It does take a global village

Whether to raise a child orto do a Ph.D. in this gobal community it indeed take the support of global village! I finally got my Ph.D. defended on October second and it would havebeen impossible to do it without the support from my global freinds and family. TO think of it... 20 or so years agao when I was doing my undergraduate, my world was limited to the physical and geographical boundaries of city of Calcutta and the subarbs. My sister and I used to make this adventurus trip to parts of the city that We never had gone before and found joy in those little trips. We discovered American Center and British Council and lots of the book stores as well as the coffee house in the college street of Calcutta. We also used to go to see movies without telling our parents. If our parents would find out about that, they would get mad at us - we were only suppose to study and not go watch movies during the precious time. Then came a big break for me - I went to Gopalpur, Orissa for a field trip with the college Zoology class. I rediscovered that I really like Biology and especially field Biology. I realized I have to do extremely well to get into M.Sc. program to pursue any kind of research in marine biology or Fisheries. Then came oppertunity to visit South Bihar and moist deciduous forests fo south Bihar. The forests that were described in Aranyak by Bibhuti Bhushan Bandopadhay. Thanks ot my Professor of the RBC college - Pankaj Manna. I did do well In the last year of B.Sc. but not good enough. I was trying to decide whether I should do my M.Sc. in Calcutta Univerisity where I was in the waiting list or do it in Kalyani University or go or complete different M.Sc. program. Then came the oppertunity to go out of West Bengal for a Masters in Wildlife Biology. A lot of resistance from home and uncertainty about the future, especially jobs - I plunged into it and decided to go for the Masters. This meant moving away from home 1500 km away in Dehradun at the Wildlife Institute of India... the rest is history...