My viva day was 3 years ago today
At 2 pm on the 11th of December 2015, I had the viva for my PhD. I still remember it as if it was yesterday. I got the email with the date of the viva on the 6th of November. I managed to book accommodation in Beverley Farm via the conference office at the University of Kent. Beverley Farm was one of the oldest accommodation at the University and in 2009 whilst I was doing my MSc. there, the roof of the accommodation was lifted during bad weather and my friend staying there had to be evacuated in the middle of the night to other accommodations. Fortunately, the building had recently been renovated and is being used now as accommodation for conferences held at the University.
It was more difficult to book my flight back to UK as December is the peak period to travel to Europe from Mauritius. My mum decided to accompany me for moral support. We were on the waiting list until the eve of our travelling date. The travel date was the 5th of December because I wanted to avoid any travelling delay common during winter in UK such as plane delays because of snow, train not running because of snow , buses not running because of black ice on the road, hence any issue related to snow.
I was always fascinated by the fact that everything grinds to as stop during the snow period in UK.
On the day of the viva, I woke up at about 5 am. I had breakfast and I spend the rest of the morning reviewing my thesis. It is amazing the amount of time and effort that went into writing the thesis and how quickly I forgot what I had written. I reviewed the thesis chapter by chapter and I also prepared a presentation for the viva. This was actually one of the first recommendations of my Supervisor when I started the PhD. I had a 15 minute presentation and a five minute video of my data capture session and the data captured.
At about noon, I could only pace around the room and I could not eat any lunch. I tired to relax using yoga breathing techniques and also a brilliant trick my yoga teacher had taught me. I got ready, wearing my oldest and luckiest shirt, MSc graduation suit, tie and my hulk socks. I went to my school and informed my supervisor I was going to wait at my desk in the lab. I was good having familiar people and being in a familiar environment.
At 1:45 pm I was called in the small meeting room which was going to be my viva room. The external examiner and the internal examiner were already seated in the room. I entered the room followed by my main Supervisor Professor Deravi. We started the viva and I did my presentation to the examiners. Both the internal examiner Dr Sanaul Hoque and the external examiners had their question written in paper and we proceeded to going over the thesis page by page and they would tick off the questions as we were going through the thesis. I finished the viva at 6:30 pm i.e. after four and a half hours. Outside the viva room, my friends and my second Supervisor Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis were waiting for the outcome outside.
After finishing the viva, I chatted with my friends and I went to wait for the verdict in the lab with my friends. I was called back to the viva room after 20 minutes to learn that I had passed my viva but had to make about 48 corrections. I don’t remember how I walked back in the dark back to Beverley Farm to announce the new to my mum and also my dad and sister back in Mauritius.
The viva was the before final step on completing the PhD (the rest of the story will follow). I am very thankful to my Supervisors Professor Farzin Deravi and Dr Konstantinos Sirlantzis from the University, and my Supervisors from the NHS Dr Matthew Pepper and Dr Mohammed Sakel. My parents and sister also helped a lot in completing this journey.
Today I do not celebrate completing the viva but I celebrate the people who helped keep my north and manage to complete my viva.
