“Writers are looking for a story. Using your own life as the basis for a story gives it an association with reality that's a wonderful starting point”. - Melvyn Bragg

It is just about my ambition

In this short essay I summarized the stepping stones of my carrier starting from my school days to my postdoctoral research program. My goal is to become a regular faculty in any central universities in India. So, I have discussed what is the current strategy and how much effort one should pay to achieve the goal. Currently I am working as a post-doctoral researcher in Division of Bioengineering, Incheon National University under the supervision of Dr. Kyobum Kim and looking for my destination in India. 

Beginning of life 

I was born in a small village “Peruveli” in Tamilnadu, India. Tamilnadu is a state located in south part of India, and the language “Tamil” is spoken by the people living there. Tamilnadu is well known for its ancient architecture. For example, Tamil emperor “Raja Raja Chozhan” built a famous Pragadeeshwarar temple in Tanjore, Tamilnadu. The Pragdeeswarar temple has many relationships with the famous “Ankor-Wat” temple in the Cambodia built by an emperor Suryavarman II. As a Tamilian, I was grown up in a middle-class family with Tamil religious concepts. During my school days, I used to play our traditional games namely “Kabadi”, “Go-Go”, Gilly, Pambaram and Cricket.

Chemistry became a part of my life

During my school days, I was an ordinary student and able to score “second-rank” in school level in 10th standard public examinations in the year 2001. I selected “chemistry” as a major subject in my bachelor and master’s degree courses. Chemistry is a beautiful branch of science which takes place in our everyday life. I was greatly inspired by “chemistry” when I read about the chemical reaction for preparing the soap when I was studying in 9th standard. So, I prepared soap in laboratory and it was the first chemical reaction I have done in my life. This is how my life focused towards the field of chemistry and I fixed in my mind that I would become a professor in chemistry. After completing my master program, I have joined as a research scholar under the supervision of Prof. S. Balasubramanian in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Madras. During my Ph.D. program, my brother Mr. M. Suresh helped me in all the way to overcome many struggles. After many struggles and happy moments in my Ph.D. program, I have successfully submitted my Ph.D. thesis to the University in the year 2015. I would point out the period of my Ph.D. thesis review process was the hardest time in my life. It took 18 months to complete the review process and because of the delay I missed many international post-doctoral fellowship opportunities. However, I spent those period as an Assistant Professor and enjoyed my role as an organizing secretary in a big event of “National Conference on Applied Spectroscopy” during 3rd & 4th March 2016 at Vels University.

Competition factors in India

India is well known for huge population by holding the record of Worlds second highest population (1.35 Billion) after China (1.42 Billion). The rate of growing of population in India is greater than China. Both positive and negative benefits are existing with the high population. However, the strategy in India is that the extreme variation of economic status between peoples. For example, Mukesh Ambani an Indian business man is listed as 19th rank in the list of World’s richest people, on the other hand many beggars are surrounded in all railway stations and temples in India. This variation is due to the criticism in the Indian politics. There is a saying in India that “Unity in Diversity”. Unity in diversity is a concept of "unity without uniformity. It means that even though many diversisms such as many languages, religions and community exist, all people are in unity as Indians. However, I preferably call India as “Diversity in Unity”, because the people in India are not treated as same. People with high political (or) economic power could avail all the benefits without any struggles, but smart educated people without any political (or) economical influence are used to struggle to get their necessities.
Currently, many common examinations such as Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Tamilnadu public service commission (TNPSC) Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) are conducted to appoint government officers. Even though smart candidates clear the public service examinations and achieve their goal, the percentage of getting government position in India is less than 1 %. Lack of employment openings forced many bright engineers and researchers to move to foreign countries such as US and UK, and the number of Indian immigrants to US reached nearly 2.4 Million (Oniline: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/indian-immigrants-united-states).

My thirsty on assistant professor position

I am very interested to become an assistant professor in any Indian central universities. One should clear a national eligibility test (NET) for lectureship conducted by university grant commission (UGC) to qualify for the position of assistant professor in India without Ph.D. degree. Hence, after completing my master’s degree course, I worked hard and clear the NET exam. During my Ph.D. course, I have attended many interviews by holding the NET qualification, but I could not get the position because of heavy competition with many experienced post-doctoral candidates. However, I almost reached my destination in the personal interview for the assistant professor position at the National Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (NCNSNT), University of Madras. I was surprised by knowing that I scored the first mark in the written examination for the position of assistant professor at NCNSNT conducted in the year 2015. More than 115 candidates were shortlisted based on their marks scored in the written examination and I was on the top of the list. I have well prepared my presentation for 10 min. Interview was started, most of the candidates entered the interview room and immediately came back with in 1 to 2 min. Hence, I reduced my presentation duration to 3 min. I entered the interview hall and started my presentation. Interestingly the question session extended for 15 to 20 minutes for me. So, I had a strong belief that I had performed well. After completing my interview, I forgot my sleep for three days. I was eagerly waiting for the result, but that position was not offered to me. The reason was that even though I have performed well in the written examination and personal interview, I did not have any post-doctoral experience at that time. So, I could not able to compete with the experience and publications of many post-doctoral fellows. Hence, I started to search for overseas post-doctoral fellowships.

New life in Korea

 
After completing my Ph.D. program, I got a great opportunity to join as a Post-Doctor Research program in the division of Bioengineering at Incheon national University, South Korea. I started my new life with new laboratory and new people. Yes, it is more comfortable to go along with my professor Kyobum Kim and our lab students. The people in Korea are very kind and helpful. I amazed to know that more than 500 Korean words are like Tamil words with same meaning. I particularly like the student’s life in Korea, they have full freedom for what they do. Also, I want to mention that I was amazed when I saw first time the snow-fall in Korea, and it was a great experience to enjoy the snow with my better half K. Harini in the moon light. The spring season in Korea is very beautiful followed by Fall-season.
It is great to work in Prof. Kyobum Kim’s well-equipped Tissue Engineering & Stem Cell Science Laboratory at Incheon National University. I could develop new type of biomaterials and the biological response of those materials could be analyzed by using the sophisticated facilities available in our University.

Where is my future?

Now, my post-doctoral research position is in half the way, I need to work hard and try to publish many research papers in well reputed international journals. Still I don’t know where my destination is, but I am sure that I will find my place where I will be placed as an Asistant professor.