May your grades not defer your dreams!

May your grades not defer your dreams!

ANANDHU

Illustration by Anulya P

Hey, my younger self!

Maybe it is for the first time that I’m talking to myself about how I ended up doing science – What fascinated me? What and who were the inspirations? What still drives me?

There was a time when I wandered freely without knowing what I'd become in the future or even didn’t dare to care. Science is my recent companion; before that, geography, history, and math were close to my heart. I used to say to friends, “You could do nothing with science, but if you understand mathematics, you can freely run a shop or find a job. If you know geography, you can freely roam around the world, explore the world”. But it was only a matter of time until I understood that if we do not stick to it purely because we said it, our dreams and passion can change. My ninth and tenth-grade science teacher changed how I thought about the science subject. It was not like primary and middle-grade science; there were formulas involved, and there were interesting stories behind the discoveries; something totally unexpected!

Photo by JESHOOTS.com on Pexels

Photos by Fayette Reynolds M.S. and Lidija Ostojić

She also paved my way to witness the fascinating stuff, as I would say, when I got the chance to visit the life sciences lab in JNU in my tenth grade. While I could understand a few things as I loved reading, a lot of them were beyond the reach of my understanding. Well, what would a tenth-grade student understand by just seeing things in front of him? Parasites under the microscope, breeding plants, protein crystals….. and make decisions on whether to pursue biology research as a career based on that?

After I completed my tenth-grade, I reached a crucial point in my life: to choose from a set of streams to continue my study. I knew I still loved math, but which stream? Commerce or science? Soon, I realized it would be my tenth-grade marks that would decide my life. I got into commerce. There was accountancy, economics, and political science (which I first hated and slowly started to love over the course of a month), but no mathematics. As I tried to adjust to the entirely new stream of study, I didn’t stop interacting with my fellow friends who learned science.

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I realized that a majority of people who pursued science did so not because they wanted to become doctors and engineers. It was also the time I decided my grades should not dictate my passion."

I started to search for schools where there’s a vacancy in the science stream. Fortunately, I was able to find one.

In my new school, I began to enjoy my classes in science and math. Being close to nature since childhood, I had the habit of walking around outdoors either in the evening or after lunch in the weekends, when I would often take on the role of a nature’s detective, examining the natural world around me. An unexpected encounter occurred on one such evening: it was an insect that looked exactly like an ant, which intrigued me. I was fascinated by how it seemed to mask its real identity. I could feel a scientist ‘brewing’ within me, I couldn’t turn away from that mystery. After days of observation, I figured out that it was a spider pretending to be an ant. But why? Why would a spider pretend to be an ant, instead of a spider? To me, a spider seemed more fierce than an ant– so why would it want to pass itself off as an ant? Perhaps, staying and living near the ant colony and masquerading as an ant will benefit it in some way? Well, I don't know the answer. But isn’t it funny? And doesn’t it make us wonder at how nature works?? Mysteries are everywhere... and solutions lie hidden, the right questions and methods can help you reach the most beautiful and appropriate answers…and that is what biology research is about!!!

Ant

Spider

Illustrations by Adelaide Tyrol

Illustration by Anulya P

What truly matters in any journey, whether it is one in science or not. It is the ignition within you… the curiosity and the passion…. As you learn, you’ll understand how far you have traveled, which is way less than the distance ahead to be covered. Patience and humility are key to reaching the destination.

You will enjoy this journey more than ever.

Stay healthy!

Anandhu

Some resources on the ant-mimicking spider

About Anandhu

Anandhu is a PhD scholar at Ashoka University, where he explores the relationships between post-translational modifications and the function of GPCRs, a crucial type of cell receptor. Beyond his academic pursuits, Anandhu is passionate about education and volunteers his time to support students in need. When he's not in the lab, you can find him lacing up his running shoes or walking through the campus.

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