I started my research career as a shiny young Gynaecologist leading the operations of a prestigious Clinical Research project the Multicenter Growth Reference Study (MGRS WHO) with the AIIMS (New Delhi) under the mentorship of Dr MK Bhan and direct operational guidance of one of the most rigorous research operations experts that I know of ….Dr Nita Bhandari

Happy to lead my team of 70 people and feeling the boss of it all; I reached my first day at work!

Dr Nita met me and told me that my ‘posting’ for the next 3 days was with the office boy Ram who was preparing submission documents for the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) grant and would teach me the ropes! That was an anticlimax to my day to say the least.

Persistence being the name of my game ,I learned how to staple large documents, punch so that the punches are aligned ,the difference in box files and ‘sarkari pink’ files ,how to spiral bind ,paginate, check the sequence of documentation and last but not the least the way ‘madam’ liked the staples on the documents. Believe you me I had a new found respect for the gentleman!! And he found time to make tea for all of us in the midst of so much ‘paperwork’

My next posting was with the data entry and validation team, from there, on to the anthropometry team (lugging large stadiometers up 5 floors in the Dilli heat was no mean feat!). I learned here the rigour of the data collection and validation processes and the relevance of precision and accuracy and both collection of data (instrument validation, anthropometrists’ training, Quality Assurance) and entry of the data (double data entry in the time pf paper forms)

When I was finally allowed to take my first team meeting as the ‘project leader’ I knew all my team their trials and tribulations, processes and fibs

I am always grateful to each and every team member who trained me and ensured excellent care of participants, ensured ethics and lean operations at every step and to Dr Nita Bhandari for training my eyes ‘see’ all this!