Beyond the lab bench
This page brings together my life outside the lab. I consider myself fairly outdoorsy and extroverted, and I enjoy trying new things – sometimes a little too many of them. I tend to get bored easily, but I like to believe it’s curiosity that keeps pulling me toward new experiences. I want this space to serve as a living memory – an image and experience-driven journal of moments with nature, people, and stories worth revisiting from time to time, along with a poorly drawn phylogenetic tree tracing the evolution of my interests.
Most importantly, I’m building this page so I can choose to spend more time documenting my own story. Whether this gradually pulls me away from doomscrolling remains to be seen – but for now, it feels like a step in the right direction.
Travel
I realized early on that I enjoyed traveling. I got a small taste of the travel thrill locally during high school, when I was in a boarding military school, and as a team, we traveled to different states in India for football (soccer) competitions. Around the same time, my family took a trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. I don’t remember much from that visit, but I do remember having an incredible time and that, if I really want to explore the planet, I need to learn how to swim, since 70% of Earth is water.
In many ways, I’ve wanted to explore the world for a long time. As an undergraduate living on a tight budget, travel wasn’t really an option. It was only after becoming more financially independent during graduate school that I finally started to travel more intentionally. So, here are some of the cities I’ve visited recently and had an absolute blast in:
This was my first solo international trip (aside from moving to the U.S. for my studies), and I was honestly scared. The very next day after I booked my ticket, Jamaica was hit by a Category 5 hurricane (the country is still recovering from its impact), and so I wasn’t sure if I should go.
But boy, I was so stupid. The people were unbelievably warm and welcoming. Some of the kindest I’ve ever met. And the beaches, just unreal. The water felt like an elixir. Here’s the travel video from this trip …
After moving across the country in the middle of my graduate school, Chicago is now the closest big city to me, and I love it. I have a feeling I’m going to end up here almost every month.
Also, somewhere along the way, I realized that the best way for me to document my travels is through short videos (I shouldn’t call them short) – mostly because of the sheer number of photos I take, the stories I collect, and the people I meet. Slightly against my original plan, I’ve ended up uploading many of them to Instagram at least for now. Link here …
The California beaches really are exactly how they look in the movies – effortlessly picture-perfect, every single day. I’m not even sure this qualifies as a proper trip, given that my turnaround time was just two days. But I took a few pictures and lots of memories, so I guess it does count.
From swimming in the ocean for the first time to having what felt like a fairytale research experience, this summer and this city have my heart. I can’t fully explain it, but this trip to Boston has left a quiet, profound mark on every cell of me. And I surely would be back.
Not much to say, really. I think I like the hush-rush-buzz of a city like this, despite the occasional unavoidable smell of pee.
I visited a broke friend (graduate student) who is probably going to be super rich, super soon (CS grad). This is back when he used to be in his prime mixology days.
Budget was never really an issue on this one; I was the youngest, after all. One of the most memorable moments from the trip was the state we (mostly me) left the outdoor tent in on the day of departure.
I only get to see my cousins about once a year now, but we make it a point to plan something a little crazy every time we meet. 2024-25 was one of them, getting married. I’m already looking forward to whatever 2026 has in store.
People I share this planet with
Anyone who has talked to me would probably call me extroverted. I love meeting people, learning from them, and picking up new perspectives on what matters to them and to me. I think I’m simply happiest when I’m around people.
This section is for some of the people (me to remind me about some of the people) I’ve met along the way- some briefly, and some for much longer than I would have liked (just kidding). Each one of you has had such a positive impact on me, and I am grateful. For the people who might not be here, sorry that my phone forgot you, but trust me, you and your ideas are very much alive in my hippocampus. Please embrace yourself and keep killing it out there, everyone.
New experiences
Here are a few new things I’ve done recently that I’m genuinely proud of. I believe in lifelong learning and lifelong fun, too (I guess most of us do). This isn’t an exhaustive list, but rather a collection of firsts I want to be able to look back on, perhaps when my athleticism fades a little with age, or when I need to gather the courage to try the next one. New experiences bring new perspectives and sometimes new bones (delta increase in bond count).
I do love my bones, please believe me.
