1. I am sure you all know
what Hypoxia means.I am
also certain most of you
were reminded of at least
one of the following after
reading the term: exams,
two-hundred slide long
presentations, classrooms,
lectures, reference books,
Wikipedia and lastly, the
lack of oxygen.
When I entered SRM
University for the first time
for my counselling, I was
taken aback by the size of
the campus. I studied in
schools that were as big as
apartment buildings, and
did not even have a
playground the size of a
park.
Our campus was a huge
change of scenario for me,
and on my first day of the
orientation, I had no idea
how to behave or portray
myself. Should I be the
?all-eccentric, happy
go-getter?or, will the
?mindingyour own business
type bode?well?
Hundreds of such
questions were running
through my mind, along
with the most important
one, Why did I choose to
undertake thisdegree?
Call me lucky or gifted, but
at that very moment, I met
my best friend - who at the
time was merely an
acquaintance from
Facebook, from one of
those SRM groups that we
have. His name is Vignesh
Srinivasan, and his e-mail
ID was
viggy.slam@gmail.com.
That?s the kind of guy he
was, fresh out of school, a
Samsung phone with a
broken screen and a girl
that he had a crush on -
just one of his many
crushes, I must add here.
Right now you must be
thinking, why isthisguy
givingme such a long
introduction to hisfirst day,
orientation and some friend
of his, all I want to know is
how to balance my passion
and my profession.
My dear, you should know
one thing, Sabr ka phal
meetha hota hai! which
loosely translates to, The
reward of patience issweet.
Translations do sound
strange sometimes.
BREAKING
GROUND
Al l goodt hingsmust
comet oastar t
Ar avind kannan
(cl assof 2015)
bangal or e,ndia
Anveshna Edition 16.1 Page 27

2. Strangely, during the first year of
Engineering, I realised that Biotechnology
was like no other field, right from the level
of difficulty to its all-encompassing nature.
Like any curious youngster, that kept me
interested, even though Engineering was
probably the last thing I would have done
if I were more aware of my choices.
Somewhere between Thyagarajan sir?s
passive-aggressive teaching style and
Sharada ma?am?s compassion, I managed
to fall in love with the field -I was talking in
AT-GC?s instead of ABC?s. My buddy
Vignesh, who hated me through the first
semester, had become one of my good
friends - but that lad was always into the
science and he dealt with everything like a
boss.
Life has been very rough to me in the
nicest way possible. A lovely oxymoron,
isn?t it?I say that because it has always
kept me unsettled in my thought process,
but has always pushed me towards
something that I am passionate about.
Photography was more common than the
common cold in 2011-12, with every
person who owned a DSLR having a
photography page on Facebook - and
thanks to Vishal Vasan, who is currently
doing M.Tech. in the same building as
yours, I fell victim to it. With a DSLR, I
would be roaming around the city along
with Vasan and Co.; capturing cows, dirty
walls, water taps and dragonflies. This
deviated me from AT-GCs to the ISOs - and
a bunch of us who were suffering from the
bug started covering events for the
department and sometimes the university.
We were the source of all the amazing
profile pictures of our classmates and
friends, and that made us feel really
important.
That?s when I got this crazy idea (or so I
thought at that point)-to combine
Biotechnology and photography. What if I
could take awesome picturesof some ugly
bacteria and larvae?Trust me, this was an
informed decision, as one of my seniors
Koushik Chandru was pursuing a master?s
degree in a somewhat related field in
England, sourcing my inspiration. Vignesh
though, was still with his AT-GCs, having
gone deeper with the 16s and the 35s; and
at this point we had become really good
friends, with me helping him out with his
social media presence, while he kept my
drive for biotechnology intact by engaging
me in some poster presentations and
some amazingevents like that.
Anveshna Edition 16.1 Page 28

