India India
I’m Hera Havewala, and I’m a 26-year-old dentist and scientific communicator from Mumbai.
Since a young age, I’ve had a host of varied interests and activities I took part in-athletics, writing, girl guides, and more. When it was time to pick a career path, I chose to follow in my mother’s footsteps and studied dentistry. For creative fulfilment, I simultaneously started a blog where I wrote stories, poems, and my musings, promising myself that I would always continue writing.
The pandemic struck when I was in training. I felt a need to help, and signed up for COVID duty. While working with the government, I conducted research among COVID patients, published my first scientific paper, and later got involved with the vaccination program at NESCO, one of Mumbai’s largest COVID facilities, where I was part of the operations and supervising team.
Having grown up watching my mother work in a clinic, I always thought that would be the way I would go too. But life took a series of odd twists and turns. I was hospitalised for an injury, and had to be on bed rest for a while.
That was when I reconnected with my love for writing, and picked up my old blog which had, through the years, become something of a relic, collecting dust in an online museum. A kind soul then offered me a marketing internship and mentorship, and I jumped at the opportunity.
Thus began a new phase, where I learnt about a whole world away from hospitals and patients. Today, I work as a scientific communicator. I simplify the newest, coolest scientific advancements so that people who aren’t from a science background can understand, developing content for a whole range of media. My work has been published on blogs, and writing has also been published in a book!
I still practice as a dentist on the weekends, volunteering for friends and family, and treating old, mostly Parsi patients-it gives me a sense of fulfilment and balance, and helps me give back in a small way.
I’d love to connect with others in the community, both in India and abroad, and contribute however I can to its development and progress.
You can reach me at on Instagram, where my handle is @herarararara.
Wishing y’all tandorosti, always!