Art of thinking

“PhD was like therapy for me.

I initially took the conventional route of pursuing engineering where I came to know about the several opportunities that I could avail for doing a PhD. During my Master’s at IIT Delhi I realized what I learnt during my Bachelors was very superficial and I really enjoyed the way faculties at IITD explained to us concepts at a fundamental level. This in turn inspired me to delve deeper into the subject.

It was probably my desire to learn the art of thinking that pushed me further towards a PhD. Although I had. international offers, the moment I got accepted to IISc, I decided to stay back. I had loved the campus during my brief visit there and was already in talks with one of the professors from the Department of Electronic Systems and Engineering. Not to mention, it was closer to home too.

After the first lecture of my PhD coursework, I felt I had just re-lived my Standard XII. I was mesmerized by the way professors explained the most advanced concepts with utmost simplicity. My advisor, who was an engineer like me, also had the gift of teaching complex scientific phenomena even to primary school kids in the simplest way possible.

My first interaction with him happened over tea where he asked me if I knew about ferrofluids. I had a background in instrumentation and at that point, I had no idea what he was…