Hobbies

Beyond research, life is definitely outside the “mad scientist” stereotype.

I love dancing, and I am a trained classical Indian dancer in Manipuri—dance began at age 4 and never really stopped. Rooted in the Nāṭyaśāstra tradition, it’s part discipline, part joy: storytelling through movement, elegance, expression, and music. It is also a quiet act of rebellion—being fully scientific and fully artistic, without having to choose.

Travel is another passion for me—partly driven by history, partly curiosity and partly adventure. I love wandering museums and old streets, taking long train rides, getting happily lost in night markets, and listening for the stories hidden in everyday life. It is how I discover diversity up close—how cultures carry their histories, how people live, and how unexpected connections show up when you least expect them. Having lived across four continents and been to six, world for me is beyond the day-to-day constant stagnation.

Books were my constant companion growing up, and they remain so. I am an avid reader—Bengali and English classics, sci-fi, and narrative non-fiction—from Rabindranath Tagore to Jules Verne, Charles Dickens to the Brontë sisters, and from Daphne du Maurier and Agatha Christie to Satyajit Ray—stories that stay with you long after the last page.

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