Celebrating
Diwali at home
It seldom happens that multitalented people express themselves in such diverse fields: working to make patients’ lives better through developing medicines for various diseases, and using acrylic medium to depict one’s imagination on canvas. I am talking about an Indian, and especially Jaipur-born, Dr. Alpana Gupta, who despite living in the US for the past 26 years, has maintained her connection with Indian culture and its rich heritage. This deep-rooted appreciation for Indian traditions and her for love for art,manifests itself in her paintings. She has made several paintings which express her feelingsin that moment – landscapes & sceneries,different moods & seasons, animals and birds, flowers etc. Each painting is associated with a certain memory, and tells its own story, even without a caption.
Alpana has 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, developing drugs in major therapeutic areas, such as oncology, immunology, cardiometabolic and CNS. For her Ph.D. degree, she worked at the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (affiliated to Osmania University, Hyderabad) on using keratin proteins as markers for GI cancers. Thereafter, she moved to the US, where she did Research Associateships at New York Medical College and Bayer Diagnostics, NY. She started her pharmaceutical career with a small drug delivery company (Emisphere Technologies), and is now working in Regulatory Affairs at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, which is a big pharma company headquartered in Germany.
Of
note, I would like to inform the readers that Alpana was born in Jaipur, had
her early education there,and is Dr. P.D. Gupta's daughter. Perhaps this is an
inherited learning from herparents, especially her father,who is a
well-knownscientist in India and abroad, and has given lectures in universities
of more than half the countries of the world. His major contribution to society
is the several articles & books he has authored in the field of science and
many popular science topics. I am very impressed with Dr. Sahib himself because
he is more than 80 years old, and even now keeps busy by actively writing
scientific articles.In these past 15 months, during the Corona pandemic, he has
published about 50 articles and a book called Corona Gyan. I felt
it necessary to mention this in his daughter's write-up because children can
also,without even realizing, adopt the values, lifestyle and mannerisms from
their parents.
Alpana
is following in her father’s footsteps by keeping herself busy, like her dad,
and promoting Indian culture, values & practices in fusion with western
lifestyle, so that it can be easily adapted. Besides work and art, Alpana has
an avid interest in gardening, reading, exercising and promoting a healthy
lifestyle. She is an enthusiastic member of the Toastmasters organization,
which is a international platform for developing leadership skills. She has
coached and mentored several colleagues, peers and youngsters to motivate them,
inspire them and build their confidence. Alpana has a vivacious personality, is
a woman associated with science and Indian culture, who despite leading a busy
life, has expressesher talented mind in the form of paintings,when time
permits.When asked abouther future plans, she mentioned that after the corona
pandemic situation normalizes, she would like to bring her paintings back to
the place where she was born, and open an exhibition in Jaipur, so that her
paintings can be enjoyed by people of the city.
A preview of some of her paintings are provided in this article. Who would have thought that a person with a scientific background could also be a talented artist!
