Four days ago, I completed eight years at IISc, or, in the Indian academic system. Time does fly rather fast, and I’m sure, it’ll not be long before I stand on the last working day of my career in 2050 (if I’m not dead due to an accident or a disease by then), looking back at my life on the day of my retirement. That would be the day I can look back and realize whether or not, as a researcher I made any positive impact - howsoever incremental, on the society over the 36 years of my career. Of these 36 years, 8 years have gone by, just like that, in the blink of an eye! I’ve been wanting to write something for the past several days on my 8 years at IISc but I must play the same old, boring gramophone record again, which is – there isn’t just enough time to sit and write! I am sitting on a journal rebuttal/response letter of a student who needs to graduate soon; I am also piling up stuff on at least two manuscripts written by two other PhD students (they’ll all chew my head if they f