Being an entrepreneur was not my intention but for Scicle to be a better platform I have to be an entrepreneur by all means. So, in that case, this entrepreneurial genre was an accident that was necessary.

I would certainly be a journalist (which I am) but to work with top notch traditional media houses (as a science journalist) here in my country, is something that I’d love to do before I kick the bucket. I have no clear-cut plans or strict rules to play by, I only knew that I needed to communicate science and I need to make a decent living out of it, this is my “funda!”.

I am lucky enough to meet people who inspired me a lot. I would love to speak about my mother, Mini, here. She did motivate me in the best way possible. The next one would be my best friend Roopasri-during the tough times, and at a stage where I felt demotivated, she did support me in such a way that I felt much at peace. Also, I would love to mention someone who is my mentor, friend, technically my boss and that’s Jinoy Jose P who did help me with the basics of journalism. If at all I had any formal training in journalism then that’s only through the telephone calls with Jinoy where he would talk a lot about his experiences in working with The Hindu, Business Line and with Down To Earth magazine and his associations with elsewhere media tycoons. Albeit a senior journalist in India his magnanimity made me feel he’s more of a close mentor or a friend whom you can call at any time if you are in need of help. My association with Jinoy was through India Art Review where I did my podcast mixing works for them.

So far, I am happy with all the decisions I’ve made in my entire life. It doesn’t really matter whether the decision you took is right or wrong, in the end, you will learn something new. All you have to do is to move forward whatever the situation be.

There are two types of work, as Jinoy once said to me, “Hard work” and “Network “. Keeping that in mind, networking has always helped me maintain connections and also to scale up Scicle through associations with big shots/ veterans/ professionals in the field of podcasting. This is thanks to LinkedIn where I do most of my networking. The space helped a lot. I’d strongly recommend LinkedIn if anyone is yet to be there.

I am bad at giving advice but one thing I would love to say to start-up aspirants is that always work hard, network more and be happy at the end of the day. If you are not happy then there’s only a little sense to it.

Nevertheless, attaining delightfulness is also a (social) privilege, not all have the virtue of it.

Podcasting is in its infancy, in India and when it comes to science communication not many have explored the field. This novelty brings all the challenges to this field of podcasting. Nevertheless, sooner or later science podcasts will be one of the major outreach activities by scientists, labs or anyone who would love to communicate, especially science.

This optimism is what keeps me driving.

One day things will eventually fall into place.

Until then, as mentioned earlier, work hard-network more.