LECTURE AT SCHOOLS PROGRAMME-AN ACCOUNT

“Beep Beep”, the alarm in my mobile was giving out its wake up call faithfully at 6 am. Grumbling about its punctuality and persistence and cursing it for meticulously carrying out its duty, I sat up, rubbing my eyes and switched it off. Vaguely, I sensed the presence of butterflies in my stomach. As the slumber- induced fog in my brain cleared away gradually, the reason sprang to my mind- the day I had to go to school and conduct classes under the aegis of World Space Week ’10 celebrations of ISRO had dawned. Suddenly, I was wide awake. I had announced my willingness to be a resource person (as we are known) on a sudden whim. But once I was briefed about the activities to be carried out, I realised that earnest effort had to be put in to pull it off successfully. A refreshing shower and a quick bite later, I commenced the final stages of my preparation for the same. By the time I concluded a swift perusal of the slides in the presentation, the vehicle arranged for our journey had arrived at our doorstep. It had been pouring cats and dogs since daybreak. The LCD operator and two of my senior colleagues from LPSC, Manoj Sir and Venugopal Sir were picked up on the way. Being experienced, they put me at ease, sharing the anecdotes of previous years and counseling me on how to tackle the students’ doubts and queries.

Our first destination was Iqbal school at Peringammala., nestled between picturesque hills and lush forests. As our van rumbled along the winding, uphill road, I noticed the students glancing curiously at the flex board displayed on the vehicle and murmuring among themselves, “Look, ISRO people have come here.“ The Headmistress and teachers there accorded a war welcome to us. The screen and projector were set up. As soon as the laptop was turned on for a last minute scanning of the slides, the power supply went off. The laptop was entirely devoid of charge. The obliging teachers provided us with the school’s laptop, but unluckily, it was low on charge too. The school authorities informed us that this was a regular occurrence and that they were compelled to rely on generators to hold practical classes for the children. About an hour would lapse by the time a generator was procured and put into operation. Notwithstanding these setbacks, we resigned ourselves and decided to go ahead with our mission.

About 100 students (of classes 9 and 10) and teachers were crammed into a library room intended to accommodate not more than 40. Having completed schooling just 5 years ago myself, it was overwhelming to behold the adulation and anticipation of the pupils and their tutors. The fact that the prestige of our organisation was at stake gave me courage. After a formal welcome by the HM and a short introduction by Manoj sir, I plunged into the presentation nervously. My senior colleagues intervened whenever I encountered difficulties , in elucidating a point or was searching for the exact Malayalam translation for technical terms. It was transformed into an active, vociferous interaction between us and the students, awakening their interest and inquisitiveness. The responses to the queries thrown at them were highly enthusiastic. Manoj sir’s quick wit elicited quite a few laughs. The resumption of power supply was greeted with rapturous applause. As we wound up, many of the children had their eyes glued to the visuals on the slides.

Subsequently, there was a barrage of intelligent, thought- provoking doubts from the listeners- how is the launch vehicle controlled and commanded remotely at the launch pad? Beyond the atmosphere, what provides the reaction force for the rocket to proceed upwards? What are the cryo fuels used in our launch vehicles? – being a few samples. There were queries on the RSR launches and the admission procedure at IIST too. We collected the feedback form and set out for our next school, the NSS Govt School, Peringammala. Emboldened by the debut attempt, I relaxed and enjoyed the panoramic view all around.

Unsure of the precise location, we went farther ahead and were ultimately guided correctly to the institution. About 200 students and teachers were seated in a large auditorium. Lady Luck smiled on us this time with the electricity authorities favouring us and the slide show was put up. Unfortunately, the microphone brought out by the authorities refused to co-operate and we had to strain our vocal chords yet again. One of the teachers delivered an excellent introduction on the observance of World Space Week. The video of C-11 (Chandrayaan) liftoff drew spontaneous appreciation from the young audience. Here too, the information imparted by us was received with immense interest and vigour. A smart girl stretched our thinking powers to the limit, probing us with numerous questions on the cosmos- regarding black holes, the theory of relativity, discovery of traces of fossil fuels on the moon Titan etc. The 15-year-old confessed to be an avid reader of Stephen Hawking, arousing our admiration with her insatiable quest for knowledge. A young man enquired,” Chechi, will you come next year also? The video was fantastic.” A few girls actually flanked us, clutching their notebooks and asking for our signatures. Almost embarrassed, I hastily scribbled ‘best wishes’, while trying to acquaint with all of them. With great pleasure and satisfaction, we bid adieu to the school and embarked on our sojourn back to the city.

Recalling this ‘lecture at schools’ programme fills my mind with elation each time. It is a glorious opportunity for us to reach out to and interact with budding scientists and engineers. Having been educated in a private school in the city, I had requested to be allotted schools in the rural suburbs of trivandrum. Although the infrastructure was found wanting in these schools, the incredible fact that the students were on par with their urban counterparts in awareness and knowledge delighted me. The intrigue expressed by the students inspires us also, to garner more knowledge on space Science, to be better- equipped to do justice to the student community during such events. All in all, it was an extremely rewarding and memorable experience.

