Private struggles, public victories

“Working as a PhD scholar in a private university seems to be an ill-advised choice at first sight. I would be lying if I said we have all the resources that we need in comparison to what I hear from some of my peers in IITs. It however does not bog me down. I personally believe that putting in the required hours and persevering can inevitably render our research on par with that being conducted in the best institutes of the country.

My journey has been nothing short of a roller-coaster ride. I joined PhD with a DST-SERB fellowship at Banasthali Vidyapith, Rajasthan. However, with the onset of the pandemic last year, we stopped receiving. funding and have been managing with the fellowship we get from the university ever since. The amount is much lower than what the DST provided.

I had to move from the staff hostel to a student hostel to cut down expenses. The work also has invariably suffered since we are managing the project with the funds that were already sanctioned. The pandemic, to top it all, stalled our work for over ten months. I couldn’t even go home during this time and invested my energy in bridging the gap in my knowledge of the basic concepts needed for my doctoral work. It is significantly. different from what I did during my Master’s. I had worked on VLSI design during my postgraduate studies and did. my dissertation at CSIR-CEERI, Pilani…