To be or not to be

“Although my first preference was medical sciences, I also liked the perception of an academic career where a PhD is a must. When I was shortlisting institutes for pursuing my PhD after my Master’s, I had also connected with one of the faculty members of JSS College of Pharmacy prior to the entrance tests, who was quite positive about accepting me as his student. He eventually became my supervisor when I enrolled myself in the institute in 2017. Initially, I had problems adjusting to the campus life which had people from all over the country but as time went on, I figured everyone was friendly and approachable. I was also lucky to have my close friend as my roommate.

My PhD focused on chiral separation of antihistamine drugs. My supervisor made sure that procurement of the drugs required for my study wasn’t a problem. But some of the columns needed for HPLC were quite expensive; thankfully, the college purchased those columns which allowed me to carry out my experiments hassle-free. It also took me some time to get used to new types of instruments and learn new things which didn’t completely align with what I had studied during my Master’s. I recall a funny incident when we had to go to Bangalore to get rabbits for testing. The rabbits started jumping out of their boxes but the conductor managed to get them back safely!