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“My interest in the field of architecture traces back to my childhood days where I was mostly surrounded by real estate professionals. After I did my Bachelor’s in the same, I felt the prospects of getting a job were quite bleak with just a Bachelor’s degree. Therefore, I decided to study further and pursue a Master’s in real estate and urban infrastructure. It made me realize I was not cut out for a typical 9–5 job. So, as an alternative, I started teaching in Amity School of Architecture and Planning in UP. Three years later, I also launched my own design company with the brand VIRAGO, a luxury label for women.

However, despite it all, I felt I couldn’t completely shut my doors to academia and eventually enrolled myself for a PhD. I started my journey right during the pandemic. It wasn’t an easy start, but I don’t think I would have come this far without the support of my mother who took the complete responsibility of Virago, and my faculty at ISBR, where I joined for my PhD.

Initially, I had a hard time narrowing down on a single PhD topic to work on. Since I knew about retailing and luxury branding, I thought something around that area would be a good research idea but I was gravely mistaken. Within a short period of time, I lost interest in the topic. To add to it, I couldn’t tell this to my supervisor because he was very invested in it. Dragging something out of sheer compulsion…