faites de la science - Make Science Competitions 2017-Puducherry, India: 11th Edition

It has been a long, quite long break since I have jotted anything.. I had been busy shooting, editing, sub-titling the Edition 11 of the faites de la science or Make Science Competitions science projects for 2017 edition. To give a short introduction, faites de la science is an International Science programme being conducted by the University of Paris, South 11, Orsay in collaboration with the Pondicherry Science Forum exclusively for students of government schools in the Puducherry district of the Union Territory of Puducherry. And it happens to the 11th year this time since this programme was launched.

And here are the 12 project videos of this year. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLZUYFpO-Bqvzkmx5vnC-Mw.

As you can see they are attempts by small children to do science and they are going to be evaluated by an Expert jury of researchers constituted by the Faculty of Sciences, Paris 11 University and they take the extra effort to give their valuable feedback as to what mistakes they did in formulating their projects, what processes they should have additionally done to make it more scientific, how controls should have been there, how not to be biased while jumping to results etc. which is a very rare thing. Somewhere we do not have a link between the school education system and of the higher education system - and very little interaction and feedback to the school teachers who shape our future children. No programme is a perfect one, but somewhere there should be a starting point. And this is exactly this that keeps us all engaging with science.

Now 11 years is quite a long one. And it has been quite a wonderful experience to interact with small children in the rural and urban government schools, who with a passion, present their scientific works. Sometimes, some projects are not very good, sometimes they struggle for words and sentences while explaining scientific principles. Sometimes, they find the time limit (about 8 minutes) inadequate to present their findings. Sometimes, they are forced to present their findings half way through their research. But the process - that is what more important in dong science. The end result may be fascinating sometimes, sometimes not so interesting. But the process of doing science - that is what interests and shape the thought process of children. And that is what programmes like faites de la science stands out. This is also true for programmes like the National Children's Science Congress with which also I am associated with at the national level.

There are several programme on promoting science education. There are several prizes, incentives, workshops, seminars, activity based learning programmes - too many are there. But still, there is very little impact those programmes have on the actual thought process of understanding, conceptualising, internalisation of scientific concepts and on the method of searching for scientific solutions to problems around us. We are in a world of "instant" solutions, too much focus on technology and little stress on the steps ...Another programme that I like very much is the one initiated by the Homi Babha Centre for Science Education (Mumbai) where they run whatsapp based groups doing actual science where groups of science students engage in a healthy, experiment based approach to understanding and learning science. This is something no school curriculum is offering now. This is something which is way beyond what teachers are trained to transact in the schools, what is way too far for Indian science education should have done. There are very few such approaches and they are not given the focus they actually deserve - some of which are the Eklavya, the Vigyan Ashram, the Gram Mangal, the Peoples's Science Movements's approach to science education and several standalone science education experiments of famous institutions. But their outreach to the common, rural,poor children need to get a big push. That is where programmes like the Make Science Competitions and the National Children's Science Congress stand out.

For me, personally, this has been a long journey of about 25 years with the National Children's Science Congress - partly in Puducherry and partly at the national level. About 11 years in an international programme like the Faites de la science. And I hope I will have the time and most important - the energy - to continue this for the years to come.. !!!

Congratulations to all the children, guide teachers to take that extra pain to venture out and explore science - especially in an age where rational thinking and scientific temper is taking a back seat...

World Forests Day & World Water Day at Raj Nivas with a difference

This year, Pondicherry Science Forum and CERD had celebrated the World Forests Day and the World Water Day with a difference.

More than 200 children including special children, 40 teachers and PSF activists gathered at the Raj Niwas, Pondicherry along with the Hon'ble Lt. Governor of Pondicherry, Dr.Kiran Bedi IPS and her team including LG's Secretary, Mr.Deva Neethi Das IAS, Mr.Devaraj, IFS, OSD Mrs. Amrita Bahl, Controller Mrs.Asha Gupta - all gathered at the Raj Nivas Lawns on the 21st March (World Forests Day) and eve of World Water Day.

