The Life and Times of V
essay by Vijay
E very parent hopes that their child will have a good life. Little did V give attention to his studies till he was fifteen.
But a miracle certainly did happen at 16 for he scored first in all the subjects - except English which was his nemesis.
He managed to obtain the first rank in the class, by taking tutorials from a professor of English, and by quoting poetry from study materials beyond the recommended curriculum.
V always wanted to become a doctor, but as a Brahmin, 97% in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics was not sufficient.
Having not secured a place to study in the state where he lived, he traveled 2000 km away from his parents’ place to study Chemical Engineering.
The Channel Tunnel between England and France had just been inaugurated.
He dreamt of taking it one day and this indeed materialized in 2007.
He obtained the best grades in his BEng and graduated with Honours.
He made good friends, improved his Hindi and English.
He got a job through campus recruitment (the only one who was offered a job out of ten candidates) to work at a paint and pigments company, but V decided to pursue a master’s degree at IIT New Delhi after succeeding in the highly competitive entrance examination.
V had the good fortune of being the only student in a master’s program that was offered for the first time in the Bio-Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology department.
New Delhi was a culturally vibrant city; it offered many new avenues to explore and enjoy.
New friendships ensued. V’s old friends from BEng got married, some as young as 23. After completing his MRes, he was offered a job at a pharmaceutical company in Ahmedabad, but after only three months he decided to come back to research in a non-profit institute in Jaipur.
Working at a research organization deepened his interest to pursue a Ph.D. career in biotechnology. He went back to the library in IIT New Delhi and printed everything that he could find on metabolic engineering.
V bought the only book on metabolic engineering available at the time with half his monthly salary.
He wrote to the author, a professor at DTU in Denmark, and got invited with a stipend to come first as a research assistant at DTU.
A year after he got a fully-funded Ph.D. position at DTU.
Thus began a long journey that would span three different continents over 12 years.
For V, eating with knife and fork was challenging.
His Portuguese and Swiss friends taught him to how to use cutlery and helped him to speak in English slowly and clearly.
V is eternally thankful to them. When V came out in Denmark in 2005, his Portuguese friend supported him emotionally, else he would have kicked the bucket long time back.
After his PhD, V went to UPenn for postdoctoral research in neuroscience.
However, a demanding work environment and his quest for fundamental questions on life made him leave the postdoc job and start a teaching position at an alternative school in England.
He delved into the nature of thought, and taught Chemistry at the school.
V was introduced to the world of classical music through his partner.
Being comfortable with his sexuality in an open environment gave him confidence.
After eight years of teaching and being in administrative roles, V decided to come back to research.
He applied for a research grant from DTU but was not shortlisted because of his age and for not having enough publications.
Brazil chose him.
V had a fantastic experience in Campinas. Desert flowers blossomed. New talents arrived: drawing using crayons on paper, drawing using fingers on an iPad.
He took piano lessons and learned the Portuguese language.
He authored numerous poems and blogposts.
After two years in Brazil, V moved to Sweden for a year to work on second-generation ethanol. As climate change was undeniable, his research focused on ways to produce chemicals sustainably. From Sweden, V went to Sheffield, to work on yeast propagation, and with fantastic professors who are now retired. After three years in the UK, V is now back in Sweden as a lab manager, in a permanent position, training researchers, and maintaining a lab of forty-five people, together with another person.
Securing a tenure track position at the university for performing research is difficult. V realized that that ship has sailed owing to his age, and hence he decided to become a laboratory manager. V still reads scientific articles, and he learns about nice and interesting research. Constantly. He supports researchers instead of applying for grants. He also promotes laboratory activities on social media and trains new students.
V’s father passed away due to Covid in May 2021. In the span of two weeks, his grandfather also died, and his brother nearly did not make it. There is now pressure on him to come back to India and fulfill the role of an elder son. Except for V’s younger brother, no one knows about his sexuality, and this is making his life exceedingly difficult. V has decided to stay in Europe, for he has stayed far too long to go back and live a ‘normal’ life in India.
V discovered that colours and drawing allow one to explore the freedom that life offers. Sharing experiences – cultural, technical, or personal – helps learners and educators to challenge myths and create awareness by valuing diversity. V has visited several schools and colleges in India, Brazil, Sweden, and the UK, talking to high school and college students about career options after their studies.
V has been part of various minorities throughout his life. Indian in the West, brown in the white, vegetarian among the meat-eaters, Brahmin in India, artist in the science, gay in the world.
Same-sex activity was a crime in India until 2018, still a crime in many other countries and still not accepted in most countries in the world.
Education has been his savior to escape the constrained environment he grew up in.
At the boarding school where V worked as a teacher in the UK, he was living with his partner, and the whole school community was aware of his relationship.
Having a gay couple on the campus changed the way many students and adults perceived homosexuality.
Sexuality has never been an issue in most of his workplaces. Not all.
He proudly wore the rainbow lanyard to support the LGBT community in Sheffield. V has given a talk in the ‘Out Thinkers’ event, to inspire young people who are struggling with their sexuality, to demonstrate that one can be a scientist, an educator and an openly gay person.