Points to ponder for completing a Thesis .. you can feel good about

A Thesis can be a lot of fun .


There can be no statement as untrue as this. If you want to differ ask someone who has just tread the path.


Its a long as in LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOng process. There are few reasons in between to cheer , be happy or party about. There are few things to compete for (it seems). There are few guiding stars and you are unlikely to end a thesis without many guardian angels.


From the editing of chapters in the end to the conceptual diagrams at the start and the suggested readings all along, inputs to a thesis come in various shapes and sizes. Sometimes the most unexpected people give the most valuable tips and the most silly things can lead to the most valuable insights. There is however seldom an advice better than what my guide gave me early on... "The only way a building is made is brick by brick.."There is rarely something as true as this for a PhD or a full blown research.


So here is a small collection of principles for completing a Thesis you can feel good about.


a) Open up.. talk about your work.. to the right people and get their views ... while you talk .. talk less and listen more.. the only reason you want to talk is to get inputs from all possible. All research intends to ultimately find a universal law.. if yes then start with accepting universal diversity.


b) Close down...reduce the amount of diverse things you do in work and concentrate on few things.. the focus is not on diversity of things you do but on the depth and ability to complete the things that you do.. in the case of the thesis these are the various tasks of the thesis.


c) link laterally .. A thesis is a huge task like a mega project comprising of numerous small and odd tasks .. making them link up and scheduling them seems next to impossible at the start. so don't try to link up too many activities.. try to link up friends who can help you with them.. a do-it-ALL-yourself PhD is not a good idea for completion though a great idea for learning. The more you link to people the better ideas you will get and the more you will end up learning. The idea is not to do everything but be capable of doing everything yourself.


d) Having good people with whom you can share your emotions is important to complete the process. The process is like a fellowship of many different tasks and good people are the binding material.


e) You have the ups, downs, lateral links, the binders, and the filling? yes what do you fill the PhD with.. Nothing but Hard Work.


f) The PhD is a process of learning the process of doing research till you can produce a complete finished product. The stress is on learning the process... complete...finished...product.. and think if you were evaluating a thesis .. what would you want to see to convince you that it was a finished and complete and final product and that the process had been learnt on the way.. clearly the last can not be evaluated and is left to the guide so guides at times have to be harsh.. and for the same reason the examination committee gives you some amount of work to check the process learning.

g) Your THESIS will be evaluated and not YOU. so choose people to guide you towards completing a THESIS and examiners who know what to evaluate.

h) The only way to complete a Thesis is to KEEP GOING ON . Only when you keep going can you ever reach the light at the end of the tunnel.

These are neither necessary nor sufficient and neither comprehensive nor exhaustive and each one of us might add our own rules to the list..or even i may revise this in a few days time . However i expect these to be helpful to most PhD Scholars who want to feel good about their own Thesis.

I..I...am..I..= IIM I

It was a normal trip on a very well known route .. the same train .. the same destination .. the same bogie.. the start was different this time. It was Ahmedabad and not Anand.. and this time i need travel towards Mumbai from Indore only a few miles to the IIM indore campus instead of the 100 kms to kasrawad.

It was a wonderful morning except that it was earlier than the usual morning for me. There were the usual issues of not knowing if a taxi had been booked or if i had to arrange on my own , whom to contact at six on the morning but these are like the minor crease on an otherwise flat and smooth landscape.

The gate of IIM indore is built huge but in it's not so good looking condition is far from impressive but then many years back my sister had told me that IIMs are supposed to built people and not great buildings and gates. Never the less the hills of IIM Indore and the pleasant view there and the morning breeze definitely caught my fancy and my mobile was soon overworked as a camera.

The morning was extremely beautiful and it now seems as a good omen for things that were to come. Thus began a day of meeting old freinds and making new ones while meeting the director thrice. A faculty recruitment seminar thrown in between and more friends and fun times with them.. a crisis situation for a friend and a change in travel plans to work out things and a lovely lavish dinner from a friend and bhabhi that left me licking my fingers as i left the campus.

The meetings with the faculty of the economics area were freindly , open , and pretty informal making the going very smooth and nice. smiles exchanged , hands shaken and new friends made. Last but not the least was a phone call , an important one. but this is about Indore and how i see the city .. the campus is beautiful with huge spaces and hillocks and palash trees the flame the ground red as if there was a forest there :).

Indore has been an enigmatic city always for me.. a mix of the old and the new .. more like the new trying to fight the old to break free. This time too it was much the same. The shops looked similar, the roads are being constructed just as i remember them in 2003. The retail formats have moved in but either their names have changed or they have changed hands, the more swanky and flashy shopping destinations have come up. There are more avenues for the indulging consumer to indulge in behaviour that is more asssertive of money linked status than the depth of character that the city has been known for in the past.

However the city retains its past, the narrow bylanes and much more so nicely still. twain extremes are allowed to flourish together so far and that makes Indore unique apart from the little job offer that IIM Indore has offered me. I guess i have to spend more time in Indore than everyone had thought.