Growing up in a bustling city with a population of 25 million is quite enough to make you hesitate about moving to a quaintly named city called Ann Arbor. I’m glad I shoved the hesitation aside and made my way here, 4 suitcases and all! I was born in Bombay (now renamed to the more ‘Indian’ Mumbai) in India, where I spent the first sixteen years of my life having so much fun at school and in play that I forgot to plan my future. It was by sheer serendipity that I ended up doing my undergraduate degree in Singapore, a city so organized it actually made me long for chaos. The fun continued at university with a new language contributing to quite a bit of it—Mandarin with its tonal pitches had me hooked and I spent many a happy hour trying to converse in it while my friends indulged me. This time, however, I had a plan for the future. I wanted to be a geneticist and work on the human genome—nothing, I think, is as fascinating as the most basic building blocks of what defines us. There’s even a gene that determines body odor! The applications went in, the acceptance was received with much joy (on Valentine’s Day, I must add!), and I was all set to plunge into the messy world of DNA. In less than a year here, I find myself completely settled, with a favourite spot at the medical library, shortcuts through the labyrinth of buildings on campus, my favorite flavor of local coffee and friends who will help me practice Mandarin. From Bombay to Singapore to Ann Arbor, I find myself pinching myself at having been fortunate enough to discover these cities and make them my own. And as much as I whine about the unpredictable weather, the 6-month vacation that the sun takes and the lack of an interest of people here in cricket, Ann Arbor to me is, now, home.