After a brief introduction by Mrs.Asha Gupta, an Introductory Speech by LG's Secretary, Mr.Deva Neethi Das IAS, the first programme was a Mass Theatre on Forests, its intricate roles and how a forest supports all kinds of life forms and hence the future of human kind.


The theatre had all the children as participants and including the Hon'ble LG, Dr.Kiran Bedi IPS who acted as a beautiful bird of the forests.


The programme ended with a beautiful mass rendering of Hum Honge Kaamyaab. Dr.Kiran Bedij danced and ran and played with the children and she also paused for a photo session with all the children running around the lawns.

The Forests' Theatre had special sound effects, various species of trees, birds, animals, a live stream of water performed by girls with their blue duppattas, waves of rain and wind by special children of Ananda Ranga Pillai Special School and Satya Special School.



PSF had also conducted a photography contest for school children on the themes of Forests & Energy and Why waste water? . More than 200 children had send their entries out of which the best 25 were shortlisted and there was an exhibition of these photos. From these 25 entries, the best three in Junior and Senior categories were honoured with certificates and prizes by Dr.Kiran Bedi.

There was also an interesting demonstration of children as to how to save water while bathing and washing of kitchen utensils. The children demonstrated how to take bath with a mug of water!. This was followed by Activity corners on water where children tried out several water based activities.

All this was planned and executed with in 4-5 days, by a handful of PSF volunteers along with a dedicated team of teachers and students which is the strength of PSF. The novelty of the mass theatre, the excitement of the children and teachers while planning the programme was refreshing and when the programme actually unraveled at the lawns of Raj Nivas on the evening of Raj Nivas, the entire place exploded with laughter, cheers and happiness.

Science communication does need new forms of reaching out to the children, the public. And this is most refreshing when they themselves become part of the process, rather than just receivers of communication! .

Thanks to the entire team of PSF and the dedicated Raj Nivas team who rose to the occasion and made it to a grand success. And of course, special thanks to Dr.Kiran Bedi, the Hon'ble Lt. Governor, and her team!

The legend of Bangari and Singari and the historical town of Bahour.

Bahour is a small town bordering the two rivers, Then Ponnaiyar on the South and Malattar on the South and naturally a very fertile place which was the right mix of water resources, fertile soil, huge number of water channels and close to the Bay of Bengal, having pristine unpolluted beaches and a mix of primary production of agriculture, fisheries. No doubt, the ancient South Indian rulers had found Bahour to be a prosperous town to make it their focus.

Thus Bahour known as Chathur Veda Mangalam (land of four Vedas) had once, a famous Sanskrit College where the students who passed out from here, had preference and lucrative offers in Kancheepuram, and even far off places like the Kashi. The famous temple "Moolanathar Swami Temple" was built by the Paranthaka Chozha and later developed by the Pallavas, Rashtrakoodas and the Naickers. Intact, Puducherry had detailed information regarding this temple which is built on the Kaarana Aagamam and the Vimana of this temple has a square frame due to the name Chathur (another meaning being Square) Veda Mangalam which is typical of the Chozhas who used to include an element of secrecy in all their temples.

Another notable natural heritage of Bahour is the Bahour Tank itself which happens to be the oldest tank in Puducherry (older than the biggest tank of Oussudu) and have abeautiful network of smaller tanks. The history points to a big drought in Bahour, when two unmarried wealthy sisters Bangari and Singari donated their wealth to deepen the tank and strengthen the bunds and also to dig a channel from Then Ponnaiyar to the Bahour Tank which is now known as the Bangaru Channel named after the sister Bangari. Some older people say that these sisters used to live in the South Street of Bahour.

To celebrate the historicity of Bahour and its natural heritage the Puducherry Heritage Festival held a Dance Drama in the Moolanathar temple on the 5th of February 2017 on the legendary life of Bangari and Singari.


