Dream your own dream

Dream your own dream by Rama Govindarajan

Introduction

Rama Govindarajan is an Indian scientist specialized in the field of Fluid Dynamics. She was formerly working at the Engineering Mechanics Unit of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research from 1998-2012 and as a professor at the TIFR Hyderabad from 2012-2016 Centre for Interdisciplinary Sciences and presently she is working as professor at International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) Bengaluru. Prof. Govindarajan is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for the year 2007.

 

Dream your own dream Rama Govindarajan 34 The stars shone down on 47 weeping girls, while a gentle sea breeze could do little to help them. On this evening of drama, the prosaic words “housewife”, “graduate” and “bank employee”, were being scrawled in autograph books under “Your ambition is to become a ...”. And no, the overweight, under-confident specimen occupying the schoolyard for the last time did not scribble “research scientist”! Not even years later did I understand what the term meant. What does it feel like to be one today? My website talks about the science I do, so I’ll only say here that I completely love it. However, I did not know this when I started out. All I wanted to become was a “regular guy”, which to me and my peers meant having enough money for a gracious life-style and being in charge of a group of people, preferably large. First big mistake: borrowed objectives.

 

Dear reader, if you are young, please dream your own dream. Also, please, please dream big. My grandmother, Alamelu, did, for me. She also set an example by fighting tooth-andnail for what she believed was right, and by never obeying a rule of which she was not convinced. As a young bride, circa 1920, she risked ostracism by her community to cook and eat meen- LILAVATI’S DAUGHTERS 118 kozhambu with a Dalit family in their hut. My other early influence was my mother, Shakuntala, practically a single, working, parent, who made light of an extremely tough life to create a home where poetry and laughter ably substituted for luxury. My only regret is that my achievements fall far short of her sacrifice. Doing a B.Tech. at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi was a simply superb experience. I was given the opportunity to study rather than memorise, and had the fun of discussing science with peers.

 

Like many other girls in IIT, I emerged near the top of my class, picking up self-assurance, a “can do anything” attitude, and many close friendships. It would be good if within the next few years, half of every IIT class would be girls – it would be a change from when I was one of 54 in the chemical engineering class! My Ph.D. advisor Prof. Roddam Narasimha, has been the biggest influence on my scientific career. Apart from fluid mechanics, he taught me to do science the right way, which for him includes a thorough and critical understanding of the subject, extreme care in methods, and zero exaggeration in making claims. I also like his conviction that the youngest student in a group may be right in a scientific discussion. I am also blessed with a home completely free of gender bias and its manifestations. So, what can go wrong when one has the best education and heavy-duty determination, and is surrounded by good people? Read on. I am an engineer first, and fluid dynamics has always been a favorite, but my career in research began almost by accident. When I graduated, I wanted and got a plush job, in Mumbai.

 

Every morning I became part of the compacted mass of humanity in the ladies compartment of the 6:57 fast train to Andheri. Soon the mass revealed itself as having faces, lives, and stories. The one common theme in the stories was the incredible hard work and determination involved. These women – executives, secretaries, fisherwomen, new mothers, very-soon-to-be-mothers, many malnourished, some from home-lives too terrible to describe, running top-speed across the overbridge at Grant Road at 6:56 a.m. – are my role-models and I think back to them every DREAM YOUR OWN DREAM time I imagine I am having a hard time. An important ingredient 119 for success is the willingness to push yourself to work really, really hard. It took me two months on the job to realise that something a lot less plush and a lot more mentally demanding would suit me better. I then did a Masters in the U.S., which did not launch me into the planned orbit in industrial R&D, maybe because I soon tied myself by marriage to one city.

 

 A guest at my wedding remarked that Bangalore (as it was then) was not at all the place for a chemical engineer, and how right he proved to be! In my efforts to leave no stone unturned, I went to dozens of interviews within the next couple of months, looking for unsuitable jobs. I finally took one of them just to put my share of rice on the table. The really big mistake: not realising that the world offers myriad choices for a young couple in search of two good careers. Just don’t be scared to experiment, to spend a few years as a nomad. Don’t feel guilty if your spouse has to make some temporary sacrifice as well. It would be best if you can postpone marriage to the post-nomadic stage! It dawned on me that to succeed in Bangalore, I must redefine myself. The software industry was in its infancy, but I decided, maybe stupidly in some people’s opinion, that I would not be part of the big boom which I didn’t know then was coming. I went into the defence-related aerospace industry instead. Here, I wanted my experience with process control and computing skills, to be put to use to avoid importing control algorithms. The set-up of the industry made this wish impossible to fulfil. So, four years after my B.Tech., I finally turned towards research in fluid mechanics, and have never in the twenty years since then wished to do anything else. For ten of these years I worked in a national lab, during which I also completed my Ph.D. and postdoctoral work.

