Modern day morality tale about New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano, as he deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life.

 

 

 

Angels in America

Creator: Tony Kushner.

Cast: Al Pacino, Jeffrey Wright, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Justin Kirk, Mary Louise Parker, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson.

 

Story : Year 1985. As the AIDS epidemic begins to spread in America, the series takes a look at the lives which are altered forever as a result of it. Bolstered by stellar performances by the entire cast led by Al Pacino, the show is a riveting watch.

 

 

 

The X-Files

Creator: Chris Carter.

Cast: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson, Robert Patrick.

 

Story : Two FBI agents, Fox Mulder the believer and Dana Scully the skeptic, investigate the strange and unexplained while hidden forces work to impede their efforts.

 

 

 

The Wire

Creator: David Simon.

Cast: Dominic West, Deirdre Lovejoy, Lance Reddick, Clarke Peters .

 

Story : Baltimore drug scene, seen through the eyes of drug dealers, and law enforcement.

 

 

 

Sons of Anarchy

Creator: Kurt Sutter.

Cast: Charlie Hunnam, Ron Perlman, Maggie Siff, Katey Sagal.

 

Story : The ups and downs of a Motorcycle club in Charming California.

 

 

 

True Detective

Creator: Nic Pizzolatto.

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson.

 

Story : The lives of two detectives, Rust Cohle and Martin Hart, become entangled during a 17-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana.

 

 

 

Archer

Creator: Adam Reed.

Cast: H. Jon Benjamin, Aisha Tyler, Jessica Walters, Judy Greer, Amber Nash, Chris Parnell, Adam Reed.

 

Story : At ISIS, an international spy agency, global crises are merely opportunities for its highly trained employees to confuse, undermine, betray and royally screw each other.

 

 

 

Seinfeld

Creator: Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.

Cast: Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, Jason Alexander.

 

Story : Story of Jerry Seinfeld and his band of neurotic middle aged New Yorker friends and their equally absurd adventures.

 

 

 

Big Bang Theory

Creator: Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady.

Cast: Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting,Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar.

 

Story : Tells the story of four brilliant scientists as try to overcome their social awkwardness to woo the fairer sex. Stellar performance by Jim Parsons makes the show consistently watchable.

 

 

 

Veep

Creator: Armando Ianucci.

Cast: Julia Louise Dreyfuss, Tony Hale.

 

Story : Former Senator Selina Meyer finds that being Vice President of the United States is nothing like she hoped and everything that everyone ever warned her about.

 

 

 

 

The Fall

Creator: Allan Cubitt .

Cast: Gilian Anderson, Jamie Dornan, John Lynch.

 

Story : BBC Drama about a serial killer and a ruthless policewoman in pursuit. Unlike other shows of the same genre it does not superhumanize its characters and is superbly scripted, acted and directed. Includes terrific performances by an all round cast led by Gilian Anderson.

 

Collateral

Creator: David Hare.

Cast: Carey Mulligan.

 

Story : After an employee at a Pizza delivery place is gunned down on the street in a southwest London suburb, a rookie detective is assigned to the case.

 

Love Death and Robots

Creator: Tim Miller

Story : A collection of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy.

 

Mindhunter

Creator: Joe Penhall

Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv


Story :  Fascinating story of how the FBI warmed up to the idea of Behavioral Profiling. 

 

DNA

Creator: Torleif Hoppe

Cast: Anders Berthelsen, Charlotte Rampling, Nicolas Bro.


Story :   Five years after his daughter's disappearance, Danish police officer Rolf discovers a fatal flaw in the DNA database, and reopens  a case that leads to a Europe-wide hunt for the kidnappers. 

 

My Favorite Movies

I am a movie addict and have watched over 1000 films from all over the world. Here are a few of my favorites.

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Dir: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Liv Ullman, Ingrid Thulin, Erland Josephson, Harriet Anderson

 

Story : Two sisters reunite to take care of their other terminally ill sister which results in a confrontation of all their repressed feelings. 

