In 2009 a large-scale project on Autism Spectrum Conditions (to translate screening and diagnostic tools and conduct a pilot prevalence study) was undertaken in India. Data was collected in two stages and the study was finally completed by 2014.
The first paper ‘Translation and Usability of Autism Screening and Diagnostic Tools for Autism Spectrum Conditions in India' was accepted and published in the peer reviewed Autism Research Journal in October 2014.
In May 2017, the second paper ‘Prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder and autistic symptoms in a school-based cohort of children in Kolkata, India' was published in the same journal.
The writing of, and the run up to the first grant application being accepted by Autism Speaks, New York, was documented in a light-hearted blog entry in December 2008 (the blog unfortunately was very short-lived and didn't run the duration of the project) which goes to show research can be serious but the team conducting it... not so much!!
"Weren't you at St. Stephen's College?"
January 2008 at the South East Asian Regional Conference on Autism in New Delhi is where it all really started.
The Research Fellow from Cambridge University, hereon called Sciencee, and the Autism 'Interventionist' from Kolkata, alias Artsy, reconnect. Both have found that their loyalties lie firmly within the field of Autism Spectrum Conditions ("...and to think we studied Chemistry and English Literature in University!"), and have Bengali roots ("though I am also part Malayalee" says Artsy) tending to draw them towards the East of India.
Sciencee and Artsy decide to form a 'team'!
A week later, at the Tollygunge Club in Kolkata, overlooking the golf course, over plates of paneer tikka and naan, with a beer and a mountain dew, the first strands of a '10 year plan' were being developed. Phds, training programmes, flow charts and bullet points in a tiny notebook, all eventually culminating in the GRAND center!
26th August 08...12 days to deadline
OR
Sciencee and Artsy now truly HAVE a team!
"Right, this is not really a reply to your mail, but...''
So began the email that dropped into Artsy's inbox late august indicating that a new grant had been announced by Autism Speaks in New York titled 'Developing Countries Epidemiology'. It is duly read and THEN the madness begins...
12 days of organised chaos followed, much like the traffic in Kolkata, with the cyber space between Cambridge and Kolkata filled with...
'ok so i spoke to...', 'do you think we should..', 'letter of support..hmmm i'll ask..', 'Shruti said she'll edit...', 'GO and buy headphones!', 'I've survived on 20 cups of tea today', 'I KNOW that but what i meant is...', 'GUESS WHAT!?!', 'I think you should go to bed since it's 5am', 'email subject: 1st draft', 'Atal has looked at the budget and...', 'email subject: 371st draft', 'the c on the 27th line on page 5 needs to be a capital', 'we're running out of space...' and so on and on and on.
But what a rush, what a thrill to have something close to our hearts to work towards, moulding grand ideas into a real plan...such a wonderful feeling of accomplishment when it was finally in, on time, and just the way we wanted it!
Who would have thought plans of a week of sleep after submission would be harder than the actual writing!
then
We waited...
then
Are we there yet?
then
10th Dec 08, 6am, somewhere in Cambridge: "Hello?...I can't hear you...what?...ok call me back". There is no greater anticlimax than a bad phone connection when one is shouting across continents with good news!