Love thy failures

“The aim of a PhD is to be creative in your problem-solving ability. Like all PhD aspirants, I started thinking about research during my Bachelor’s in Presidency University, Kolkata. My graduation days were the most fun part of my life that inspired me to be the person I am today.

Post Bachelor’s, when I got a call from TIFR, the “small-town boy” in me automatically was drawn to the “City of Dreams” and I ended up going there for my Master’s program. I had a rough start at the beginning of my career. The laboratory where I had initially joined shut down due to some unavoidable circumstances and by the end of my second year I found myself to be without any laboratory. I was uncertain whether I would be able to finish my Master’s. In my effort to seek out options, I applied to a couple of universities both in the country and abroad to continue into graduate schools.

However, my current supervisor, who was a senior member in TIFR, agreed to take me as a graduate student where I finished my Master’s and currently working as a PhD student. Although my first two years in the institute as well as during the start of my journey did not yield favourable results, in retrospect, this helped me develop a new appreciation for the amount of hard work and labor that is involved in science and setting up a laboratory.