Teaching is Learning

The fourth semester in MPH programme at IIPHG involves writing a dissertation. This is an opportunity to gain hands on experience of conceptualizing, conducting, and communicating research. The students start thinking about it somewhere from the mid of the third semester, and the idea culminates into a proposal at the beginning of fourth semester.   This is a guidance note on how to ‘think’ about dissertation, and may be useful to the students in deciding topic, exploring methods, and identifying host organization, etc in the light of their own constraints and considerations. Timeline As a first thing it is essential to understand broad timeline of exploration, execution, and wrap-up of dissertation.   The dissertation thinking and doing can be divided in broad three segments of before, during, and after the immersive work, each comprising of around 75-100 days or 2.5 to 3.5 months. The students must start thinking about dissertation around 100 days i.e. three months or so bef...

Two back-to-back shows after its premier show, of which the first one has already announced houseful three days before the show. I happen to take chance for a walk-in to buy a ticket at the venue and was told that the house is full again on the second consecutive day.  I waited and was given the last moment entry as I squeezed in the packed house of a motley crowd waiting for the performance of a play with a curious title as “ वह लड़कियों वाला नाटक ” ! I remained glued to my last row seat for the next seventy minutes; I remained thoughtful for many hours thereafter.   Poster of the performance The Ahmedabad theater scene has lately become a broad monotony of adaptations of stories of Manto, Pritam, Chugtai, or Kaul and likes.   With some exceptions, a majority of narratives are also focused on drawing room drama talking about human relationships, or contemporary socio-political scenes at the societal level.     This play comes as a breeze of fresh air in terms o...

  I finished my graduation (Diploma and Degree in pharmacy over six years) in 1999.   Thereafter, I took a mid-career break to do my post-graduation in 2002, after working for two years. The two years of 2001-2003, when I did my master's at IIHMR Jaipur, changed my life altogether.   I now teach similar post-graduate students two decades later.   As I observe these youngsters full of enthusiasm and anxieties, aspirations and insecurities, I look back to my 20 years younger self.   How I wish I can sit with that young man in his 20s and share a few words of advice, which I think he was in no mood to take because he was restless and overconfident. Here are those pieces of advice anyways. 1.        Stay Joyous and stay focused:   As a mid-career student, you have a lot of pressure to be more equal to others and find a path and a destination soon as you can’t mess out with your career anymore. So, you would like not to waste any ti...