Johannes Manjrekar grew up mostly in Mysore, Karnataka. His education consisted largely of insect collecting, bird-watching and swimming, supplemented eventually by a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Since 1989, he’s been teaching M.Sc. students in Microbiology and Biotechnology at Baroda’s M.S. University. Apart from haikai, he is very enthusiastic about photography.