 

 

Scenes from a Marriage (1975)

Dir: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Liv Ullman, Erland Josephson

 

Story: Follows the tumultous story of a Swedish couple over 16 years as their marriage goes through love, infidelity, divorce and separation. The story unfolds in six separate scenes and is the most comprehensive film ever made on the institution of marriage.

 

 

Autumn Sonata (1978)

Dir: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Liv Ullman, Ingrid Bergman.

 

Story : A decorated pianist comes to visit her daughter for a few days. Initially all goes well, until one night when the daughter spews her hatred for the mother.

 

 

 

Persona (1966)

Dir: Ingmar Bergman

Cast: Liv Ullman, Bibi Andersson.

 

Story : Midway through the production of a play, a theater actress suddenly stops talking and is incommunicado eversince. A nurse is appointed to look after her.

 

 

 

Zerkalo (1974)

Dir: Andrey Tarkovsky

Cast: Margarita Terekhova.

 

Story : A man in his forties is going to die and remembers his past. His childhood, his mother, the war, personal moments but things that also tell the story of all the Russian nation. The BBC critic Jonathan Crocker had said this about the film "Cinema rarely gets this close to poetry in motion.." Link

 

 

 

Solyaris (1972)

Dir: Andrey Tarkovsky

Cast: Natalya Bondarchuk, Donatas Banionis, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko.

 

Story : This is perhaps one of the best science fiction movies ever made. The film follows the story of a psychologist who is sent to a space station which is orbiting a planet that may possess intelligence of its own.

 

 

 

Stalker (1979)

Dir: Andrey Tarkovsky

Cast: Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolay Grinko.

 

Story : A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.

 

 

 

8 ½ (1963)

Dir: Federico Fellini

Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee.

 

Story : A film director, immersed in his own male fantasies, struggles to come to terms with the making of his film even as he pursues an affair with a crew member.

 

 

 

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Dir: Federico Fellini

Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee.

 

Story : The film follows a few days in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist as he goes from one debauchery to the other.

 

 

 

La Strada (1954)

Dir: Federico Fellini

Cast: Anthony Quinn, Giulietta Masina, Richard Basehart.

 

Story : The first and the original road movie. The film follows the trials and tribulations of a girl who is sold to a travelling performance artist.

 

 

 

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Dir: Luis Bunuel

Cast: Silvia Pinal.

 

Story : Bizarre surreal story of guests at an upper class dinner party who find themselves unable to leave for no explicable reason. Very quickly they are forced to abandon their genteel natures and reduced to live like animals.

 

 

 

Rashomon (1950)

Dir: Akira Kurosawa

Cast: Toshiro Mifune.

 

Story :  A heinous crime recounted from four different points of view. The film calls into question the very nature of truth and existence.

 

 

 

Two or Three Things I Know About Her... (1967)

Dir: Jean Luc Godard

Cast: Marina Vlady.

 

Story : The film takes a closer look at Paris in the 60s as people try to reconcile themselves with the Vietnam War and a possible nuclear war. Morality is worthless commodity and people resort to prostitution for money.

 

 

 

Where is the Friend's Home? (1987)

Dir: Abbas Kiarostami

Cast: Babek Ahmed Poor.

 

Story : Ahmed watches his friend getting a beating from the teacher for not doing homework in the designated notebook. After school he realizes that he has taken his friend's notebook by mistake. Although he does not know the exact location of his friend's house, he spends the day trying to return the notebook. Just the kind of simplistic storyline that defined Iranian new wave cinema, this film is a treat to the senses.

 

 

 

Crimson Gold (2003)

Dir: Jafar Panahi

Cast: Hossain Emadeddin, Kamyar Sheisi.

 

Story : A critique on the contemporary class barriers in the Iranian society, the film follows the life of a pizza delivery guy as he endures one humiliation after the other and is driven to crime.

 

 

 

Offside (2006)

Dir: Jafar Panahi

Cast: Sima Mobarak-Shahi, Shayesteh Irani, Ayda Sadeqi

 

Story : Hillarious story about four girls who dress up as men and try to enter a football stadium where women are not allowed to enter.

