Identity Crisis

a.k.a ABOUT ME


I hate being clicked (surprise, surprise)
Apparently, blogs are supposed to have an about me page. Like I said in my first blog post, I am an introvert and I'm not too fond of talking about myself. But here goes:

I am a researcher in ecology and environmental science. Some of things that I work on include bats (the flying kind), birds, urban ecosystems and agricultural ecosystems. As a researcher, I am most interested in questions that revolve around how changing landscapes influence biodiversity. And I am obsessed with maps, I can be lost in them for hours.

I grew up in a super strict Telugu Christian household. I've had an interesting childhood having lived in more places than I can count on my fingers. Not complaining. I do like to travel and explore and learn about new cultures. The best part is that my work as a grown-up takes me to the most interesting places. For instance, the other day I was in a small seemingly mundane village in Tamil Nadu doing a bird survey. I was surprised to see a 11th century monument, a temple surrounded by nothing but paddy fields. A piece of history hidden in plain sight, with barely anyone to appreciate it's beauty. Perhaps, it's better this way. Oh, did I mention I saw a bat roosting in the temple?

Okay, back to writing about me... See? This is what I mean.

When I'm not outdoors, I like to read. Well, to be honest I don't read as much fiction as I once did. And I really hope to change that. I've wanted to write a novel since a very long time. I have more than one unfinished attempts. But one day, I shall finish writing at least one of those projects. 

If you see me in person, you will very often find me holding the back of my right ear (sometimes both ears) with my fingers or trying to press my shoulder into my neck. If you're wondering why, you'll find the answers in the next blog.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Sound of Silence: My journey with Ménière's Disease

I want to start by acknowledging that I am aware that there are bigger problems in the world and my problems are nothing in comparison. But I have been trivialising this for far too long and I don't want to do that anymore because it's not nothing. I was 15 when I started having unexplained migraines [often accompanied by tinnitus (back then, I didn't know it was called that) and vertigo]. I tried all sorts of home remedies, nothing seemed to work. A doctor in Chennai (a legit doctor in a reputed hospital) attributed my pain to "kids these days not being able to handle minor inconveniences" and told me i should do some journaling :/  My parents took me to visit an ENT specialist in Vijayawada who diagnosed me with mild hearing loss. We used to live in Chennai back then and were visiting relatives in Vijayawada. This is important, we'll come back to this in the next paragraph. Then we went to see a neurosurgeon (don't ask why). He looked at the ENT's di...
Read more

Scratch That #2: How it started?

Image
One of the many hats that I don is that of an ecologist. That probably means many different things but to put it simply, nature makes me curious and the questions that it poses drive me. Yup, that's me! You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation. It all started when... Oh wait, this isn't Instagram.  Honestly, I do not know how it all started. I was never an outdoorsy kid. It was only during my undergrad that I first started being outdoors only to end up getting locked back indoors thanks to a global pandemic. It's cruel how you realise the value of something only when you can no longer have it. The pandemic meant classes were online and professors had become tiny boxes on screens. Learning had come to a halt or so you might think. When you are no longer limited by syllabi and unreasonable expectations of attendance, you get to truly chase your curiosities. Humans are wired to pursue knowledge. It's an evolutionary advantage. It's how we know whi...
Read more