Charu:
Yeah. It’s really your early experiences that kind of shape you into becoming who you are. And it is really nice for you to mention your book, because we do have some exciting questions about it later in the podcast. So, you carried your love for science throughout your career, and you still have it today. You spent several years in academia. You have a PhD on leprosy vaccines, postdoctoral contribution to HPV, Shingles Rotavirus and HIV drug. I mean, wow. And you also developed several vaccines, much to pure claim. What was the one thing that you loved about academic research and the one thing you absolutely abhorred.
Naren:
Hate is a strong word. But let’s see what I liked in academic research. I think what I liked in academic research is the constant curiosity that you have and the constant curiosity that everyone around you has. And it sort of feeds the academic environment, whether it’s students in the College or University, whether they are professors, whether they are people visiting from outside places like UPenn, that I was fortunate to be in you know you used to have lectures from outside visitors all the time, and they’re presenting completely different things. Right. So when I was at UPenn, I used to go and listen to lectures on physics, on social Sciences because they’re just available, they have access to them. So this curiosity aspect of being in academia was very interesting for me. In retrospect, it’s not so acute at that time. I don’t know why I was doing what I was doing at that time, but in retrospect, I was curious. I was trying to learn many different things and maybe connect the dots later on. What I like about industry is the almost regimented way of doing work. You have goals, you have quarterly reports, you have quarterly things that you have to complete, and it’s a very regimented way of doing things. So the organized way of doing things is what I like about the industry. What I didn’t like about academia, not much I didn’t like about academia, other than the fact that academia, for whatever reason, pays less than industry.
Charu:
That is something that we absolutely hate, that we do not get enough benefits for our contribution in a way.
Naren:
But we don’t put a value on the things that we get. It only comes down to money. Yeah. It’s not really the money, right. Satisfaction can be a contribution of many different things. But we don’t realize that we’re getting much more than we bargain for. Yeah. And in industry, just to finish that circle, the thing that I didn’t like, I guess everybody goes through this, and it is not specific to industries anywhere. As you grow up in your career, the politics of how to work with people, the politics, interactions, the egos, all the things that the human nature brings becomes very competitive. That part is what I didn’t like about industry, but it was a very small part of the overall experience.
Charu:
Yeah, of course. This was sort of a bare all answer. And I feel like this expressed a lot of our feelings as well, and it’s nice to hear it from someone like you because it kind of just inundates that. Yes. What we are feeling is also somewhere or something that it gives the community kind of a feeling with academics. But what I have to definitely agree with you is that we have kind of a symbiotic relationship in academia. We sort of Leech out passion from people. Maybe not Leech out. But if someone is passionate and excited, then we get passionate and excited. So it’s an electric environment throughout academia. But would you say that you said that industry is very regimental. It’s very goal oriented. Is the passion still there?
Naren:
Yeah, you know passion is something that has to be intrinsic, right. So, the company may go through ups and downs and everything, but your passion should be consistent. It’s nice to say that on paper, but you go through ups and downs. You have very high is going on. You have some great accomplishment at work that’s going on, but something not going on great in your life. You may not be healthy, or you may something may be happening or your family, your Yin and Yang is never always balanced, right. Sometimes that is up, sometimes this is up, and whichever is down, you keep focusing on what is down and you don’t worry, and you don’t think about what’s up there. So we always gravitate towards focusing on the negative things. So somehow, I’ve learnt the processes of keeping on focusing on the positive things and not worrying about the negative things.
Charu:
That’s a very nice thought. And it’s something that we should all live by, I think. It doesn’t hurt to be an optimist.