 

 

 

3-Iron (2004)

Dir: Kim Ki Duk

Cast: Seung-yeon Lee, Hyun-kyoon Lee, Hyuk-ho Kwon

 

Story : A young man breaks in empty houses and lives a normal life while the owners are traveling. Trouble ensues when he falls in love with a woman in an abusive marriage.

 

 

 

Chungking Express (1994)

Dir: Wong Kar Wai

Cast: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro.

 

Story : This movie about two love-struck policemen is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color.

 

 

 

Days of being wild (1990)

Dir: Wong Kar Wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Maggie Cheung, Andy Lau.

 

Story : Set in 1960, the film centres on the young, boyishly handsome Yuddy, who learns from the drunken ex-prostitute who raised him that she is not his real mother. Hoping to hold onto him, she refuses to divulge the name of his real birth mother. Two women have the bad luck to fall for Yuddy. He passively lets the two compete for him, unable or unwilling to make a choice. Later, Yuddy learns of his birth mother's whereabouts and heads out to the Philippines.

 

 

 

Happy Together (1997)

Dir: Wong Kar Wai

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai.

 

Story : A homosexual couple arrive in Argentina from Hong Kong. Their distinctive lifestyles take them separate ways.

 

 

 

Farewell My Concubine (1993)

Dir: Chen Kaige

Cast: Leslie Cheung, Gong Li, Fengyi Zhang.

 

Story : The story of two men, who met as apprentices in the Peking Opera, and stayed friends for over 50 years and the woman in their lives who stands up heroically to both of them as political upheavals in China tear their life apart.

 

 

 

Confessions (2010)

Dir: Tetsuya Nakashima

Cast: Takako Matsu.

 

Story : A teacher plots intricate revenge against the high school students responsible for her daughter's death. 

 

 

 

Parasite (2019)

Dir: Bong Joon Ho

Cast:  Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong.

 

Story :  A lower middle class family con their way into service jobs in a wealthy household. 

 

 

 

Last Tango in Paris (1973)

Dir: Bernardo Bertolucci

Cast: Marlon Brando, Jean Pierre Leaud, Maria Schneider.

 

Story : A young Parisian woman begins a sordid affair with a middle-aged American businessman.

 

 

 

Mother and Son (1997)

Dir: Alexandr Sokurov

Cast: Aleksei Ananishnov, Gudrun Geyer

 

Story : A dutiful son takes care of his ailing mother.

 

 

 

La Pianiste (2001)

Dir: Michael Haneke

Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Benoit Magimel, Annie Girardot.

 

Story : To get out of her humdrum existence, a masochistic piano teacher pursues an affair with her student, leading to disastrous consequences.

 

 

 

Talk to Her (2002)

Dir: Pedro Almodovar

Cast: Javier Camara, Dario Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores.

 

Story : Two men strike up an unusual frienship while caring for their comatose girlfriends.

 

 

 

The Skin I Live in (2011)

Dir: Pedro Almodovar

Cast: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya.

 

Story : A brilliant cosmetic surgeon takes an unusual revenge on the person he holds responsible for his daughter's death.

 

 

 

The Secret in their eyes (2009)

Dir: Juan Jose Campanella

Cast: Ricardo Darin, Soledad Vilamil.

 

Story : A retired legal counselor writes a novel hoping to find closure for one of his past unresolved homicide cases and for his unreciprocated love with his superior - both of which still haunt him decades later..

 

 

 

No Country for Old Men (2007)

Dir: Joel and Ethan Cohen

Cast: Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Woody Harrelson.

 

Story : Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and more than two million dollars in cash near the Rio Grande.

 

 

 

Le Fils (2002)

Dir: Jean Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne

Cast: Olivier Gourmet.

 

Story : A carpenter at a technical school takes on a young intern and soon starts to follow him across the hallway and streets.

 

 

 

Melancholia (2011)

Dir: Lars Von Trier

Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland.

 

Story : A sadistic girl ruins her marriage on the night of her wedding even as an alien planet threatens to crash on to the Earth.

 

 

 

The Square (2017)

Dir: Ruben Ostlund

Cast: Claes Bang, Elizabeth Moss

 

Story : A advertising campaign for an art exhibit generates way too much controversy around the Stockholm museum ecosystem.

