So far, you have met "the scientist" fascinated by the brain, complex data, and the patterns hidden within it. But perhaps it is time to step outside the lab for a moment and meet Suvra, just another human being trying to make sense of this extraordinary world.

I come from a small, beautiful village in Nagaland, in northeastern India, where I was fortunate to grow up surrounded by mountains and a wonderfully supportive family. My childhood was shaped by two very different, yet strangely complementary influences: a deeply spiritual mother and a highly mathematical father.

Somewhere between the two, I became fascinated by both Zen and Numbers.

From my mother came an early curiosity about Buddhist philosophy: the nature of suffering, the interconnectedness of life, and the idea that awareness can change how we experience the world. From my father came an appreciation for numbers, patterns, and mathematical thinking. Although, for the record, textbook mathematics and I were not exactly best friends at school. Shhh… let us keep that a secret between us!! ;)

One of my earliest memories of becoming curious about the brain goes back to when I was seven. My science teacher once showed me an illustration of the human brain from a textbook meant for older students. Pointing towards the insular region, she told me that somewhere there lay our sense of identity and suffering. Of course, seven-year-old me had absolutely no idea what that really meant. But the thought that something inside this strange organ could shape who we are, what we feel, and how we suffer stayed with me. Years later, I would learn that how this organ is indeed deeply involved in interoception, emotion, self-awareness, and our subjective experience of ourselves.

Perhaps that little moment planted a seed.

As I grew older, I found myself observing people, behavior, emotions, and the world around me with the same curiosity. What makes us who we are? Why do we suffer? And, more importantly, can understanding it help us reduce that suffering? Nearly three decades later, I am still asking those questions. Only now, I search for answers in the patterns hidden within the numbers generated by this remarkable organ.

That childhood curiosity has grown into an enduring love affair with Zen, the brain, and the paradoxical beauty of numbers. Science has answered some of my questions, but, rather inconveniently, every answer seems to generate ten new ones. And I still get that little dopamine rush when a complicated dataset suddenly reveals a pattern that was hiding there all along.

Outside science, however, I am quite an ordinary person. Almost all my interests and activities are centered around my professional work, but I do have a few hobbies that keeps me grounded. I love mountains, open skies, books, unfamiliar places, and those quiet moments when the world seems to slow down. Zen has influenced not only how I think about the brain, but also how I try to approach life: finding simplicity within complexity, staying curious, and noticing moments that are easy to overlook. Travel is another way I explore the world. New landscapes, cultures, and conversations shift my perspective and remind me how much exists beyond our individual realities. Photography became my way of holding on to some of those fleeting moments. In Suvra’s Moments of Zen, I collect photographs from places I have travelled, moments that made me pause, look twice, or simply feel something. They are not meant to be perfect, nor are they seeking validation. They are simply fragments of places, people, emotions, and perspectives that meant something to me at that very moment.

Perhaps that is what connects the things I love: Neuroscience, Numbers, Mountains, Books, and Photography.

Different ways of looking a little closer and noticing what might otherwise be missed :)