Understanding neutrino masses and mixings within the seesaw framework

Understanding the disparate mixing patterns between quarks and leptons is one of the major challenges in particle theory today. I discuss some of the ways to understand this difference within the seesaw framework using new symmetries of quarks and leptons. After a brief introduction to the various types of seesaw formulae, proposals for understanding large solar and atmospheric mixings for the three mass hierarchies i.e. normal, inverted and degenerate, are presented and their implications discussed.