Every working parent tries to strike the right balance between family duties and career, and for Henna K Seethi, a PhD scholar at IIT Bombay, this begins inside a research lab, who applied for Phd while she was still pregnant, with her husband’s support.When her nanny cannot come, she waits for the students to leave, brings her one-and-a-half-year-old son, Omi, to campus and takes care of him with a small bed, a bowl, and a blanket, and huge support from her campus friends, which is all that he needs while she works late into the evening.
5 Oct 2026 | 12:06
Parents, when your child refuses to greet relatives, do you make them say hello or respect their choice?
Meet Heena, a Phd scholar at IIT Bombay who enrolled while she was stillpreganat and balances her motherly duties with lab research
Henna, nearly 29, is a PhD scholar of Health and Medical Psychology in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Bombay. She moved to Mumbai when her son was only a few months old, while her husband kept working in Kerala.On days when her nanny cannot come, Henna K Seethi waits until the lab is empty before bringing her son Omi along. A corner of the lab has a bed, a bowl and a blanket, so the toddler can eat, play and nap while she works.Her work at IIT Bombay often starts in the evening and runs late into the night. According to an Indian Express report, Omi is now a familiar face among her colleagues. “The atmosphere in the lab is very friendly. Everyone is so welcoming,” Henna says.Her path there ran through Farook College in Calicut, where she pursued a BSc in Psychology, followed by studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, where she pursued an MA in Applied Psychology, and the Cancer Institute in Adyar, where she studied for an MPhil in Psycho-Oncology. She cleared GATE in 2023 and set her heart on psycho-oncology research.
How she juggles between her career and parental duties
Omi was born in January 2025, and Henna received her IIT Bombay result when he was just a few months old. She said to Onmanorama, “My husband told me not to let go of the opportunity I had worked so hard for!” She then moved to Mumbai in July 2025 after being selected for the PhD programme in Psycho-Oncology with the baby. Her husband, Muhammed Nizam ul Haq, also a psychologist, works in Kerala.
Money and logistics are constant worries
Henna lives in Bhandup, about five to seven kilometres from campus, until married-student housing becomes available and rent, childcare and Mumbai’s high living costs mean she depends on her husband’s financial support.Exam time was harder, when she joined, and did not have many friends at the campus, “no one was there to cook a hot meal when I was sick”, she said. Once, her husband travelled from Kerala to look after Omi. Another time, two classmates offered to babysit so she could finish her paper.The campus community has helped too, with her professors’ permission, Henna brings Omi to class in a stroller and steps outside if he cries. Her mentor lets him sit in on meetings. When her nanny went back to Kerala for several months after a bereavement, the dean arranged a temporary hostel room for Henna during end-semester exams. Omi has even hit milestones on campus, “He crawled for the first time on the campus of IIT Bombay,” Henna told Onmanorama.
Heena has also undergone postpartum blues and takes therapy
Henna says she had postpartum blues for a month or two after Omi’s birth, and she now attends therapy at the campus Student’s Wellness Centre. Guilt still tugs at her. In her words, “When I give time to my baby, I feel like I’m not doing proper justice to my research. When I’m doing my work, I feel guilty about being a mother.”Her determination comes from watching her own mother give up her ambitions, “I don’t want to see my baby as a hurdle in pursuing anything,” she said. She hopes life will become easier once Omi turns two and campus accommodation comes through.
