Bikram Pathak
For Bikram Pathak, the biggest obstacle in learning was not the difficulty of the subject. Akin to us, it was the fear of starting it.
A Microbiologist by training, Bikram once found Mathematics and Computational Biology intimidating. This unease began to change during his master’s dissertation at CDRI Lucknow, where a few weeks of computational work introduced him to Bioinformatics and sparked an unexpected interest. What initially felt unfamiliar soon became a direction he wanted to explore further.
NPTEL became a salient part of this transition. He first encountered the platform in 2022 through Banaras Hindu University, where taking an NPTEL course was part of his master’s curriculum. He took two courses first, then never stopped. Today, he has completed 19 NPTEL courses, earning the distinction of NPTEL Star and becoming a Domain Scholar in both Biosciences and Computational Biology.
Yet the number of courses tells only part of his story. His choices show how deliberately he has moved beyond his original discipline. From Proteomics and Interactomics, he progressed towards AI in drug discovery, programming and Computational Biology. His learning journey eventually led to a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship at IIT Delhi, where he worked on protein aggregation and protein-ligand interactions using computational and experimental approaches.
However, this progression was not comfortable. One Systems Biology course from IIT Madras proved particularly difficult. Coming from a background in biological sciences, Bikram found mathematics challenging and could not clear the course in his first attempt. But he refused to let that setback define his ability. He returned for a second attempt, determined to overcome the hurdle.
“The biggest competitor that you have to overcome is your fear.”
For Bikram, overcoming fear does not mean mastering the unfamiliar overnight. He believes learners should start with accessible, relevant subjects, build a strong foundation, and then gradually push beyond their comfort zones. His own path reflects that progression, from Biosciences to Computational Biology and eventually towards Computer Science and algorithms.
“There is nothing wrong in fearing or being scared about anything. But just be at it. And at one point, you will feel that, okay, that was nothing.”
Today, Bikram is actively exploring PhD opportunities while working on research and developing personal projects. Yet he remains less concerned with whether his future lies in academia or industry than with what his work can achieve. For him, the goal is to create something that reaches people and makes a tangible difference. His story is not about becoming fearless. It is about refusing to let fear decide what he learns. The subject that once seemed too mathematical did not disappear; he simply stayed with it long enough for it to become familiar. Perhaps that is where learning really begins, not when we stop being afraid, but when curiosity becomes stronger than the fear of not knowing.
~written by Shambhavi Shekhar