 

 

 

Nymphomaniac Vol. I and II (2013/14)

Dir: Lars Von Trier

Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skaarsgard, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBoeuf.

 

Story : A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.

 

 

 

Amores Perros (2000)

Dir: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cast: Emilio Echevarria, Gael Garcia Bernal, Goya Toledo

 

Story :  A horrific car accident connects three stories, each involving characters dealing with loss, regret, and life's harsh realities, all in the name of love.

 

 

 

Before Sunset (2004)

Dir: Richard Linklater

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy.

 

Story :  This sequel to Before Sunrise (1995) is set exactly 9 years after the events of the movie. Estranged lovers Jesse and Celine meet again by accident, and spend the day discussing their lives and the life that could have been.  

 

 

 

Jeune et Jolie (2013)

Dir: François Ozon

Cast: Marina Vacth, Geraldine Pailhas. 

Story : After losing her virginity, Isabelle takes up a secret life as a call girl, meeting her clients for hotel-room trysts. Throughout, she remains curiously aloof, showing little interest in the encounters themselves or the money she makes. 

 

 

 

Shame (2011)

Dir: Steve McQueen

Cast: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan.

 

Story : A nymphomaniac's life is disrupted when his sister drops in for an unexpected visit.

 

 

 

Sunshine (2007)

Dir: Danny Boyle

Cast: Cilian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh.

 

Story : After a failed mission, another team of international scientists are sent to the dying sun to reignite it by detonating a nuclear device.

 

 

 

In this World (2002)

Dir: Michael Winterbottom

Cast: Jamal Udin Torabi, Enayatullah

 

Story : Docudrama about 2 refugees as they leave their camp in Peshawar to get to London.

 

 

 

Ad Astra (2019)

Dir: James Gray

Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee jones.

 

Story : An astronaut is given the task of communicating with his father who went rogue on a mission to Neptune 30 years earlier. 

 

 

 

A History of Violence (2005)

Dir: David Cronenberg

Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, Ed Harris, William Hurt 

 

Story : A family man is outed on local media after he takes on a couple criminals holding up their coffee shop. 

 

 

 

The Messenger (2009)

Dir: Oren Moverman

Cast: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton

 

Story : A soldier whose job it is to inform family members of martyrs killed in action, falls in love with the widow of a fallen marine

 

 

 

Margin Call (2011)

Dir: JC Chandor

Cast: Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Jeremy Irons, Simon Baker.

 

Story : An associate at a trading firm accidentally discovers that some of the recent trades made by the company could wipe out its market cap. 

 

 

 

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

Dir: Wes Anderson

Cast: Gene Hackman, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, Luke Wilson, Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Angelica Huston.

 

Story : A tragi-comic look at the Tenenbaum family who all gather under one roof one last time.

 

 

 

Three Colours: Blue (1993)

Dir: Krzysztof Kieslowski

Cast: Juliette Binoche.

 

Story : A woman struggles to cope with the death of her husband and son.

 

 

 

Annie Hall (1977)

Dir: Woody Allen

Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton.

 

Story : Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

 

 

 

Manhattan (1979)

Dir: Woody Allen

Cast: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton.

 

Story : A divorced New Yorker currently dating a high-schooler brings himself to look for love in the mistress of his best friend instead.

 

 

 

Another Woman (1988)

Dir: Woody Allen

Cast: Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow.

 

Story : Facing a mid-life crisis, a woman rents an apartment next to a psychiatrist's office to write a new book, only to become drawn to the plight of a pregnant woman seeking that doctor's help.

 

 

 

Husbands and Wives (1992)

Dir: Woody Allen

Cast: Sydney Pollack, Liam Neeson, Mia Farrow, Judy Davis, Woody Allen.

 

Story : When their best friends announce that they're separating, a professor and his wife discover the faults in their marriage.

 

 

 

Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Dir: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: George C. Scott, Peter Sellers.

 

Story : An insane American general orders a nuclear attack on Russia. The US President later learns that there may bigger repercussions if the bombs manage to detonate.

 

 

 

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Dir: Stanley Kubrick

Cast: Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onfrio.

