Medical and biological research, in its infancy, has been overfed with outdated and frowned upon theories coming from people in power who have often used data as a tool to feed their hypotheses. Even now, the way in which biology is taught in India, kills the curiosity amongst students to question and explore. Rather it teaches them not to question, and ignores the need to study the subject in a holistically – with an understanding of sociology and ethics, along with the behaviour and physiology of humans.

I was always interested in biology as a child, and like many others wanted to become a doctor. But after spending two years in some of the prime coaching institutes in our country, I almost grew averse to the discipline. I could not comprehend spending years learning facts just to categorise people based on dehumanised labels. After applying and sitting for almost all joint entrances, getting through some, I had already lost – or rather lacked – hope for learning biology in a way I admired.

I eventually came to Ashoka as an economics major –its scope of study, as it existed on the boundaries of the sciences and humanities, fascinated me. What Ashoka equipped me with were friends and instructors, who emphasised on thinking beyond the technicalities of a ‘discipline’. By the end of my first semester, I had started interning at Prof. Bittu’s lab - where he, in such a brief period, introduced me to a side of research in biology I had never considered before. In my second semester, a course by Prof. Akshita Todi, allowed me to critically engage with literature, art, sociology, and politics of the body and gender. In the same semester, I took introductory courses in both Biology and Economics, and informally audited behavioural economics, offered by Prof. Srijita Ghosh. In a reading group with her, Prof. Bittu, and others, we engaged with literature and experiments over the summer. It was the first time I saw how two disciplines cross-talked – sometimes intersecting, and at other times intricately talking back and forth. The more I explored other disciplines, I was excited by the opportunities to converse through them, with neuroscience.

I eventually turned into a true ‘neuro nerd’. I learnt at Ashoka, that neuroscience cannot be preserved in controlled laboratories, but has to learn and borrow from other fields. One can use neuroscience and machine learning, alongside other world evolutionizing computation, to teach, or for helping mechanical robots to learn a taste of sentience. It could also be used for doctors to run trials of drugs and understand complex surgical methods. At the same time, neuroscience coupled with methods learned in humanities, can let the marginalised – the queers, the chronically ill – re-narrativise what has been historically theorised about them.

The idea of emotion, feelings, memory, and trauma and how they intersect, is something that I am interested in and wish to work on further. In an advanced neuroscience course with Prof. Bittu, I was introduced to a world of fungi and cephalopods – octopuses, squids, and cuttlefish. They are creatures so alien to us, but have evolved intelligence that is almost human-like. I am also working as a teaching assistant with Prof. Simantini Ghosh for the course Violence as a Human Behaviour. The way she conducts her research on the boundaries of psychology, genetics, neuroscience, and sociology, has inspired me further, to think beyond the boundaries of seemingly disparate disciplines

The last three years at Ashoka have made me excited about the prospect of conducting research. Fingers crossed, I will someday become a neuroscientist, carrying out experiments on octopuses, and I am grateful for the experiences I have had here. My time at Ashoka has also made me hopeful, that as the University grows and expands, it could become a space where many more individuals would get a chance to interact with neuroscience and integrate their niche obsessions beyond disciplines.

Anubhab Bhattacharjee is currently pursuing the Ashoka Scholar’s Programme. He graduated in 2022 with a major in biology, minor in economics, and concentrations in creative writing, psychology, and environmental studies.