Every PhD story is unique, shaped by choices, circumstances, mentors, and serendipity. Looking back, I realize mine has been a winding yet rewarding journey—one that began with an interest in cryptography and evolved into a deep fascination with natural language processing (NLP). From Codes to Languages My research aspirations were first sparked after watching the biopic of Alan Turing. The elegance of cryptography fascinated me, and I initially hoped to pursue it further. However, when I joined JNU for my master’s, my preferred professor in cryptography had no available slots. That’s when I stumbled upon the thought: human languages are very much like cryptic messages—unintelligible until you know how to…