Not just a man’s world

“There are only three girls pursuing a PhD in my department, including me. The sex ratio has always been skewed since my undergraduate days. With time I am finally getting used to it. But I have never really understood why there are so few women in Mathematics, not just in India but all over the world.

I was initially interested in physics but mathematics has a straight forward nature that attracted me a lot. I love the clarity and simplicity of pure maths so much that I feel a sense of peace, even at times when I am stuck on a problem for several days. I did my BSc at Jadavpur University whose campus I absolutely adored. In my master’s program at IITK, I got in touch with some extraordinary teachers who contributed a lot to keep my mathematical interest alive.

For some reason, I always had the mind to pursue a career in research and never had any other plan. The first year at TIFR was one of the most stressful ones in my career, maybe because I had never been exposed to mathematics under so much pressure. There was a constant headache of learning difficult things fast. But once I settled in, things got better. I started enjoying my life as a graduate student. My PhD supervisor is extremely supportive and has always given me the freedom required to explore projects on my own.