Dear All,
Sorry for this late mail! Was in transit- but it gave me time to plan
a brief note on Swapna ji!!! It is the great opportunity I have been
waiting for!!!! Thanks Garg ji for asking all to write about her. And
I see that others have already had their say.
Well, Dr. Swapna Prabhu alias Swap is the person who can irritate me
most : ) Because she is EXTREMELY talented and does not let others
know even about 10% of it.
We have known each other for all our botanical lives (starting from
MSC) and it seems like eternity. We worked together in Mahrashtra and
those were the "wild" times we had on field trips and her knowldege of
taxonomy and knack of building rapport with the local people are just
unparalleled!
She travelled widely in Nagaland and Arunachal for work, in the most
inaccessible places and in strangest of conditions (often on foot) and
fell irreversibly in love with the NorthEast. That's why she went to
Shillong (NEHU) university and worked for her PHD in ecology in Nokrek
biosphere reserve in gruelling conditions and life threatening
diseases. her thesis is the first major work on the area and a great
reference to have.
She has so far done field work in : Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat,
Delhi, Haryana but her major work has been in Nagaland, Arunachal
Pradesh, Meghalaya and she has travelled widely in South and Central
India (including Bihar!!). This wide experience has led to her deep
knowledge of indian vegetation ecology which very few botanists have.
In any area she travels, she can pick up any language with any accent
very fast and could speak Konyak (Naga) dialect and Nagamese after her
first trip to Nagaland. She also can converse in Khasi language.
{However she is a talented actress too, and can fool you by
confidently speaking gibberrish and passing it off as a little known
mizo dialect : ) }
I will not call her a taxonomist , as it is too restricted a term- she
is truly a "BOTANIST" with knowledge of taxonomy, ethnobotany,
vegetation ecology and conservation science.
Someone called her mild mannered- that is generally true, but she has
a very strong mind, which is like steel when the need arises-
We were all waiting for very long to have her in role of a teacher- as
she is excellent in it too. So am glad that so many people are
benefitting from her knowledge (-and she has enthused even someone as
lethargic as me in writing.)
As for her students, I would say that- if she scolds you for
something, you obviously deserved it!! She would never lose her
patience unless it is necessary and her criticism is always positive-
so take it in that manner and you will learn more about botany that
way.
There is so much more to write but I will stop here.
Thanks again Garg ji
Regards,
Aparna
PS: She sings very well too, so try your luck during some field trip
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