Lord Todd from Royal society of London once said that “Development of polymers is perhaps the biggest thing chemistry has done to help human society”. As a small boy growing up in a village viz. Sindhu in Bikaner, Rajasthan, I had no clue what chemistry is and therefore had no idea about polymers and their beauty. Later as a teenager when I moved to a big city Bikaner, I became enthusiastic about science in general and had an extra taste for organic chemistry. I remember those days when the Rajasthan board of education had heavyweight books for science students, now I think they have easy ones. Lots of knowledge about basic concepts of science were mentioned in those beautiful books.

‌Completing‌ ‌PhD‌ ‌and‌ ‌becoming‌ ‌polymer‌ ‌scientist‌.

At that time there used to be one complete chapter about polymers in the organic chemistry book and it was one of my favorites. I was fascinated by the discovery of Bakelite which is used to produce electric switches, polycarbonate which is used in the bulletproof shields used by soldiers in the army, the discovery of Polyethylene by Imperial Chemical Industry and its advantageous uses by the British army in the second world war to protect underwater cables. It was all like a fairy tale for a Hindi medium student at a very ordinary school of Bikaner.

At this point, I would like to emphasize here that I am proud of Indian Education boards which are still providing education in the mother languages in different states. It is really important for young students to learn English but I personally believe that if we teach them science in their own language, they will understand it much better. Same thing I would like to say for engineering and medical Universities of India that they should try to provide education in local languages. I see that as one of the solutions to produce much more qualified professionals from Indian Universities which will then have a perfect skill set required by industry. And believe me that it’s difficult for our professors as well to teach us in English which we don’t speak at our home. Imagine how good will you learn if you are taught in the same language as you speak at your home.

It was a disaster for me to move from Bikaner to IIT Roorkee because the whole of my school education was in Hindi and suddenly everything changed to English. I suffered a lot in the first few semesters. I used to be district topper when I was taught in Hindi but at IIT Roorkee in the batch of 15 Polymer Science and Technology students, I was ranked 14th in the first semester. As Germans say, it was a total catastrophe for me. Good thing was that I got good support from my batch mates. I am really thankful to my batch mates Dr Abhishek Sanoria and Dr Himanshu Charan for their continuous motivation throughout my days at university as well as today.

I have a message for Hindi medium students and other local medium students in India. Never ever feel that you have done something wrong in your life by studying at a local board or in your local language. I advise you to learn English as a language during your school days but never think that if you don’t learn science or engineering in English then you will not succeed. If you find some good classmates or mentors at university, ask them to help you to inspire you and you will rock. You will grow exponentially. We should learn from other countries i.e. Germany, Japan whose education system is teaching students everything in their mother tongue.

‌Completing‌ ‌PhD‌ ‌and‌ ‌becoming‌ ‌polymer‌ ‌scientist‌

Due to my interest in Polymers, I came to Germany for pursuing my PhD at the Technical University of Darmstadt, which is one of the best in the field of chemistry in Europe. FYI, the first prime minister of Israel also studied here. PhD is also another very hard step in your life if you decide to do that, but once you finish it and you are called Dr, it gives you a special feeling. And I always advise and aspire good students for pursuing a PhD as it teaches you more deeply about science but also other soft and business skills necessary for your career.

Today I am proud to say that I work as a polymer scientist for Braskem. This is a company which made it possible to convert ethanol produced from sugarcane into green polythene at a huge scale. We work on very interesting projects, i.e., development of 3D printable filament for 3D printing at International Space Station for our Astronauts and polymers to produce different components of your car and many more. Also when you look around yourself, you find many products made of polymers helping you throughout your day. It’s an inspiring subject to study and exponentially growing in India, therefore will bring lots of jobs opportunities after your studies.

I would conclude by advising that if you like polymers, study about them in whatever language you can easily understand. Polymers are fascinating product humans have mastered in the past decade. Polymers have always fascinated me and I believe they will interest you as well.