Dr. Sudeshna Sarkar — Interview #2
Prof. Sudeshna Sarkar is the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. After completing her B. Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur, she went on to do her M.S. from University of California, Berkeley. She then returned to IIT Kharagpur to obtain a PhD in Computer Science. Currently, her research interests lie in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval.
In her interview, she candidly shares with us a number of anecdotes and advice based on her years of experience as a faculty member, as a researcher and a former college student.
1. What motivated you to pursue a career in Computer Science research and teaching?
Honestly, I never considered any other career option. This is what came naturally to me, and I have been reasonably happy doing this. I never pursued a job and I went for higher studies directly after my B Tech. I had always considered this sort of a job as my first priority when making a career choice.
2. How does it feel reaching where you are, and where do you see yourself in 5–10 years from now?
I can say I am quite happy in my career, and quite settled. I don’t look forward to any change as such!
3. There are very few female professors, and even fewer who go on to become something like the HoD of Computer Science department at IIT Kharagpur. Do you think there is a difference in the attitude of your peers towards you, as compared to a male at that position?
Yeah, that’s true. There are very few female professors, also because there are very few female students in IITs. There is obviously a difference in the attitude in a group where the ratio of males and females is so skewed. Fortunately, I have had colleagues and classmates who didn’t have a very different attitude towards me, probably also because I have been in this department for such a long time. However, in general I feel that a lot of times the attitude is not as open towards women. It’s not negative necessarily, but the relationships between male and female colleagues are not always at the same comfort level. But then for me that has never been a major setback or problem. Additionally, because I was a student at IIT, I was used to being in an environment where there are less women, so this did not come as a surprise to me.
4. How was it being one of so few girls in your college life? What kind of hurdles did you face in your day to day life?
Looking back, college is a time that I really enjoyed. Of course the number of woman was less, but we had a very connected group of friends. In retrospect, there were many issues that I faced being a women. Some of them are childish, while some of them are really serious. That being said, I never really contemplated on those issues. For me, when a situation comes, it is important to deal with the situation and move on. Also, at that time I was young and more shy, and so I didn’t try to address many issues. On a personal level, I would just move on, and never let those issues hinder what I really wanted. Hence, any issue that I faced as a woman didn’t have a long term impact on my career and what I wanted to do.
5. Do you see a difference between the career options your female peers had when you were studying at KGP and the current ones?
I think at the time of graduating from college, both then and now, women have career options similar to men. At our time, majority of good students just went for higher studies after IIT, and there wasn’t a difference between men and women there. However, when I look at the career my friends have been having, I see a difference perhaps because women made different kinds of choices depending on what they wanted and what their situation at that point of time demanded.
Fortunately, I was lucky in the career path that I followed, which was rather unusual for the students around me. I came back to do a PhD after my Masters abroad and have been here ever since. Being in an academic profession, I didn’t have to make a lot of compromises being a woman. There were small difficulties that I did face obviously. There was a time when I joined IIT Guwahati right after my PhD, and had a 3 month old baby. I had to go live there alone, and of course there were some difficulties finding help. However, I never let these difficulties bother me too much, or influence what I wanted. I believe that instead of thinking ahead and making too many plans, you should simply be clear about what you want and things eventually fall into place. I lived in Kharagpur after that and things became easier because we were on a campus etc. That being said, I know women who have had to make many more adjustments to their career. Fortunately, I didn’t have to make a lot of those.
6. Looking at the female students in college today, according to you, what are the biggest hurdles that still remain?
When I talk to students here, I don’t think they face too many hurdles. The ones that they do face, can be solved by talking to their friends and people around them.
Also, I feel like if you look at things as hurdles then you become afraid and you can’t live up to your full potential. If you just stay focussed on your goal, the hurdles will eventually be overcome automatically. You shouldn’t have to reorient your goals because of the so called hurdles. If you are clear about what you want to do, you will be able to deal with the hurdles accordingly.
7. Do you think all of us get that realisation that this is my goal and I want to do exactly this in my life?
No, you may not, but it will eventually come to you. Some people know from their childhood that this is what I want to do. They know that this is the exact subject that I want to pursue. But most people don’t have that. I didn’t have the feeling that I wanted to study computer science only. Infact, I could have very well studied another subject! I was just very clear that I want to go into science, while I was good in other subjects as well. I just got into computer science and started liking it. Some people are very lucky that they have a ‘passion’ but I didn’t have one. However, I am definitely happy with what I am doing.
8. There are a lot of problems like casual sexism prevalent in college campuses like ours. In your experience, what is the best way to tackle this?
The best way to solve it is to talk about it. I think one reason for casual sexism is a lack of sensitisation on the others part. Some people may be too far gone to be changed, but most people can be. Most of them don’t realise that they are making a remark and do so without an understanding. In our days, we had to put up with a lot of casual sexism and at that time I thought that these things are less important and you just tolerate them and find a way around it. There used to be a number of scribblings here and there, and catcalls etc. I used to ignore it then, but today I don’t think that is the right way to go about it.
9. What is your opinion about steps like the super-numeric reservation for women in IITs?
I am not commenting on the exact methodology as of now. However, the main thing is that there is some bias around girls entering into IITs because of different social factors. This is just a way of correcting the bias by a very small extent.
10. What is your advice to young girls and guys currently studying in college?
I am not very good at giving a very direct advice. But I can talk about some of my observations. I see that the current generation is very professional and very focussed. But I feel that today, all of us don’t have a lot of time. In our time, all of us including us as students and our parents, had a lot more time for leisure activities. So my message to you is that you should have a balanced life. Have fun. Enjoy. Learn other things about life, while seeing that you are working towards success.
Another thing I notice in this generation is that many people think alike. There are narratives that xyz is the best thing to do, or uvw is the best profession there is. Additionally, there are predefined steps to reach there. However, it’s not like everybody has to follow the same path. While following these predefined steps, people miss out on other things which are important but don’t seem that important in the short term. I believe that it is very important to have a more holistic learning.
Also, I notice a lack of focus on deeper learning. People are more focussed on short term goals. For example, people tend to work hard on those 1–2 subjects which are important for their internships/placements. However, going further in life, having a deeper understanding of all the subjects in your curriculum is important. From my experience, multi-dimensional people end up doing better in life. After all, life doesn’t stop at that dream job. Be unique. You are unique in your interests, your skills, your activities. Don’t lose that.
Interviewed by Sharmila Reddy Nangi