 

Story : A pragmatic U.S. Marine observes the dehumanizing effects the Vietnam War has on his fellow Marine recruits from their brutal boot camp training to the bloody street fighting set in 1968 in Hue, Vietnam.

 

 

 

The Insider (1999)

Dir: Michael Mann

Cast: Russel Crowe, Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer.

 

Story : A research chemist comes under personal and professional attack when he decides to appear in a "60 Minutes" to blow the whistle on his parent Tobacco company.

 

 

 

Get Out (2017)

Dir: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Catherine Keener

 

Story : A man is invited by his girlfriend to spend a few days with her parents, where things get weirder by the minute. 

 

 

 

TRAFFIC (2000)

Dir: Stephen Sodherberg

Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Don Cheadle, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dennis Quaid.

 

Story : A conservative judge is appointed by the President to spearhead America's escalating war against drugs, only to discover that his teenage daughter is a crack addict. Two DEA agents protect an informant. A jailed drug baron's wife attempts to carry on the family business.

 

 

 

Moonlight (2016)

Dir: Barry Jenkins

Cast: Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali

 

Story : A coming of age drama that tells the story of a young african american boy from his upbringing to teen years and finally into adulthood.

 

 

 

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Dir: Ari Folman

Cast: Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag.

 

Story : An Israeli film-maker conducts a series of interviews in a bid to remember certain events during his military stint in Lebanon.

 

 

 

Millennium Actress (2001)

Dir: Satoshi Kon

Cast: Miyoko Shoji, Mami Koyama, Fumiko Orikasa.

 

Story : A TV interviewer and his cameraman meet a former actress and travel through her memories and career.

 

 

 

Paprika (2006)

Dir: Satoshi Kon

Cast: Megumi Hayashibara, Tôru Emori, Katsunosuke Hori.

 

Story : When a machine that allows therapists to enter their patients' dreams is stolen, only a young female therapist, Paprika, can stop it. .

 

 

 

Good Will Hunting (1997)

Dir: Gus Van Sant

Cast: Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Robin Williams, Stellan Skaarsgard, Minnie Driver.

 

Story : Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics, but wastes his time with his friends making trouble around the neighborhood. He is taken in by a mathematics professor who introduces him to a psychiatrist who may be able to turn his life around.

 

 

 

Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Dir: Darren Arronofsky

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Marlon Wayans.

 

Story : A look at the lives of four New Yorkers who self-destruct after being hooked on to drugs. Told in a slick and stylish manner, this clearly one of the better movies to come out of Hollywood in years.

 

 

 

12 Angry Men (1957)

Dir: Sidney Lumet

Cast: Henry Fonda, Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb.

 

Story : Twelve jurors sit down to decide the fate of a murder trial.

 

 

 

Maps to the Stars (2014)

Dir: David Cronenberg

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson.

 

Story : A look at the sordid and eccentric lives of Hollywood elite as seen through the eyes of an ageing actress and her disfigured secretary.

 

 

 

The Hurt Locker (2008)

Dir: Kathryn Bigelow

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty.

 

Story : During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.

 

 

 

BABEL (2006)

Dir: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rinko Kikuchi, Koji Yakusho, Adriana Barraza, Brad Pitt, Gael Garcia Bernal, Elle Fanning.

 

Story : An american couple vacationing in Morocco get involved in an accident which triggers events halfway around the world.

 

 

 

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Dir: Quentin Tarantino

Cast: John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Tim Roth, Harvey Kietel, Bruce Willis.

 

Story :The lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.

 

 

 

Adaptation (2002)

Dir: Spike Jonze

Cast: Nicholas Cage, Chris Cooper, Meryl Streep.

 

Story : A love-lorn script writer grows increasingly desperate in his quest to adapt the book 'The Orchid Thief'.

 

 

 

Ghost World (2001)

Dir: Terry Zwigoff

Cast: Thora Birch, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Buscemi.

 

Story : Two bored teenagers decide to play a prank on a middle-aged man.

 

 

 

You Can Count on Me (2000)

Dir: Kenneth Lonergan

Cast: Laura Linney, Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo.

