Who said research was boring?

The title of this post will in itself raise some eyebrows and tighten other facial muscles. After all, no one said that scientific research or its step cousins are boring. However, my inquiry is into social science research in general and more focused into my first hand experience of it. Hence, largely I am going to talk about my personal experience and shed light through it on the general question in hand. That researchers are mad, sadist people, is a notion on a decline but that that is also true for people dwelling in social sciences research may not be a widely accepted notion. Unless of course, you’ve come across the very colourful (“black”) and forever young Debraj Ray or exotically eloquent speakers like Kaushik Basu. I will however, try to convince you that even lesser mortals like us are not too boring after all and more importantly ask important questions even if we can’t answer them.

My experience so far has followed the plot structure of a Shakespearean play. The Exposition which introduces characters and the setting which would translate into identifying the research question in our context has been the longest. It’s also perhaps the hardest part if you are into development economics. This period has had a mix of both dry and interesting spells. Digging into papers looking for an interesting unanswered question can be as exciting as finding clues inside a maze. However, I must concede, that there have been extremely demoralizing times. Especially because we were doing research for the first time. For example, the times you think that you have a research question but end up finding out that someone has already dealt with it. What is however reminiscent of this period are the discussions we had with my professors and other people. Getting exposed to absolutely new thoughts can be very stimulating.

Once we had the research question, then came the Rising Action. In my case, this required the divine intervention of Mausumi di (Prof. Mausumi Das, DSE). Had it not been for her, we could never have convinced Tridip da (Prof. Tridip Ray, ISI) with the research question. I had been struggling and fighting with it for almost 6 months. Every time I would have a proposal, it’d get turned down. But this was the most exciting part for me. We got into modelling, building conjectures and proving them. This is also the time when I got to work closely with my “teachers”, but now they would look unto us and listen as co-authors and not students. It’s an amazing experience. Just to know the fact that some of the things that you think are actually important and worth thinking! This was also the time when we could go for CCD trips, for tea during a full day work and talk about a lot of stuff. I am waiting to graduate to dinners soon, though.

The Turning Point for me was when I could prove, what I fondly call “my last conjecture”. (The fact that all risk averse agents prefer ICLs to bank loans, details in paper!).  So I was working on this for a while, and this would make all the other results really important. This conjecture would be the focal point of the paper. The proof then just occurred to me, in a flash and even though the proof is very simple, but just the fact I could do it by myself, without any help made me ecstatic. Months of research and hard work, all paid off. It was time for celebration.

Falling Action has to be attributed to writing of the paper but that has not happened yet. The high points of doing research according to me are that you get to learn and create something new. Something no one has ever thought of. And that feeling can be one of great excitement. Social Science research is not rocket science where you can make someone land on the moon. But to understand issues like poverty and suggest measures that can be potentially very useful is a part of a huge rocket.  This brings satisfaction. Using math tools that appear absolutely useless otherwise and suddenly becoming a magic wand is unforgettable. Our laboratory is not that glamorous. But working in a nice office with serene scenery outside, or in a coffee shop in Khan Market (yes we can afford it!) are good substitutes. Our research also uses technology beyond just typing. And like my corporate friends, who have seen the real world, we can also party.

In my case, we also built a very nice rapport and a relationship with our professors. Once Prof. Patha Sen told me that when he started as a young professor he made friends with a lot of his students and I always wondered how that would be like for his students. Coming from Stephen’s where the student-teacher divide is less than it generally is, I looked forward to it. But now I could experience it first hand. Staying in academics, I am pretty sure that these associations are meant for a very long time. With your friends, who’d in future become your colleagues. Your teachers, who’d become both your friends and colleagues.

I had read somewhere that if one is working very hard for something, one won’t enjoy the goal when one achieves it unless one enjoys the journey (with ALL the hard work). And, even though, this paper (whenever it develops into a full-fledged one) will feature in my CV forever, I think it is the process of writing it...that we'd cherish the most!

(The context is my work with Tridip da, Mausumi di and Seher. A lot of the “we”s refer to me and Seher. To Tridip da and Mausumi di, I still wonder why you took us on. Thanks a lot for introducing me to the world of research and for always keeping faith and being supportive.)