“When I heard a lark mimicking a few years back, I started recording its calls with a basic phone. As a teenager from a middle-class family with limited pocket money, I could not afford professional equipment. So I did some research and started making my own recording gear 'jugaad' (DIY) using truck headlights and other random things from a scrapyard. From utensils to cattle fodder, I tried every possible thing and built my recording gear from scratch.”

“Like many ecologists, I love being in the field! I don’t know if I could be happy in a city for very long anymore. I also love writing about my work, and the birds and animals I see – my greatest joy is to show other people what I see in the field (with words, I am not artistic in the least). It is an extraordinary honour to be able to live in these wild places, and I am always looking for ways to communicate both science and natural history to an audience that is far removed from it. How can you be passionate about something you don’t know about, or care about?”

"I have a background in Engineering, and never had any formal education in Ecology. I have always had an interest in wildlife and nature, but had no idea of how to make a career in this stream. Internet was not as easily accessible as it is today and like most other school goers, I knew only about a career in the Engineering and Medical professions. Things were clearer to me only after Post Graduation in Biotechnology, when I applied for a PhD to only those institutions which had ecology. When I started off with my PhD, I had no preferred taxa or species, nor any specific research question. I was just happy to be able to visit the forests and relished the idea of being surrounded by wilderness."