It was that moment in my thesis writing when I had received a terrible feedback and was asked to overhaul the entire document. It was time to take a break from the screen and go back to basics. I printed out my document and went home. Then I took a break that evening, because it is one of the most underrated but essential things to get everything into perspective. The next day I proceeded to lay out the pages of my thesis chapter-wise on the table. Then I took a blank paper and pad. I thought, "How will I explain my work to my family members in my native language?" So I decided to write down my work in my native language in the form of an algorithm and then rearrange my thesis. I answered the following questions to do so - What is the issue? Where is it encountered? Is it very common? What makes it so very important? What are the steps that people have already taken to solve it? Why have they not been that effective? What is it that I did to solve the issue? How did I do it? ...

  All the students in the first few days of research are faced with the dilemma of the right time and way to begin experimentation. There are as many ways and thought processes to do so as there are people. I will share my learnings here. The problem is that the literature review tends to become so vast that it is difficult to decide what the exact problem is. 1. The best way is to NOT WAIT for the literature review to get over. Begin with the experiments simultaneously. Gain experience on as many new techniques as possible. 2. Start with that research paper which will most likely form the basis of your work. Attempt to reproduce the experiments in the paper. Try to see what other experiments can corroborate those results. 3. Select the correct research papers to continue the literature review. P.S. All the experiments should have a reason for doing them. You should be able to answer the question 'Why should I do this experiment? What will I learn?'

PhD is not a goal, PhD is a journey, and a mighty transformative one at that. That it has different stages is a known fact. However, just the beginning of the PhD has different sub-stages. The pre-beginning the admit and preparation to leave There is fear of the unknown as well as the excited anticipation of new places and people. Specifically in case of Indian students, the flurry of bag packing is accompanied with homemade pickles and snacks. The beginning orientation and settling in The students at this point in time are faced with a bit of anxiety and struggle while searching for accommodation (for overseas universities). There is the factor of being so far away from the family for the first time. Then there also is the undercurrent of being able to manage finances and household chores. A very busy phase indeed. The post-beginning where the students settle into their research groups and begin the literature review. Some may also begin small experiments. There is the enthusiasm of l...