Pursuing a doctoral in Archaeology in the midst of a pandemic: a state of incertitude and quandary
In September 2021, it will be three years since I enrolled for my PhD program. Normally, I'd be expected to be somewhere in the middle of completing my research or nearing towards the end of it. When I joined the course, I was determined to submit my thesis in three and a half years maximum. Now before I write anything else, let me first tell you about my topic of research. The subject that I have chosen to work on is not employed in mainstream archaeological application in India. At the time of applying I was very well aware of this fact and looked at it as a challenge that I thought I could take on (I still think I can). So you see, the research subject already had its limitations when I enrolled. It took me a good one and a half year to find a collaboration to get my samples processed into data that I could analyse. This collaboration I found at a department in Delhi University. I travelled there with the soil samples in February 2020 and prepared them for the initial stage. Due...