Life as a doctoral student sucks. It doesn’t suck in the ordinary nobody loves me suckiness (does that word even exist?) level. No, it takes sucking (pardon my vulgar language) to a different level, a level where you are the lowest form of life in the world. I mean even bacteria have more fun. They are practically immortal. They have sex almost every 20 minutes. They can live on almost anything. And they have the coolest of names. Chlamydia. Nocardia. Vibrio. Contrast that with an average doctoral student. He is a mouse (although even a mouse would be offended to be compared to such a lowly being) like creature, most often with spectacles and irritating habits like trailing off in the middle of a sentence into vague silences. Their only sex appeal lies in their detailed knowledge about how two proteins fold exactly around each other. You get the picture.

Can a scientist ever be a great artist? Or what about the other way round? Can an artist ever be a great scientist?

Sometime back the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) held a meeting of major Indian scientists in Bangalore to discuss the feasibility and economics of sending an Indian astronaut into space and then later landing him/her on the moon. This gave rise to the usual arguments both in favor of and against such a venture. There were those who argued that India, with her many social and economic problems, should not waste money on something that has already been done before and will yield nothing new. That instead, the money should be used to help the poor and the downtrodden. In other words, India should not dare to dream that big and be constantly aware of her limits.

This is something I had written for one of my blogs a couple of years back when Nature had produced a special Outlook on the current state of science, and in particular life science research in India. I think it is still relevant today so I decided to make it my first post here with a few edits.