Research versus Money

This is a topic that recently got me worked up a lot. I met a principal of a school catering to children up to 3rd grade in a train journey. She casually asked me what I was doing and I told her proudly that I was doing research. For which she replied "ohh thats very common". Her data was that one in every hundred people was doing research. I was trying to explain to her that that was not true. Another point she made was that people do research so that they could earn lots of money. I was really hurt by this because I am doing research inspite of the need for money and being paid like 18k per month where my relatives and friends in other fields are earning 1-2L per month. I was wondering if she confused research with engineering. I'll never know because she didn't let me speak and my respect for elders made me shut up and not try correcting her after a bit.

I don't want to be judgemental and I will accept the statistics even if I am wrong. So lets do some calculations shall we. Firstly the population of India as of March 2015 (ref1) is 1.28 billion. The total number of research institutes in India is around 400 (ref2). So let us say each institute has around 100 students on an average which gives us 1 research student per 32,000 people. Thats two order of magnitude different from the quote the principal gave me. Moreover I analyzed the students from my own institute which comprise of students from physics, mathematics, computer science and computational biology. Most of the students are from middle class families with earning parents. So all they have to do is support themselves. A few support their family (including parents and wife and children) from the stipend they get which is as I said 18k per month. I remember a researcher from physics who had a family of five (wife + 3 kids). One can imagine the amount of money raising three kids would require. Schooling nowadays has become so so expensive. Many of the computer science students left high paid jobs in companies like Intel and have come to join research. The point they made was that one doesn't get the freedom to work on what they want at such companies. So the answers that I got from students doing research as to why they were doing research were freedom and no fixed working hour schedule. None gave me an answer "Money". This is the scenario with many theoretical institutes, similar to mine, I guess because the pay scale is the same. Moreover if we look at the jobs that most of my seniors have taken after doing research is to be a Faculty at some Research Institute and continue doing research (a few left research for reasons I don't know). So even the future of these types of research is nothing. It definitely won't make anyone rich monetarily. (Rich in knowledge ohh definitely for sure.)

As I said earlier I want to give the principal the benefit of doubt. So the only research that I can think of which leads to high paid jobs are topics like chemistry (pharmaceutical companies pay a lot for their research staff) or current biological research which leads to cure for epidemics and such.

My thoughts: 1) Not all fields of research are the same and 2) listen to the arguments before you pass judgement on anything.

Acts of Kindness

Today I saw two acts of kindness which affected me in a way that I had to blog about it.

The first one happened in a Pharmacy. An old lady had arrived there before me and was ordering some medicines. One of the medicines an ointment, Bengay, was not available at the shop and the shopkeeper told her to get it from some shops which sold medicines from abroad. The ointment was apparently one that the old lady's daughter gave it to her during her visit from US to India. She was trying to ask him to get it for her and failed miserably and finally asked the shopkeeper to cater to me first. Later she would probably pester him further, my assumption. I asked him the medicines I needed and he packed and billed them. While I was paying two shop helpers arrived and one of them lets call him X knew the old lady. (Obviously X is going to be important else I wouldn't have bothered naming him duh ...). So X asked the old lady about her health and stuff and they had a nice conversation. Finally she asked X if he could get hold of the medicine for her. She said "vangikudu kanna" which is such a sweet way of asking. I felt as though my grandma had asked me for something. X immediately agreed and noted down the name of the medicine. I don't know what happened after that as I left the shop but X did a good deed today and if he delivered the medicines to the old lady as he promised he would have a nice life.

After this as I walked back, I saw an old couple carrying giant cylindrical cases. Seriously the length of the cases were more than the height of the couple. The cases were probably folded yoga mats. I noticed them because on the t-shirt of the old man there was a quote saying "Ancient Wisdom Scientific Practice". Cool quote yes... They were walking on the downtrodden road full of pits and heaps of mud. It is difficult to walk let alone walk with giant cases. Suddenly their daughter came in a scooter from nowhere and picked up the cases from them and drove their burden away/home. They now walked freely on the stupid road. So nice of the daughter to stop and help them. I know its such a simple thing but nowadays who does even these simple things.

These two episodes really made me feel that all is not lost with humanity. People somewhere are kind. Amidst the politics, the jealously, the anger, the pointless hate there are people who are kind and helpful and good in the heart. I quote one of the youtubers I follow @joshuadtv : "Be nice to people"