Touching Lives

Three people play an important role in shaping the life of a child; his family, friends and his primary school teacher

-A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

“Guru” or teacher is placed before the Almighty in Indian culture. What if we get to play the role of a teacher? What if we get a chance to shape the lives of the future generation? Lectures @ School Programme organized as part of the World Space Week (WSW) Celebration provides just that opportunity; or should I call it- a privilege.

As a resource person for the programme, I had covered 12 educational institutions in the Pathanamthitta district of Kerala. The experience was enlightening and I consider it one of the best services that I have rendered in my life. The greatest contribution that an individual can make to the society is to impart knowledge to children and thus train the young minds helping them to grow as responsible citizens.

ISRO has always been a technical organization with a humane face. Its’ roots are embedded in changing the lives of the common man by the use of space science and technology. But in spite of working in ISRO, we seldom get the chance to mingle with the “aam aadmi”. This programme presents us an opportunity to interact with ordinary people; especially the teachers and students, and to experience the amount of respect they have for our organization.

The programme is primarily aimed at instilling scientific temper in children and to make them aware of the applications of the various physical principles that they study in their text books. When children realizes the fact that the fundamentals of rocket science are based on the very principles that they learn in school, it inculcates interest in them to study science and mathematics with much more vigour and appreciation.

The programme starts with the identification of the resource persons by the organizing committee. They provide the volunteers with the presentation material and WSW kits, which is to be distributed to the schools. They also arrange for projector and screen that is to be taken by the resource persons to deliver the power point presentation to the children.

The volunteers get the details of the schools in the respective districts from the Directorate of Public Instruction website. Usually, a set of schools in the same area are selected for ease of travel and most importantly to ensure punctuality. The school authorities are contacted and a convenient schedule is fixed. A maximum of 4 or a minimum of three institutions are covered per day.

A sum of Rs.5000/- per resource person team (usually a team of two) is also given towards travel expenses. This is utilized for hiring a vehicle, usually a Qualis/Scorpio for travelling across the schools carrying the peripherals required for presentation. The agency supplying the projector sends a person with a foldable screen, laptop and LCD projector to our planned location.

I will briefly describe some interesting experiences that I had during this programme in 2009 and 2010.

One thing that amazed me during my visits to these educational institutions was the awareness

that students have about the developments in space science and technology.

During the question and answer session in the first school I visited last year at Kozhenchery, one clever boy asked “Did Chandryaan-1 find any evidence of Helium-3? What will be its state of existence on Moon and how are we planning to bring it back? Surprised by his pertinent question and awareness of one of the mission goals of our moon probe, I could only reply that the spacecraft is yet to find any evidence of the element and thus its state of existence is unknown.

I mainly dwell on three things in my presentation: to explain what is a rocket, satellite and payload. While describing the increasing number of satellites that are launched all over the world, one smart girl (should be from the upper primary) was curious to know whether satellites ever collide. I explained her that they are all far apart, but in 2009, one Russian defunct satellite collided with a working Iridium satellite and destroyed it. So clearly, all the nuggets of knowledge that we gather always comes in handy during this programme.

Another question that caught me off guard was from a college professor, about the failure of the Apollo probes to detect water on the moon. I could convince him by saying that all Apollo probes mainly landed near the lunar equator and that, water is found in large quantities at the lunar poles due to the prevalence of low temperature there.

During one of the visits to a school in Aranmula, the lecture was conducted on a Youth Festival

Stage. The school authorities were kind enough to stop their ongoing competitions and gave us a slot in between, on the stage itself. My colleague Deepa, made the presentation and the response we obtained from the students was unforgettable. The students watched with awe the 10 minute video of PSLV C-11 launch and Chandryaan-1 mission. Many of them were biting their nails watching the various stages of separation of the rocket and broke into applause at the sight of separation of the spacecraft.

During the second day in Kozhenchery, we accidently went to a school that was not on our list. To our astonishment the authorities still agreed to give us a slot to conduct the programme. But I had to politely deny as I had already scheduled it in another school. This made me realize the demand for the Lectures @ School Programme.

During one of the afternoon sessions, one primary school teacher, wanted to know whether, the Rs.400 crore that was spent in Chandryaan-1 mission, was to cater to the whims and fancies of the bourgeois. Being already briefed by the organizing committee not to reply to political statements and questions related to policy decisions of the organization, I politely refused to answer the question. I requested him to limit his doubts to technical aspects of the mission. But he started insisting. I somehow wound up the programme and escaped.

