• Question: What was the hardest thing you had to overcome?

    Asked by madeleine on 31 Jan 2020.
    • Photo: Sreejita Ghosh

      Sreejita Ghosh answered on 31 Jan 2020:

      Grief. Till yesterday was wrapping up a conference contribution during the last 3 days before the deadline while dealing with the cruel reality that I can’t see or touch my Nan, my kindest, purest, most innocent human- my Nan, because she suddenly passed away last week , just before I arrived in India to spend time with her. I couldn’t be as meticulous as I should have been, but my brilliant boss supported me. Without her understanding and feedback I wouldn’t have been able to submit the paper. Every time I tried to check if the derivatives I had out in the paper are correct, if the notations are consistent, my mind wandered to the fact that there will be no more weekly calls to my Nan, no more of her voice and it is unbearable. I bottled up my feelings (which I know is unhealthy, and I suggest that none of you should do it) and with my supervisor Kerstin’s help, I submitted at 6:00AM IST yesterday, hours before the last rites of my Nan.

    • Photo: Fiona Macfarlane

      Fiona Macfarlane answered on 31 Jan 2020:

      Apart from the challenges of work, I have am still trying to overcome personal grief. Just over a year ago my mother passed away very unexpectedly, which was a massive shock and something I am still trying to come to terms with. This was 6 months before my PhD thesis was due, so it was very hard to find the motivation to keep going. However, everyone I work with was very supportive in helping me through it.

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