I grew up in Mumbai, a bustling metropolis of 15 million people,
and enjoyed it thoroughly. I played cricket in parking lots, earned accolades for both academic and extra-curricular
activities, and finally left the city in 1998 and have only returned to it sporadically ever since. After spending
two very formative years in Rishi Valley (a residential school), I went
to Chennai for my undergraduate studies. I spent 5 years there,
slowly discovering how much I liked to learn Math, and finished with a Masters in Mathematics from
IIT Madras (receiving a medal for the highest GPA of my graduating class). I
then went to Purdue for my PhD. This was the first time I had lived outside
my country and I learnt a great deal both about myself and about the world around me in that time.
I have now moved back to India, and joined IISER Bhopal. I am also happily
married, have a young child, and am trying hard to balance work with my personal life. I teach, I learn, and I do mathematics at every chance
that I get. I am also very invested in what the IISERs are trying to achieve, and I put in a great deal of effort to
improve the systems we have here at IISER-B.
Outside of Mathematics and Teaching, my interests include
Board and Card Games
I grew up playing card games like Twenty-Eight, Judgement, and its variants,
and a variety of board games like Clue, Scotland Yard and many others. Nowadays, I am largely restricted to playing
three games: Settlers of Catan, Dominion, and Magic: The Gathering.
Cricket
I follow cricket with a passion. I used to play the game for many years, but time constraints have ensured that I must only
follow the game at a distance now. The way the Indian cricket team plays on a given day is often reflected in my mood, and I
spend way too much time debating inane aspects of the game with my friends.
History
I am trying to learn some History/Archaeology from the books of Stephen Shennan, David Anthony, David Reich and others. I am also interested in Paleontology (thanks to Thomas Halliday, Stephen Brusatte, etc) and Language evolution (thanks to Nicholas Ostler, Peggy Mohan and Guy Deutscher). I have recently started using Goodreads to track my learning.
Music
I listen to music voraciously, and I am always interested in finding new artists and sounds. My default jam is bad '80s pop, although I am currently listening to
Cinder Well (Cadence), The Arcs (Electrophonic Chronic) and Tinariwen (Amatssou).