About Me

A rather personal side:

I am constantly fascinated by the universe and our own ability to probe it. But then, who isn't? Evolution, for me, is a basic principle of life. All our experiences ultimately make us see what matters most to us and then evolve to accommodate it in meaningful ways in our lives down the road. We evolve to identify what, in the small blip that is a lifetime, is the most fulfilling. A curious kid who found massive amounts of dopamine in solving math problems and different means of expression like writing and art, I was motivated towards many things at once during my sophomore year in college.

Since then, almost by necessity, I have had to prioritise and zero in on something that assigns the most meaning to my life, subjectively. In the past 5 years, I have heard death breathe in my ear twice—once a terrible case of jaundice, which seemed impossible to beat, with both my parents not matching my body for a liver transplant and the other a peculiar-seeming fever that wouldn't go away and got my O2 levels down to 70 (we now call it COVID XD). I didn't see my life flash in front of me in any of the moments the doctors said I might slip into a coma in. I saw that while trying to fill in the shoes of the president of a social service club, the core team member of an entrepreneurship club, the subsystem engineer of a student satellite club, and an attendee of all astrophysics seminars happening within a 40 mile radius, I had neglected a resource that was indispensable—my health.

In the years that followed, one domino after another fell. I lost my grandparents, the ability to walk without support (two ligament tears and bone damage), and was forced to take 42 exams with jaundice in order to not delay my graduation. In what felt like the most extenuating circumstances, I wanted something to fulfil me—something that would help me keep going. Astrophysics, offered as an elective during my 3rd year in college, became my something. The sheer beauty of the math that leads to explanations of astrophysical phenomena, the intricacies of analysis required to reach a conclusion, and the fact that we live in arguably one of the best times to look at the universe's mysteries—everything fueled me. Most of my tumultuous past was left behind as I attended more seminars, researched independently, and volunteered for projects like LIGO. My ligament tears and the pain associated with them stayed around for 3 years (2019–2022) and not once after have I felt powerless after I decided to focus purely on astrophysical research and let the desire to answer questions like "What is our place in this universe?" drive me. I finished my Bachelor's and Master's very happily, constantly finding strength in the open questions astrophysics introduced. All of the sides that my Master's alone has brought out in me make me certain that I resonate with not only the subject, but also the people who work on it. I have evolved in ways a 10-year me couldn't have fathomed-from learning proper and effective communication to learning optimal and correct ways of finding methods to solve problems, from developing healthy work routines to assigning value to my health and taking care of it.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my journey and the fulfilment the place I am at right now gives me. I only wish to move further, contribute to the subject that brings out the best in me and be a part of the progress that the amazing community in exoplanetary astrophysics will make in the coming years.

In a world often full of chaos, it feels amazing to have found questions that attach so much meaning to our existence.