I always get teased about my rather uncommon career choices. I find the shock on their faces rather amusing and I find the stereotyping , fascinating and then they ask me how it all started and ten seconds later they tell me how I don’t look the type and a second later, they manage to add the “no no, I mean its really great, you must be really smart hey..;) but WHY?! “. I’ve heard these lines, a couple of hundred times in the past 3-4 years. I’m used to them but they’ve never failed to amuse me.

I study mathematics. Yes, straight maths, not combined with any other subjects, no minors, no joint degrees, just maths the way it is. I intend to pursue research in a closely math related field. I’m not smart, neither am I a nerd. I hardly study and I’m usually always ‘free’ to do something fun.[ I, however do believe that I have a couple of very eccentric habits. Ranging from my very nocturnal studying habits, (some of the greatest inspirational moments in my life had been at very random times of the night, in fact its actually 2:45am right now!) to talking to myself out loud at any given moment. I’m full of rather strange little characteristics.]

When I’m usually asked as to why I ended up with maths, I say that I was always good at it, I hated ‘studying and essay writing subjects’ towards the latter part of my school career, engineering sounded too regimented and I ended up choosing maths due to the flexibility of careers and the respect that the subject offered. But in a profound moment, I realise that, in retrospect, I cannot imagine doing anything else. I realise that I’m spending my life learning something completely artificial. Something unbelievably abstract. Something that I’ll never be able to touch and see. Something that tries to be perfect in an imperfect world. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with a subject which started as a fragment of someone’s imagination.

But then I try to imagine what the world would be like without mathematics, what the world would be like, if we did not know how to count. I think about all the other subjects that maths had inspired; physics, chemistry, economics, computing, technology, accounting,countless fields of research… and realise how blessed and privileged I am, to be a part of this awe-inspiring field. I’m suddenly filled with great inspiration and joy knowing that very few things could be as innovative and imaginative as mathematics. I smile with sadistic pleasure. I don’t care what you say. Mathematicians are not socially inept creatures, who do not have a life, they are some of the most creative and persevering people that the world has ever produced.