Beyond Research

My parents once bought me a vocabulary builder during my school days. I don’t remember much from it, except for the word gregarious, which stayed with me—it felt like it described who I was. On most Sunday mornings, it is the adventures planned by friends that get me out of my house. Thanks to them, I have been on several hiking trips and recently tried a couple of adventure sports (under supervision). I like to joke that I’m helping them tick off their bucket lists — really, it’s just me being up for anything new.

I have always had a deep appreciation for sports. Table tennis, first introduced to me by my father on our dining table, has been my preferred sport over the years. As fate would have it, it eventually became the go-to game among my colleagues at IISER Bhopal as well. Besides table tennis, I enjoy playing badminton and cricket, and have even tried my hand (or, rather, my legs) at football. After a memorable 1–16 defeat in one of our early matches, my iPhD teammates playfully termed it “a brief stint”.

In my free time, I’m usually humming tunes (with or without my guitar) or listening to music. My taste spans a wide range—from Indian classical to rap—and I’ve gone through phases of immersing myself in the works of Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Queen, and Linkin Park. In recent years, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for Ghazals and Qawwalis, with Jagjit Singh, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, and Ghulam Ali often on my playlist. 

Apart from this, I watch anime and read manga, and have been a self-proclaimed ambassador of the series Attack on Titan ever since its conclusion. I also enjoy playing strategy and team games, especially Defense of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2); however, I've had to scale back the time I spend on it due to the schedule becoming busier.