Why did I start a blog ?

Writing has been a powerful medium of communication since its inception. As a Hindu, I precisely remember when I started to write. Because Hindus celebrate the precise moment when a child starts to write on the last day of Navaratri. On that day, a Hindu priest will teach the child how to write using the child’s finger on a plate full of rice. (Okay, I might not remember the exact moment but I am pretty sure thats when I started to write.)

Edu Thodakkal ceremony in which a child starts writing

 

However, in most of my life I wrote in Tamil, my mother language. So when I migrated to US writing in English became a big hassle. I was able to master speaking and reading very quickly (in fact I am enjoying public speaking these days !). But I had to write several times to master even a small composition. When I started college, I understood the pivotal role of writing. From abstracts in scientific papers to a business proposals require refined writing skills.

As a student majored in engineering, I was not exposed to a lot of writing. Instead I acquired another skill: coding. Today all the buzz is on coding, everyone is trying to push children starting from elementary school to learn coding and it is indeed emerging as a required skill of 21st century. When I graduated I felt like I have become better at coding,  but at the same time my writing skills deteriorated. Even the job that I got after graduation was all about coding, so I rarely got a chance to write some good stuff.

Engineer’s vocabulary

I just started my graduate school in August 2014. In graduate school my lack of writing abilities started to haunt again. Academically speaking in undergraduate studies, it’s all about getting good grades.  However, in graduate school it’s about conducting good scientific research and communicating it effectively to the outside world, so that people can benefit from the scientific findings. One of the main ways to communicate these findings is by written articles in journals, news papers and books. Then I thought may be voluntarily writing can strengthen my writing skills. I also read similar things in graduate school blogs like next scientist that writing a blog can not only reduce ‘writer’s block’ but also the grad school stress.

So, that’s why I started this blog. This blog will not be all about my research, but rather some extra-ordinary things that I find in my ordinary day-to-day life and whatnot. I hope you will enjoy this.