In a documentary film made just before his death in 2005, AKR reveals that he was extremely passionate about mathematics right from his schooldays and solving problems would give him immense pleasure.

In 1952, he took a research job with the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), but to his frustration was required to work on the properties of metals rather than general relativity.

[5] Some years later, having learned that his 1955 paper was highly regarded by notable physicists, such as Pascual Jordan, Raychaudhuri was sufficiently emboldened to submit a doctoral dissertation, and received his Doctor of Science degree at the University of Calcutta (with one of the examiners, Prof John Archibald Wheeler recording special appreciation of the work done) in 1959.

In 1961, Raychaudhuri joined the faculty of his alma mater, Presidency College then affiliated with the University of Calcutta, and remained there until his superannuation.

He aimed to address the fundamental question of singularity in the most simple and general form with no reference to any symmetry and any specific property of space-time and energy distribution.

The Raychaudhuri equation[12] hit the zenith of fame as it was a key tool in the hands of young relativists like Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose in the middle of the late 1960s in their attempt to answer the question on the existence of space-time singularities and to explain the theory of universe.