 

The last ten years in academia have finally been the “real thing”, this was an extremely lucky break, since the place I work, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNC), came into existence at the right time for me! In my experience, independence and constant exposure to other researchers is crucial for doing basic research, and for these, an LILAVATI’S DAUGHTERS 120 academic institution is unbeatable. A typical national lab has other main objectives to fulfil, and cannot be expected to focus on basic research in the same way. If you are the type who likes every day to be different, scientific research is the career for you. If you like working with young people with bright ideas, who keep you on your toes, and if you like teaching yourself new concepts, this is the career for you. If you are prepared to toil long and desperately for the dazzling discovery you are not sure you’ll make, this is the life to choose! Even on a bad referee-report day, I am happy I do science!

 

Dream your own dream – Rama Govindarajan (Summary)

 

Rama Govindarjan’s essay “Dream your own dream” is the finest exemplary and inspirational success story for younger generations of students. The students who dream big will certainly achieve. She encourages the students to dream their dreams in order to set their goals in their lives to achieve them. Rama Govindarajan was also as ordinary student as others were. At the end of her school education she was not able to scribble in the autograph books of her friends more than the prosaic words like ‘housewife’, ‘graduate’ or ‘bank employee’ under the query “your ambition is to become a……….”.   She was not even able to understand the term “Research Scientist” for several years.

 

Rama Govindarajan was greatly influenced by her grandmother, Alamelu and her mother Shakuntala. Alemelu, as a young bride, who fought tooth-and-nail for what she believed was right and never obeying a rule of which she was not convinced. She never compromised though she risked ostracism by her own community.  When, she was socially boycotted she prepared to adjust in a small hut with a Dalit family and ate “meenkozhambu” with them. Shakuntala, Rama Govindarajan’s mother, was practically a single and working woman, who had worked hard to create a home. The home in which poetry and laughter were able to substitute luxury. Rama was always regretting that all her achievements fall far short of her mother’s sacrifice.

 

It was a great opportunity and superb experience to study B. Tech. in IIT Delhi. She studied her course of B. Tech by heart than by simply memorise. She enjoyed the fun of discussing science matters with her peers. With all these efforts, Rama emerged as a topper of her class with lot of confidence and self-assurance. She developed the attitude of “can do anything”. In spite of all these, she is blessed with a home where completely no gender bias and its manifestations, which unleashed her to have the best education and heavy-duty determination.

 

Later, Prof. Roddam Narashimha as her Ph. D. advisor in Fluid Mechanics was biggest influence on her scientific career. He taught her to do her research in the right way, which includes a thorough and critical understanding of the subject with extreme care in methods and zero exaggeration in making claims. With all her commitment and determination in her research, she was the first choice among the students for scientific discussions.

 

Soon after her graduation, she got a job in Mumbai as an engineer. She used to travel in a packed women’s compartment of a local train to her work place that starts very early morning by 6.57. Slowly, she adjusted to her situation and tried to understand the incredible hard work of various women who are hurrying to their jobs in the early morning trains.  Sometimes the stories of those women are too terrible to describe. With all these experiences, she understood that the important ingredient for success is the willingness to accept the hard work.

 

After two months of her service as an engineer in Mumbai, she realized that she was not satisfied with the present job. She decided to do M.S. in US to launch herself in a planned orbit in an industrial R&D.  As soon as she returned to India from US, she married to a person who is confined to Banglore city. With her conjugal relations, she was forced to stay in Banglore though it was not suitable place for chemical engineer's career. She tried in software industry when it was in its boom. She felt joining in software industry is just like wrong person in a wrong job. Later she went into the defense-related aerospace industry in Bangalore, wherein she wanted to develop the indigenous systems of control and computing skills instead of importing them from the other countries.

 

In due course of time, she joined as a professor in Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, in which she has independence and constant exposure to other researchers, which always unveil crucial research results.  She was fulfilled with the job satisfaction, which gave her an opportunity to focus on research. Now she was recipient of the most covetous Shanti Swarup  Bhatnagar Award for the year 2007 for her outstanding contribution to the nation in the field of research. Thus, Rama Govindarajan released her dreams who dreamt to be a ‘Research Scientist’.