// a zigzag journey through places and phases //
Born and brought up in Mumbai. Crowded trains, monsoon floods, and the constant hum of the city. Early fascination with puzzles and numbers started here — probably from too many hours staring at railway timetables.
Moved to Bolpur for schooling — a quieter life near Shantiniketan. Red soil, sal trees, and lazy afternoons. This is where mathematics stopped being homework and started being interesting.
BS in Mathematics at Bolpur College, then MS at Visva-Bharati — with a B.Ed detour after. First exposure to research culture and the idea that you could spend your life thinking about problems. Got hooked.
Deep dive into cryptography with Prof. Sabyasachi Dey — thesis on cryptanalysis of ARX-based ciphers. Late nights debugging solvers, early mornings reading papers, and the thrill of finding a new attack. Coffee consumption reached historic highs.
A short post-doc at IIT Madras with Prof. Santanu Sarkar, then Research Fellow at NTU Singapore with Prof. Thomas Peyrin at SyLLab. Still breaking ciphers, still drinking too much coffee. New city, new challenges, same curiosity. The journey continues.