This year I could go only for a day but it was full of action. After finishing my first session which was marred with power interruptions, we were moving to the nearby school in our hired white Scorpio. One of the important personalities I always remember apart from Vikram Sarabhai and Madhavan Nair during the course of these presentations is Murphy and his famous Laws. I especially “experienced” one of his famous law throughout the programme- “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”

While I was paying my respect to Murphy, by explaining my experiences to my colleague Femina, a KSRTC bus scratched past our brand new Scorpio. The driver got tensed (as he was not the owner) and he accidentally drove the vehicle into a nearby drain. We somehow pulled the vehicle out and moved forward. But the driver stopped the vehicle and informed that he cannot take the vehicle further without registering the case with police. With very less time to reach the next school; three of us me, Femina and Shibu (the person who was carrying the projector) decided to move. We could not find an auto and was thus were forced to enter a crowded local bus. Hail Murphy!!! The bus caught up in a traffic jam due to a demonstration staged in the town during that time. We abandoned the bus, walked for some distance and picked up an auto and reached the school 35 minutes past the scheduled time. While KSRTC has already ‘blessed” us on the way, at the school the “boon” was from KSEB: no power. Coming out of all the confusion, shock and tension, my colleague Femina handled the class without a microphone. I could hear her voice breaking at the end of the session. But we pulled it off successfully.

The greatest gift one can get from the programme is to experience the respect people have for the ISRO. We have seen that the entire nation celebrated with us during the successful launch of Chandryaan-1. More importantly, the support prevailed even when we reported the premature demise of the mission. The support was also evident during the failure of GSLV-D3. A slice of that support and appreciation can always be seen in all the educational institutions that I visited during the course of the programme. This makes one more responsible and highly motivated to do ones duty. As one person in the organizing committee said succinctly “… this is an annual recharge programme.”

Hail Murphy!!

FROM CHENNAI TO SULLURPET

"Train number 2436 to Sullurpet will leave shortly from platform number 13”, announced the familiar voice at Chennai central’s suburban railway station, prompting me to hoist my bag and rush to platform number 13. Finding the ladies’ compartment, I scrambled into it, placed my bag on the luggage rack and dropped into the only vacant seat, resigning myself to two and a half hours of imminent boredom. The whistle blew, the train pulled out of the station and I marvelled yet again at the furious pace at which electric trains accelerated.
The lady sitting next to me (munching ground nuts and phone plugged to her ears) was regarding me with a bored expression and soon turned away, evidently dismissing me as uninteresting. Two toddlers, one enthusiastically looking out of the window, and the younger, reclining on his mother’s lap, set up a loud howl of demand, when a vendor with snacks walked past, shouting out his wares. Sadly, their mother had other ideas. A kindly lady, seated adjacent to the family, resolved the crisis, by proffering her own purchase (some crisp snack) to the kids.
I looked around the compartment, vaguely taking in the social, economic and age diversity among my co-passengers- aged mothers, their twenty-something daughters beaming proudly at their young offspring, college students chatting and laughing with their friends, school children, attired in uniforms of various colours, carrying bags that would put seasoned weight lifters to shame...most of them had the orange kanakaambaram flowers decorating their plaited hair and the yellow of turmeric paste was clearly visible on their faces and hands..
The train slowed down as quickly as it had picked up speed and came to a screeching halt at a station. A mass of humanity moved into and out of the train, jostling each other in the process. All the seats being filled up, the new entrants of all ages immediately dropped to the floor and settled there. Atleast 4 people were settled on seats with spaces intended for 2 and I thanked God for creating humans with such sisterly love. A 4-year-old young man was voicing his protest loudly against the humiliating treatment handed out to him by his callous mother, making him sit in a ladies’ coach. His mother was busy conversing with a neighbour, a just- acquired acquaintance.
As I watched fascinated, the steady stream of vendors continued- oranges, guavas, murukku, samosas, mixture, pakoda, nuts, biscuits and what not. Everyone appeared to be prepared to buy everything on offer. The unceasing consumption of eatables of wide variety and rapid socialising were carried on with vigour by the newcomers who replaced those who disembarked at the stations that came and went. The tradesmen, men with admirable athleticism and acrobatic skills, balanced their baskets on their heads, while expertly weaving their ways among their customers (crowded on the seats and squatting on the floors ) and their voluminous shopping bags. The tiny, juicy oranges (sold incredibly cheap) and the hot, yummy samosas found many takers, as did the ever popular ground nuts and popcorn. People were very courteous, willingly sharing their purchases with their new-found friends. Indeed, the brisk trade going on before my astonished eyes would have aroused envy in the owners and salesmen of even the most-profitably run eateries and restaurants.
An elderly lady, seated facing me grinned, revealing her toothless gum, and enquired,” Time evvalavu ma?” As I glanced at my watch and replied, she ventured, “nee enga pore?” Then she proceeded to narrate to me, all about how she was going to visit her son for the day and how she will be returning by the evening train.
Before I knew, the clock had wound forward by two hours, the crowd had thinned out considerably and I beheld the name board of Sullurpet station. As I extracted my luggage and alighted from the train, my mind was filled with remembrances of the eventful, if not entertaining train journey I had just experienced. I’m still astounded by the ease with which the simple folk fraternised with each other and became comrades, virtually exchanging their life stories and also, the hugely successful trade carried out by the numerous tradesmen. To this day, this intriguing train journey remains etched in my memory.