So, then how would you define research, I mean, for our students how would you

define research and what would you say make good research question? How to define
research? Very simply, my daughter asked me many years ago, "Dad, I know you work
in a university and I know you going to teach but you also do this stuff called
research, what's that?". That's exactly the question that I'm asking. I remember
saying it's something like finding out stuff and telling people about it, at that
very simple level. So, it's identifying a topic or a subject that perhaps has not
been explored sufficiently well in your opinion. Exploring it, making some
findings, presenting those findings to an audience, usually traditionally in the
form of an article maybe a book, increasingly now obviously in different media as
well. So, it's a very simple definition. The other thing I think is particularly if
you're working like as I do primarily with empirical material, I'm not a very
theoretical researcher, I like this stuff. But I increasingly feel the need and I
think this goes for many people to try and address an audience that's a little bit
broader just and those people who are interested in the society I'm working in and
to say, okay, now this is something that's going on or has happened in Nepal, I
think you need to know about it even though you may not even know where Nepal is.
Because it's an example of something that a process or a phenomenon that's going on
in other societies too and I think you can learn something from this example that
may be of interest to you more broadly. So, I think I personally move from this
exclusive focus on one society, on one culture and writing for people who are also
engaged with that to try and actually take material from that context and put it
into arguments or discussions that are of relevance and interest to people working
in different contexts and on different topics.