THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Eleven years to earn a doctoral degree may raise a few eyebrows in academic circles. But when one comes to know the numerous adversities a 52-year-old teacher has battled over these years to achieve it, admiration is sure to follow.
Meet Anand Lali Neera, an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department of Government Engineering College, Thrissur. Recently, she earned a PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Kerala.
Neera registered for PhD in part time mode in 2014. Owing to her social committment, the research she chose was on providing a sustainable, green technology for improving the quality of septic tank effluents.
While her research was progressing, Neera's husband met with a debilitating car accident and she had to spend months on end nursing him back to health. Soon, she developed signs of depression prompting her to slowly withdraw from her research pursuits.
Battling depression was only the beginning of the long road ahead, A shoulder injury two years later and a severe dislocation of the lower back hindered her mobility, affecting both her teaching duties and research.
"There have been occasions when I took almost half an hour to climb a flight of stairs in college. Owing to depression, I had thought of quitting even my teaching job, But support from my family and research dean KA Shafi kept me going," Neera said.
The litany of woes did not end there. Post the Covid pandemic, she was diagnosed with brain tumour for which she underwent a surgery. A few months later, the tumour was found to be non-cancerous. But it had already affected her vision, hearing and memory to some extent. Still, Neera never let those adversities affect her duties as a teacher.
"For me, it was a twin battle with depression on the one end and various physical ailments on the other, But I realised the best medicine to ward off depression was to follow my passion, which is teaching and research," Neera said. She re-registered for her PhD programme in 2022 and from then on, there was no looking back till her mission was accomplished.
Neera plans to apply for a patent for the product she has devised as part of the research and intends to partner with Suchitwa Mission for its implementation. Her research was guided by S Ayoob and R Ashalatha
"Depression is one area that has been mostly kept under wraps due to its link with mental health. But like any major physical ailment, it also needs attention," said Neera. She is now pursuing two post graduate courses in distance education mode, along with her teaching duties, to keep her mind fully engaged.
"Besides Public Administration, Psychology is a course that I am pursuing right now. My aim is to learn more about depression and related mental conditions so that it can help me and also hundreds of those in a similar situation," she said. Neera also has plans to specialise in Clinical Psychology at a later stage and pursue it as a full-time vocation post retirement.
Neera's husband Dr CR Nandakumar is an ENT surgeon. Her son Nirand Nanda, who is also a medical doctor, is preparing for his post graduation in Psychiatry.