Desi Roots, Global Wings – a monthly column focused on the Indian immigrant experience. As I mark an important milestone in my scientific career, I notice that not much has changed since the time I joined the workforce making my goal of staying in the workforce sound like an achievement. Recently I completed twenty-five years as a scientist. Not surprisingly, I remembered my first day at work, eager to reap the rewards of my hard earned education that had begun in India and culminated in the US with a Ph.D. As a diligent student growing up in urban India in a family that valued education, I had pursued a science education, unaware of the challenges of being a woman in STEM.