“Don’t believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation,” said Richard Bach, an American author.

Many students across India, especially from the families facing economic challenges, are out to conquer such limitations to achieve pinnacles of success. Abhishek Agrahari, an engineering student at TIET, Patiala, is one of them, striving hard to carve a success story of his own.

With 150 international research offers from over 25 countries in varied spheres of science and mathematics from top notch institutions in the USA, the UK, Russia, France, Germany, China, Canada, Singapore, South Korea, et al ( MIT, Oxford, Imperial and many more) under his belt he has a plethora of opportunities waiting for him.

However, in the wake of the financial hardships his family is facing, he has no option but to bank on sponsorship to enroll for research at prestigious foreign universities and realise his dream to “win the Nobel Prize (in sciences) and the Fields Medal for the country”.

“For that to happen, a lot of effort has to be put in on exhaustive research study with some financial support. As my family is unable to afford the financial support I need I am finding it difficult to achieve my academic goals. What’s more, my father lost his job last year which proved a bolt from the blue for the family,” said Abhishek.

Abhishek has, however, not lost hope. He is determined to face all the odds to realise his dream. The 23-year-old Delhi-based multidisciplinary student said, “Right now, I am collaborating with multiple institutes remotely on various research themes ranging from pure and applied mathematics to condensed matter physics, materials science, chemistry and chemical biology. I have 150+ international research offers from top foreign universities in 25+ nations. I need sponsorships to meet my research related expenses.”

They say decisions determine destiny…

Initially, he felt it was a Himalayan task, but once things settled down, everything became. It is rare for students to have research offers in either sciences or mathematics, but Abhishek made history by qualifying for both the streams.

“No one in the history of science and mathematics has ever got Nobel and Fields Medal both. Only four scientists – J Bardeen, M Curie, L Pauling and F Sanger bagged two Nobel Prizes. Researchers have also been awarded with Fields Medal in the area of topology. And Nobel in Blackholes Phyiscs-2020 was conferred on Roger Penrose and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez. So, there’s utmost use of Penrose diagrams in my area of research,” Agrahari added.

For Abhishek, the love for research stems from the fact that he does not believe in following the mainstream but longs to constantly explore something new. ‘‘Research has attracted me from the very beginning as I do not like following what has been done in the mainstream. I want to explore something new.’’

He said that he has to study from other sources for his research as the topics that he is focussing on are not taught at the bachelor’s level and they are mostly researched during the post-doctoral or PhD level.

“I’m also working on the black holes at Imperial College, London/Oxford University (remotely) along with some other collaborations in the field of pure mathematics in University of Miami, Rutgers University (both in USA) and Australian National University.”

‘‘I am also pursuing a research project in the broader areas of fluid mechanics, more specifically fluid-structure interaction theory, plasma physics, water waves mechanics, kinetic theory (kinetic equations and model like boltzmann equations, fluid kinetic coupled model), mathematical general relativity, black holes, formation of black holes due to sudden gravitational collapse of non linear waves and gauge theory,’’ added Agrahari.

He further said, “I’ve also been working on almost all facets of pure mathematics ranging from differential geometry, probability and statistics to low dimensional topology, algebraic geometry and analysis…how this works hand in hand with mathematical physics ranging in towards its application to mirror symmetry, string theory and quantum field theory.”

“Since all my work is research-oriented and multidisciplinary I learn various aspects ranging from pure mathematics, mechanical and aerospace engineering, materials science, physics and Penrose formalism. I’m confident that my area of research and foundation work will pave the way for Fields and Nobel few years from now,’’ he said.