 

Story : A single mother's life is thrown into turmoil after her struggling, rarely-seen younger brother returns to town.

 

 

 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Dir: Michel Gondry

Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson.

 

Story : A couple undergo a therapeutic procedure to erase each other's memories from their brains.

 

 

 

Black Friday (2004)

Dir: Anurag Kashyap

Cast: Pawan Malhotra, Kaykay Menon, Aditya Srivastava.

 

Story : A fascinating look at the 1993 serial bomb blasts in Mumbai and its aftermath.

 

 

 

 

 

Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977)

Dir: Satyajit Ray

Cast: Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Richard Attenborough, Amjad Khan, Tom Alter, Victor Banerjee.

 

Story : A semi-fictional story of the British takeover of Awadh. Stellar performance by Amjad Khan who plays the effeminate king Wajid Ali Shah with grace and panache all too rare in Indian cinema.

 

 

 

Nayak (1966)

Dir: Satyajit Ray

Cast: Uttam Kumar, Sharmila Tagore.

 

Story : A popular actor opens up about his life and career to a journalist while on a train journey.  

 

 

 

Joi Baba Felunath (1979)

Dir: Satyajit Ray

Cast: Soumitra Chatterjee, Utpal Dutt, Santosh Dutta

 

Story :  A very valuable Elephant God statue goes missing, and detective Prodosh Mitra is called upon investigate.   

 

 

 

Shabdo (2012)

Dir: Kaushik Ganguly

Cast: Ritwick Chakraborty, Raima Sen, Churni Ganguly


Story : A professional sound recording artist's  obsession for creating sound effects for films makes him oblivious to all the natural sounds around him.

 

 

 



Nagar Kirtan (2017)

Dir: Kaushik Ganguly

Cast: Ritwick Chakraborty, Riddhi Sen


Story : A flautist falls in love with a transgender girl in an increasingly conservative society.

 

 

 



Some Pictures during past trips

TRIP TO WOLLONGONG


This was ACISP in 2014. My last conference while at ISI. I was with Nilanjan.

TRIP TO WOLLONGONG


Near the University hall at University of Wollongong.

TRIP TO HVEN


First trip to Hven with my colleagues at DTU. They have the Tycho Brahe observatory there.

TRIP TO HVEN


Another picture of Hven.

SNOW IN COPENHAGEN


My first experience of snow: Christmas day 2014. This is the picture of the garden just outside my room.

RAINBOW IN COPENHAGEN


Rainbow just outside my office room in DTU Lyngby.

AUCKLAND


Trip to Auckland during Asiacrypt 2015. This showcase featuring four gnomes somehow caught my attention.

AUCKLAND


Another picture of the harbour in Auckland.

DUCKPARK in SACKVILLE


The duck park in Sackville. Visited during SAC 2015 (August)

Harbour in Shediac



Picture of the harbour in front of Captain Dan’s Seafood Patio Bar, 50 Pointe Du Chêne Road, Shediac. Just before the SAC banquet.

TRIP TO BOCHUM


A monastery near Ruhr University in Bochum. During FSE 2016.

Zeche Zollverein


An underground mine, museum and casino where we had the FSE 2016 banquet.

TRIP TO BALI

Pictures from the bali trip with Pandeyji and Suchismita (2016).

NAGOYA

Some pictures from Nagoya (ASK 2016). Took these from the train to the airport.

Puja in Singapore

Durga puja (2016) in Singapore (Jurong East and Boonkeng)

Olympic Museum Lausanne

a) Paavo Nurmi's statue  b) Olympic rings

Malta Trip

Temple of Hagar Qim  

Night of Museums


a) Textile Territories, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Cantonale Museum of fine arts, Lausanne
b) Swiss Luxury, Emilienne Farmy, Pully Museum of fine arts


a) Les Pecheurs, Léopold Robert
b) Spring Harvesters, Léopold Robert


Bogota trip

a) Death of Escobar, National Museum of Colombia, Bogota
b) Catedral Primada de Colombia, Bogota 


Rabat

Mausoleum of Mohammed V



Beijing

a) At the Great Wall of China (b) at Tiananmen Square