scientist Jaykumar Vaidya

University of Virginia

MESCO Trust

KJ Somaiya College of Engineering

Vaidya at his 75 sq ft slum room in Kurla

TIFR’s research papers in reputed international journals earn him a PhD offer from the University of Virginia; his is an inspirational tale of grit and sweat.A potholed lane lined with garbage leads to a small room in a Kurla slum. This is the house of 24-yearold scientist Jaykumar Vaidya, an ex-TIFR researcher whose grit and hard work have earned him a ticket out of his impoverished life. Vaidya will fly to the US today, where he will pursue his PhD at theWhile working at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) as junior research associate, Vaidya published two scientific papers in reputed international journals in 2017 and 2018 based on which the University of Virginia invited him to join them as graduate research assistant.Vaidya’s journey – that began in one small room in Kurla – is full of such milestones. As a child he was raised by a single mother, Nalini, who was first banished from her marital home and later got divorced from her husband. She gave up her clerical job in 2003 to take care of her mother and worked several small jobs to make ends meet. Besides, she juggled court dates for the divorce case that lasted nine years.Poverty threw a slew of challenges before Vaidya and his mother. “We survived on vada pav, samosa or chai and bread. There was no such thing as lunch or dinner. When we came back home by the end of the day, we ate,” he told Mirror at his residence.A temple trust provided some provisions to the family and till today the mother-son duo wears second-hand clothes. A refrigerator and TV in the cramped room are also second-hand. Packed to capacity, this 75 sq ft room is where Vaidya studied for school and an engineering degree.“There was never any money. I never went to school picnics, to eat outside with friends, to hang out or for movies. By the end of the month, we had less than Rs 10,” he recalled. The desire to become a scientist germinated after watching Discovery channel at other people’s homes. “There was always the hope that there is the next day; and that the next day would be better. I believed that everything is possible if you are patient, optimistic and hardworking,” he said.Vaidya’s mother recalled, “I told him he would have a better life if he studied. I routinely got letters from school asking me to pay the fee or they would not show the results,” she said, adding that the family went from pillar to post seeking help from various trusts. Some brutally advised Nalini to make her son a driver. However, steady funds from theand the Indian Development Foundation (IDF) gave wings to Vaidya’s dream of pursuing studies. To augment fund flow, Vaidya undertook soldering work at a TV repair shop when he was in school; this got him Rs 4,000 a month.Vaidya graduated in electrical engineering from. While in college, he bagged three national-level and four state-level awards in robotics which earned him an internship at Larsen & Toubro. After graduation, he joined TIFR in 2016 for a monthly salary of Rs 30,000.“I could finally renovate my house. It was infested with insects, the floor had no tiles and the bathroom was leaking,” he said. He recently bought an air-conditioner as well.Vaidya put in his hard-earned money to take GRE and TOEFL tests. While the University of Virginia has offered him an annual stipend of $ 23,400, the application and visa process have burnt a hole in his pocket. To keep afloat, Vaidya started teaching international students online. A white board framed on the wall above the bed is where he solved complicated equations standing and perched his phone on a wooden stand nailed to another wall.Vaidya plans to work on solutions that will make India self-reliant in the hardware technologies. In the next two years, he plans to bring his mother to the US, as “she deserves the heaven,” he said.“Vaidya’s work over the last three years propelled him for the PhD programme. He is an unusually hardworking person and I have not seen many like him,” said Prof Mandar M Deshmukh from TIFR, who was Vaidya’s mentor.