I am a academic scientist - I do research in cognitive neuro-psychiatry. My main research interest is schizophrenia. Apart from that I am also interested in social anthropology. I also love writing, books, movies & food and good conversations with friends old and new. I live at the present in San Francisco, with my husband and our dog. I am not hosting at the moment as we just don't have the room, but am happy to meet and / or guide folks around. I had a brief stint in Long Island, NY. But before that I was in Edinburgh - where I lived most of my adult life. I was born and grew up in different parts of Asia and have lived in Pune, Texas, Bristol before I settled down in Edinburgh, but I grew up mostly in Calcutta, India. So, bit of a nomad, I guess.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I am on CS because I enjoy meeting interesting people. I host, surf and meet other couch surfers at home and away.

Interests

I do research in study cognitive neuro-psychiatry. My main research interest is Schizophrenia and other psychosis. I am also interested in memory & information processing in different diagnostic categories. Apart from that I am most interested in anthropology & history, aka people, migration, culture and history of people migration and culture. I love writing, books, movies & food. I also love meeting new people and having both serious and silly conversations about life, places, food, literature, art, culture, politics or literally nothing at all.

• arts
• writing
• literature
• politics
• movies
• anthropology
• history
• sociology
• cultural anthropology
• social anthropology
• migration

Music, Movies, and Books

I like all kinds of music (Syd Barrett, Jhethro Tull, Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop. Classical. Reggae). I really love movies. I suppose À bout de souffle is my favorite movie and Rhitik Ghatak my favourite director. I also love Goddard, Tarantino, Hirishikesh Mukherjee, Anurag Kashyap, Imtiaz Ali, Basu Bhattacharya (Anubhav is possibly my favourite movie ever), Woody Allen, Kieslowski and ofcourse the sisters Makhmalbaf. and Monty Python! Books are probably hardest to categorize because reading is what I most love to do. Some of my favourite authors include Tagore, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya, Douglas Hofstadter, Ramchandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, William Dalrymple, Agatha Christie, Orwell, Shaw, Hesse, Greene, Pico Iyer ... etc

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

so many ... i am easily amazed ;) watched a huge sand dune island change shape with the tides in front of my eyes. chilka, orissa. rambled around Damascus. randomly hitchhiked in northeast india, and ended up at a place where a couple ran a tiny guesthouse in their cottage ... which was perched right next to the most amazing waterfall. the amazing gulf underwater marine life colours in and around fujairah. double rainbow last weekend behind my house. walked the streets of Dhaka - love at first sight. stayed up all night on the streets of barcelona.

Teach, Learn, Share

Trying to be happy is a choice and the joy is in effort, rather than in the end goal. Life may seem to be full of strife and woe, but underneath is a lattice of magic: wonder, beauty, glu, serendipity, love and friendship. Of all these friendship may be the most magical.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I would love to meet people if visiting but not hosting anyone right now, most likely and might be very slow replying too. Just moved here so a bit caught up.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bhutan, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Nepal, Slovakia, Thailand, Turkey, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

India, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

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