For a typical middle-class urban Bengali child, along with studies one must have one or more serious hobbies. This can be singing Rabindra-sangeet, classical dances to reciting poems and playing cricket (after the success of Sourav Ganguly). These hobbies are meant to instil an artistic behaviour in young children so that they can grow up to be a complete ‘Bhadrolok/Bhadromahila’ (a.k.a gentleman or a lady) donning many hats. Wait! Don’t stop reading the article! I promise this is not about just the Bengalis. As a Bengali myself this was no exception. Every Sunday I would go to learn Kathhak (yes your hobby must have a formal training) from a master. I won’t deny that I enjoyed dancing, but those ‘lessons’ took away the fun, and the routine made it unexciting. Soon enough it became an added ‘class’ in the long list of what was in my syllabi. As I grew up, the board and the entrance exams took centre stage and as with a lot of Bengali teens like me, life was too hectic to accommodate dancing (I was never the multi-tasker!).
I continued to stay away from dancing while I was pursuing Science for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees. As I entered the intense life of Ph. D student at the Indian Institute of Science, someone or something deep inside me started longing to dance. This time around I wanted to take formal lessons that which my younger self rebelled against. It is was probably an escape route possibly due to the existential crisis every Ph.D student goes through, especially in the final years. However, I managed not to give in to the temptation with the excuse of lack of time coming handy every time. Thinking back I have to say, there were many braver and more able souls around me who were connecting to their inner longing and doing science at the same time. This, alas, was not me.
Finally, the arduous journey of Ph.D came to an end with a little title added to my name, and I found myself in the exotic city of London. This time as a post doctoral research associate (PDRA) in Imperial College, a job much like Ph.D, it demanded a lot out of you giving the minimum in return (the gain is proportional to how optimistic you are). This however, more alarmingly, left me staring at my future life with a minimum clarity and little conviction. New workplace (lab), new boss with newer training (may I say, torture) techniques, new set of people (mostly lab mates) to build your social circle from scratch in a fast and fabulous but ruthless city. I was once again the awkward teenager who was trying to fit in. Then I discovered Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, a place in London where one can learn Indian classical music and dance. It offered lessons in Oddisi -the ancient dance form from Odisha (I was mesmerised by Oddisi when I watched the breath taking performance at Nrityagram in Bangalore). I did not let my practical self argue against it; instead I enrolled in the class on an impulse. It may sound exaggerated, but the dance lessons worked like magic. It was one of the most gratifying experiences of my life. In retrospect, I can see the dance was having a clear effect on my work. Suddenly, I was this calm person who started enjoying the experiments more than ever. I found myself discreetly practicing a footstep standing in front of the centrifuge as I was pelleting culture sample at 10 pm or suddenly realising the position of ‘Tribhangi’ is easier if I bend more because my centre of gravity comes closer to the ground making the posture more stable! It has been a year and half now since I re-started dancing. Almost 2 years into my PDRA, I am glad to say that I am enjoying both research and dance. These two are in perfect harmony making me a better Bhadromahila after all.
The other day, while the membrane for the western blot was in the blocking step, I sneaked out of the lab to perform a little dance piece in Victoria and Albert Museum Diwali celebrations. As I was drawing perfect geometric patterns on my Oddisi dance steps, my agnostic soul thanked God for the flawless performance. At the same breath, I also quickly prayed the blot look perfect to prove my hypothesis.
About the author: The author, Paramita Sarkar, is a Ph.D. from Indian Institute of Science, currently working as a Research Associate at Imperial College, London. Her research interest delves into the exciting world of host pathogen interaction using E.coli– bacteriophages as a model system. She is also a first year diploma student of Odissi at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, London.
Edited by: Sitharam Ramaswami (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sitharam-ramaswami-ram-a0ab0660)
This work by ClubSciWri is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
