about me

I'm Anand, a graduate student living in Montréal, QC, with my wife and daughter, working on a PhD in management at the Desautels Faculty of Management, McGill University. I have a PhD in Disease Ecology from the Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution program at Emory University. Between the two PhDs, I was a technology consultant with Accenture, based out of Atlanta, GA.

A brief history

I was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, to Lakshmi and Surya, a couple of young professional tams. We moved to Bangalore (now Bengaluru) a few years later, and I headed off to boarding school - The Scindia School - in Gwalior. After school, I spent a couple of years as an undergraduate back in Bangalore before transferring at age 20 to Emory University in Atlanta to get a bachelors in biology. I went on to get a doctorate in ecology from Emory, during which I developed an interest in complex systems, mathematical modeling, and computational research methods.

Evolving interests and needs took me away from the academic path. I joined Accenture as an analytics consultant just around the time that corporate data science was emerging as a powerful idea and economic force- early in the hype cycle of Big Data and AI and digital tranformation. Over the years I embedded in a number of large organizations, as my skills were mostly needed in large multi-site/enterprise technology implementations. Initially, my role was that of a data scientist, which involved primary research and construction of production-ready predictive algorithms. I evolved into the role of a "full stack" enterprise digital transformation consultant, taking on more strategic roles in deal-shaping, technology and process design and evaluation in addition to the computational work.

Consulting in the frequently disrupted and therefore constantly changing worlds of communications, media and technology in North America allowed me to observe a wide variety of organizations and settings, in my capacity as a change agent. The PhD after my name and my - dare I say - "easygoing interdisciplinarity" allowed me to blend in to sales/service centers, IT departments, and C-suite offices alike.

Curiousity piqued, and with a head full of atheoretical soup, I decided to transition my life stage back to that of a student, so that I may make sense of it all, and hopefully create new and generative knowledge. Which brings us to September 2019 and the Desautels Faculty of Managment, McGill University, Montreal, where I began to earn my second PhD, this time in management and organizational studies.

dabbling in many things...

I think of myself as a sort of reference librarian. I have a lifelong obsession with collecting and classifying bits of knowledge. The type of knowledge I enjoy the most is obtained by doing. So I do a lot of things. Often with my hands. The result is... a lot of knowledge detritus.

I have done these things and therefore I can and would like to engage at least somewhat intelligently in these kinds of things with you.

I sincerely hope that this section of this document grows for as long as this document exists.

I dabble. I put myself to "works". The making of things. At boarding school, I attempted paper making, printing press, woodworking, and clay sculpture. Upon arriving in the US, I bought a tablet (an oddity in those days), which I used to learn how to draw.

I did work as an editorials illustrator for the Emory Wheel when I was an undergraduate, in addition to the odd commissioned work here and there.

In grad school, I was interested in adding more dimension to my dabbling, and took up woodcarving. Then, as now, I very rarely kept any of my works. The people around me, to whom I could give my works, therefore determined what I worked on. My initial woodworking pieces tended to be derived from Christian, Islamic, Judaic, and Hindu iconography.

Latter work was utilitarian (combs, ladles, furniture). Aditi encouraged me to diversify into carpentry and blacksmithing. We forged wedding rings from titanium for her sister in Calgary.

There was once an arm knitting phase. Behold Aditi, my couture model.

We restored old furniture. I got into carving hobo nickels. I flirted with glazed pottery.

We made a coat for a Very Good Dog out of dyed and waxed canvas and leather.

My other great love is pet puja: culinary worship. I roast my own coffee in small batches in a dedicated cast iron skillet that has seen not soap nor water for 16 years. I have other cast irons for cooking. I enjoy experimenting with French and Japanese cuisine in addition to Indian and American food. I've grown to love Quebec cuisine and the local terroir over the last five years. I'm a "first principles" guy more than a "follow the recipe" guy. Bring on the Escoffier.

I like comic books. Or perhaps "graphic novels". Some capes and supes stuff, a couple classic european bande dessinée series, some manga, other weird stuff. Maus. And Saga. Of course.

I'm a history buff. I make esoteric musical choices. I also like to learn languages. I'm currently working on my french. I climbed mountains, I climbed to the peak of Stok Kangri, and got to 19,000 ft and failed to summit Koteshwar. I did Kilimanjaro, but not in a rhinoceros costume. I love camping and living off the land. I've run a few half marathons, sort of half heartedly, once in vibrams. I love good stationary, particularly good paper (Lalo Verge de France for letters, Tomoe River for scribbling, Clairfontaine for archival notes), fountain pens (frequent EDC is an Ensso Piuma Pocket Pen in Titanium), and inks (new favourite is J. Herbin Caroube de Chypre). I'm an aspiring cinephile.

Through all these compulsions, these bouts of creative madness, my love and my best friend since I was 10 years old- Aditi. I dont know how she puts up with me.

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