I went ice skating for the first time when I was in Nashville. I was nervous enough to already have a solid contingency plan for the lab in case I broke a bone (which mostly involved not coming in). It felt completely counterintuitive at first, and I fell a lot. But pretty soon, I started to figure out how to fall properly (or at least, I think I did), and this gave me the courage to actually explore the rink, probably causing chaos for others.
I really enjoy ice skating. My ideal version would be with some nice music in my headphones, quietly gliding over the thin layer of water that forms at the blade–ice interface (due to the high pressure of my weight, lowering the freezing point of water), and not worrying about anything at all. It feels like one of the best ways to disconnect from the world for a little while.
“What is the most expensive thing you own?” they asked.
I’m not a hardcore gamer, although I do enjoy spending some time on e-sports (my mom would strongly disagree with the word some). I’m also not a tech or CS nerd, so I didn’t really have the expertise to build a gaming PC myself.
But the younger version of me would have had sparkling eyes at the thought of owning one. So when I got my first annual tax return, I spent all of it on this, back then, the newest Alienware Aurora gaming setup. And honestly? I love it.
I mostly play Dota2, FIFA, Rainbow Six Siege, and It Takes Two these days.
First Black Friday sale in the USA (2023)
I like to think (and would really like to believe) that I’m a minimalist – but some things just don’t add up. One of them is how much I enjoy shopping.
So when I became friends with a group of similarly eccentric people, who also enjoy enthusiastically burning through their very modest graduate-student stipends, we went all in on my first Black Friday sales in the U.S. and spent it almost entirely on clothes.
And though the three bags on the left look deceptively empty, they really do have a lot of clothes in them. I’m just a very efficient packer!
First Halloween in the USA, 2023
I had seen plenty of Halloween movies and knew how big (and fun) Halloween nights are in the U.S. So when Grace decided to host a batch-wide, pun-themed Halloween party, I was not stepping down.
I sacrificed my perfect white T-shirt, armed myself with tape, glue, (plastic) knives, some paints, which I have no idea how I made those in-house, and an unreasonable number of Froot Loops boxes to become a cereal killer. I lived on a sugar rush for an entire week thanks to all the leftover cereal – but it was absolutely worth it.
Learned swimming and competed as a swimmer
I learned swimming by myself when I was 21, at IISc (during my undergrad), in one of the summers, and I participated in a competition (not that competitive) in the very fall of the same year. I was far, far from fast or efficient, but my team carried me, and we got second place.
This will always stay in my memory, and it marks the start of my dream to learn surfing someday soon.
Sports
The 5 A.M. “fall in” commands from our seniors, and the relentless push toward sports and physical exercise at Sainik School Nagrota, might very well have altered the epigenome of some of my longest-lived cells (neurons?). I can’t help myself from playing, watching, and sledging in games, especially team sports.
I finally tried Frisbee – and loved it. Except somehow, I’ve ended up with the highest injury rate in this non-contact sport (mostly because I insist on racing Nick in-game, who does cardio every single day, and end up pulling a muscle or getting cramps).
Tennis has also been a blast. It is so much fun, and so much technique is involved. I can see myself playing a lot more in the coming years.
Not shown here (didn’t have visual data), I was also actively playing badminton.
One of my favorite memories is running a 5K with my dad. And taking part as the running leg in a team triathlon (yes, somehow that was a thing) and winning gold with the team.
I can’t believe I kept myself deprived of swimming for 20 years. But truly, I find going for a swim to be both the most peaceful, stress-relieving experience and the most intense workout I have done, probably because I’m still far from efficient.
I love swimming, whether it’s in a pool or in the ocean (at least until some seaweed tickles the back of my foot).
These representative images do absolutely no justice to the amount of fun I’ve had playing football over the years. The top-left picture, though, is a core memory for me. It’s from my first IISM (college-wide sports meet).
We qualified for the semi-final on a coin toss (thanks to the incessant rains in Bhubaneswar), and so I went on to win my first silver at IISc. I was also the youngest player on the roster, and even scored a goal in the final.
Reconnect with Nature & Photography
Media (consumption and production)
Coming up soon…
Moves and Style
Coming up soon…