VigNaattru

A common question that most people- friends, family and acquaintances - shoot at PhD students is   “ How long would you keep studying?” How one responds back depends on how quick-witted and thick-skinned one is. One could reply “ Well, technically I am not studying- I am a scholar and I just do research which is no way different from a regular job” . Of course, one would be laughing within   oneself, though keeping a straight face, while saying this! Else, one could earn some bits of sympathy by lamenting back how PhD seems to be an endless journey, how you uncertain or clueless he/she is as to when it will, eventually, end. Worse, one might even confess that you are more uncertain on the job prospects once it ends, than about getting PhD itself! A PhD looks tantalizingly promising for many aspirants- at least for the fact that they would get a cool new prefix to their names and get public rights to brag their (presumed) expertise in their field. Other way aroun...

            A common question which bogs the mind of kids (and grown-ups) wanting to pursue a research career is - Am I capable of doing research? Answer to this rests on two other questions- 1) What do we mean by research? 2) What do we mean by success in research? Research, to most of us, means developing a path-breaking idea that can stun the world and be remembered for posterity.  For us to be impressed, it must be an other-worldy idea- a rocket launch to the moon or a new theory to explain the origin of the universe. We think that researchers, like leaders, are only born and not made. How else could you explain the genius of Einstein or an Edison? Can such a great feat be accomplished by mortals like us who hardly know anything beyond our books? How could one conceive new idea and tackle such complex intangible problems as, say, the motion of electrons and planets.  Also, when so many stalwarts hav...