It often occurs to us how the world outside our country is, which we only get to see digitally. I also had similar aspirations during my undergraduate and like many others in my class, I started applying to places abroad for a summer internship in 2007. I was young, energetic and wanted to explore places as much as possible. So, I sat down in my free time and applied to, don’t remember exactly, but probably 40 – 50 professors. I had an interview from the US university which didn’t materialize. But, to brief you on my approach, I already had research experience in a biomaterials lab in 2006 which guided me in applying with a specific research agenda. I got a positive response from a professor at the University of Naples, Italy who asked me to compose a research proposal to assess my science in Biomaterials.
As many of you know about the paperwork that goes behind studying abroad, I also waited for the appropriate documents to join the university for a summer. Being in a prestigious college in 2007 helped as I got priority for receiving my passport with my IIT room no. as my address stamped on it 😊. But, even this didn’t come easy as I had to travel to Lucknow from Kanpur (There was no passport office in Kanpur!) twice to pitch to the officer how important it was to get the passport. In those days, we were the second most populated country in the world, currently, we are Numero Uno! Then came the task of applying for the Visa for which I traveled to Delhi and got my Visa after some delay. Don’t know what went wrong, but this has been my story with Visas! But, because of the delay in Visa arrival, I had to postpone my journey to Napoli.
I travelled with one of my friends and reached Milan. From there, we took a domestic flight to Napoli. It was a nice summertime and there was a bright sun when we reached in the afternoon. Not knowing Italian rules, I tried to bargain for a taxi ride and ended up saving a euro. We reached our agent’s place and waited there for a while. Then, took off on a bus ride to reach our apartment. The agent also showed us CRIB (our work department) at the University of Naples, where we were supposed to work. The same day we were exploring the area, and accidently bumped into an Asian lady. She said “From Srilanka ?” to which I replied, “From India”.
Next day, I met my mentor who I had been in contact with since India and she showed me around the department. I had to synthesize chitosan-gelatin microspheres in a span of 2 months. My friend was asked to work on nanofabrication. I had a great time there learning new stuff related to biomaterials. The department was welcoming and people enjoyed working there. However, the downside of being in Europe is that people mostly prefer speaking their local language and are not aware of Spoken English. But since we were 2, so we managed!
Every weekend we explored Napoli. We would walk entirely as it’s pleasant sight-seeing a beautiful Napoli. Many times, we would get tired, not knowing the direction, but still persist. Once we visited a museum on Sunday, and found it to be closed. So we wandered around and found a park where youngsters were playing cricket. Yes, you heard me right! Cricket. We watched them play for a while and then returned. We even witnessed a very famous Napoli vs Roma football match at the stadium nearby and enjoyed the great Italian celebration post-Napoli’s victory. Wandering in the city, we found a local beach with less crowd but people relaxing on the weekend, it was fun!
Piazza Techio, Napoli
One time, we went to the very famous Italian-french coastline known as Sorento and enjoyed the scenic beauty. On other occasions, we went to Ischia island, Rome and Piza. The only city we traveled to outside Italy was Paris. This trip to Paris was another adventure, which I will share some other time.
All this while, I was in a foreign country with everything new around me. I had learned to cook and many times we would eat at McDonald’s near our apartment. Napoli is known all over the world as the city where Pizzas originated. We had very tasty, cheaply priced pizzas for lunch on many days. On one occasion, I invited our neighbor to cook pasta for us. She cooked it in an Italian style and ofcourse! it tasted like heaven.
Although, I have mentioned a bit of my experience from the summer of 2007, but I didn’t explain what I did with my project on biomaterials. As someone working in the area of biomaterials would know, microspheres are designed by using either water-in-oil or oil-in-water methodology. As non-soluble solvents are mixed, they surround polymer molecules in a low-energy configuration thereby giving a spherical structure. I changed many different parameters during the project but couldn’t understand why it formed unevenly shaped structures vis-à-vis spheres. Overall, I had a great experience wherein I learned about Italian culture and also made some bucks over the summer!
Sorento, Campania Region
After I returned to India and joined college for my final year, I reattempted the synthesis of microspheres for cell culture applications. To my astonishment, I was able to get very high-quality microspheres in a span of 4 – 5 months. For this, I had just occupied a corner of my lab at IIT, wherein I tried many permutations and combinations. Although, now with technological advancements one can derive mathematical models to perfect the micro/ nano fabrications, but, we only dreamt about doing it in those days.
It's been almost 16 years since my first travel outside India and I am sure much must have changed. But, you never forget the experiences faced early in your life and so didn't I.
Grazie!