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IntenCity interviews the young mathematician, Abhishek Saha, who is one of the 6 students representing India in the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) 2000 to be held in Seoul, Korea, next month. Abhishek is presently studying in standard XII of DBPC.

Q: What is the selection procedure like ?

A: In India selection is through several stages. After regional and national olympiads, the students (for Abhishek the number was 47) are called to a camp in Mumbai, where the final selection takes place.

Q: You were selected to represent India last year also and you had bagged a bronze medal then. Any chance of doing better this year ?

A: Perhaps this time I have improved overall.  I hope to improve on my last year's performance and even  get a gold or silver medal.

Q: Now tell me something about yourself. When did Maths actually start becoming interesting ?

A: I had always found Maths to be a likeable and scoring subject. But it was only from class VII onwards that it really became interesting.

Q: Don't you think IMO will, to some extent, hamper your preparations for the IIT-JEE ?

A: To some extent, perhaps. And in any case I wish to be a mathematician, not an engineer !

Q: NOT an engineer ??

A: Well, I would like to go for research in Maths. However, I guess, along with research, I would also have to do some teaching (as a professor).

Q: What would be your message to people who DON'T love Maths ?

A: Maths is not about learning formulae and procedures. It's rather about logic, puzzles, problems and their solutions! And the theory you learn is not dry and boring - it is only made to appear so ! Try to look at Maths the way you'd look at a riddle and you won't hate it any more.