3. Anveshna, the Biotechnology Association (don?t
worry, I?m not forgetting School of
Bioengineering, SRM University, Kattankulathur)
happened towards the end. With amazing seniors
like Pooja Sinha, and with the support of our
management; we were able to set it up - which I
am glad is still functional. Despite his AT-GC
inclination, Vignesh decided to step into this with
me, and this is the moment we became best
friends.
When you build something with someone, it is
closest to the most genuine of human
interactions you achieve. That is what exactly
happened - and I discovered the managerial side
to me and that ishow I finally decided to do the
MBA, end of story.
Or not.
Anveshna Edition 16.1
I just messed with you a little with that MBA
conclusion. The final year project was the real
eye-opener for me - for that was when I realized
how much I hate research. I despised it so much
that I preferred writing three hour-long
examinations without preparation. Don?t get me
wrong here, I am not saying research is bad; I am
confessing that it isn?t my cup of tea. At this
point the first three years of my Engineering life
flashed before my eyes, and I went like What am I
even doingin thisbuilding, in thislab, with this
weird lookinganimal body part in my hand?
More than me, I think Vignesh suffered during the dissertation period. The
reason-I was his project partner. Every morning he used to battle my sleep to
wake me up in time for the laboratory (Yes, I was that demotivated by then).
However, it put a lot of things in perspective for me and I realized how
momentary gravitations towards areas do not last.
Page 29

4. By December, in the final year of my
Engineering, I started to look for options
that were far away from the life sciences,
and it took me three months before I
finally decided my path. All this was
entwined in a period where I gave my
GREand GATEas back up options in case
my newer endeavours fail.
I really felt bipolar, totally out of tune
with the project reviews and everything
else that was going on. I used to spend
ninety percent of my time with
Anveshna, and the rest on sleeping,
which leaves barely anything for the
project, which was deemed to be a life
maker. It was.
The outcomes, though were very
different for Vignesh and myself. He still
loves the AT-GCs, and is doing
Neuroscience in Helsinki and has a
relatively better e-mail
ID-viggy1409@live.com - despite a bad
experience through the final year
project, which was I am sure was largely
because of me. I, on the other hand, am
doing something totally unrelated to
what I did in school and college.
While I might not have gained usable
knowledge because of my misalignment
with the degree, the learning is multifold.
I learnt how to deal with adversity, make
friends, build something with my best
friend, control my emotions, follow my
heart and most importantly deal with
myself.
Among all your summer and winter
internships, your cycle tests and
semester exams, your laboratory coats
and college ID cards; there are three
facets that make sure you grow as a
person and become awesome at being a
human being.
THEFRIENDSYOU CHOOSE.
THEHABITSYOU ACQUIRE.
THETHINGSYOU DO.
If you make sure that there is at least
one in each of these that act as a
winning factor for you, there is possibly
nothing anyone can do to stop your
passion and your profession falling in
the segment of that beautiful Venn
diagram.
Anveshna Edition 16.1 Page 30

5. Like I said earlier, life has been rough in the nicest way. Therefore, I have my own
three, and these are the three
factors that still impact me, because
they have moulded me into the
person I am from the one that I was.
They have always helped me break
ground, supported my decision to
start something new and enabled
me to truly see myself.
VIGNESH - MY BEST FRIEND.
BEING ORIGINAL - BORDERLINEREBEL.
SOCIAL WORK - EVERY SUNDAY.
There will be and I am sure there are times when things get so frustrating that you can
barely breathe or think. Those are problems you deserve, and probably because you
will solve most of them, they help you progress as a person - who might not be good at
formulating the 5% Copper Sulphate solution or remembering the ATP cycle; but will
be great at handling rejection, communicating intents and being the change-maker.
Embrace the hypoxia, for all bad things must come to an end.
May you live long and prosper!
" I learnt how to deal with adversity, make
friends, build somethingwith my best friend,
control my emotions, follow my heart and most
importantly deal with myself."
Anveshna Edition 16.1 Page 31