She had the idea of researching the virus from her mentor, Professor Suniti Solomon, in response to formal tracking of HIV in the US,
which began in 1982.
After earning master's degrees in Bengali language, political science and history, she moved to Kerala and worked as a professor of Bengali at Maharaja's College,
Ernakulam and as the Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterji Professor of Bengali at International School of Dravidian Linguistics, Thiruvananthapuram.