On 11.11.11 I proposed and the day became immortal

Each relationship requires time, exponential energy, fights with significant other, fights with your own self, affirmations coupled with advice, care and sweetness of love. Such has been my case as well; this has been a beautiful experience (include catharsis).

Research, my love, when I imagine you.. I could only think about art, enjoyment of learning, understanding complex realities and manifestations of all three. I thought IB curriculum would be a good choice on which I can place my trust. But then I started to share the idea with others and got responses like, “Think PRAGMATIC”; “Its not PRAGMATIC”; “Make it PRAGMATIC”; “PRAGMATISM is the key for graduate research.” It started my eternal disgust for the word.. 

Can a person be pragmatic in love, that I would ask? But then you weigh things in order to devise that perfect recipe. Recipe which sounds good on paper, looks good as an idea.

What about research on research methods. Seems a beautiful idea, I was excited as a wanderer; obviously love is blind. Upon the touch of love, everyone becomes a poetic. But the world is not filled with poets.. PRAGMATIC, PRAGMATIC, make it doable, PRAGMATIC; rhyming quatrain does not make the world and its inhabitants poetic. There I announced firaaq [a separation] till the right time comes.

The supervisor thought that I should revert back to IB curriculum and so I united with my first love again, not ART but IB which is not less than a piece of art IMHO. But what to study in IB? Research filled with questions. It first annoys you and then you and your supervisor annoy each other with questions and finally these annoy your research participants. Annoy-ing in a good way, certainly!

So coming back to the question.. I would be studying student autonomy by exploring how Theory of Knowledge helps student autonomy which then becomes knower’s autonomy and whether knower is considered autonomous or not. I would be studying knower’s trajectories of autonomy. It became pragmatic, something which can add value to the CV, wohooo but again a complex subject. I love complex stuff I guess :p

However, to explain it in terms of proposal was not easy, kind of frustrating. Who would like to read so much, write so much, and drink so much – coffee yummmm. Is proposing ever easy?! You need to have the perfect words which never can be that perfect. The amount of reading and writing and coffee that was consumed couldn’t help my mom but to remark “PhD nahi karna, abhi hi pagal hogaya hai” which can be loosely translated into “Don’t do PhD, you have already become a lunatic!”

Thanks to my supervisor I finally discovered what is Theoretical Framework and my research had quite a simple one.. duh!! I felt quite stupid about not being able to pin it.

By the time I {re}wrote research question.. the idea of trajectory takes a back seat, though it still is a driving force. Now answer and explanation to life’s many problems are articulated by me through domains of autonomy and trajectory.. lol. That is called obsession.

So I proposed on 11.11.11 {i.e. submitted the research proposal}, the title says “Tracing spaces of Knower’s Autonomy in International Baccalaureate Curriculucm”. The in-laws [reviewers :p] came after a week, I proudly presented my case in good clothes and the deal was done 😀 Baat pakki hogayi tou the librarian now wants some mithai [sweets] :p

My review was less on ideas and it resonated something of this sort.

So I am back to work. Happiness is short-lived. I hope I keep my promises {of proposal}.

Nevertheless, research is a messy business. I hope you clicked the links, it has comics – nerdy comics called PhD Comics though I am not a doctorate student :p They’re so much fun!! at least for me 😀

ps: I am a lazy e-potato. Isn’t it just a start 😉