More about Bahour will be shared at a later time..
(Krithiga Ravichandran as Bangari and Divya Ramesh as Singari in the Dance drama of Salangai Cultural Academy).

A year gone...

It has been quite some time, that I published my last post - almost a year. The year that was gone was too full of so many things, too many activities that I did with Pondicherry Science Forum, too much as in my personal capacity. The Make Science Competitions 2016 was a mile-stone for me as this was the 10th year that I have been coordinating this programme along with the University of Paris, South 11, France. Every year about 12 teams of government school children get a small seed money to carry out small research projects and out of them, about 4 of them get special awards and cash incentives. I also finished my third year as the Chairman of the National Academic Committee of the Government of India's programme, the National Children's Science Congress 2016 which was held in Barmati, near Pune in Maharashtra where we had more than 700 children, 200 teachers and several experts, scientists gathered from 27th to 31st December 2016.

During this period, I lost one of my best friend, philosopher and guide Prof.SS Lokras, (in November 2016) who was a leading Fuel Efficient Chulah Innovator (Retired Scientist from Centre for Sustainable Technologies - formerly ASTRA-, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) whose model of 2+1 pan ASTRA Stove continues to be one of the best fuel efficient Chulah in the world with efficiencies of above 40%.

The year 2016 also has been quite turbulent, the hottest in the decade, because of the Cyclone Varadah that created huge loss of property in Chennai and surroundings, the year with very little rainfall, the year of Indian de-monitization, the death of Jayalalitha, the Amma of Tamil Nadu, the resurgence of youth of Tamilnadu for "Jallikkattu", and many more...Though these are quite unconnected as it may look like, one can see a pattern of disturbing trends happening.

Pondicherry also witnessed a new government, a new active Lt. Governor who has brought about a very active governance system which the government should take forward. We also saw some very positive changes where the stakeholders of the traditional irrigation tanks were brought back for their upkeep and maintenance, though I doubt their fight to get mainstreamed is far from over.

Anyhow, another year has started, Hope the youth of India will emerge more rational, more scientific, and will start a new movement for better governance, argue for sustainable developmental initiatives, make our country free from corruption, free from all the bad things that destroy ourselves including the bad parasitic MNCs and their game plan for plundering the poor.

March 9, 2016: A partial solar eclipse fully eclipsed by the clouds..

March 9, 2016 had a partial solar eclipse which was partially visible from the east coast of India and we at Pondicherry Science Forum had hoped to catch a glimpse this which was supposed to have 24% obscuration from 6.20 to 6.47 am. We had informed the Science Centre attached to the Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of Puducherry and Mr.Sathish and Sivakumar had also come to the Puducherry beach by about 6AM in the morning. We could see that the Thanthi TV had already set up their camera for uplinking to their channel.

The Gandhi Statue was a beautiful spot for all those who have visited Puducherry and against the morning sky, the silhouette of the statue was a beautiful site.






We could see thick clouds at the horizon but we hoped that by the sunrise time, they would move away or at least as the sun rises, we will be able to get at least a partial glimpse of the partial eclipse.  Though there were only about 20 minutes left for the sun to rise, the wait seemed to so long. The clouds stayed still thick at the horizon.








People seeing the TV camera, the telescope and the PSF team which included Aravindraja, Dakshinamurthy, Meena, Sengodethevan, Hemavathi, Maran etc started gathering near the beach front.


Looking at the sea and the clouds, I took a couple of shots which was interesting patterns of clouds.

I could also see a couple of catamarans which has started their fishing activity early in the morning totally oblivious of the eclipse going to happen. For most people, there are not much superstitions around the eclipse. Interestingly it is the religious middle class who give too much importance to these eclipses and the superstitions around them. For ordinary labourers, I dont think, they have the luxury of keeping themselves closed in their homes, or deciding to cook only after the eclipse is over etc. For them, even a day's wages lost is a huge loss.

It was already 6.20 am, then 6.21 am..and still there was no sign of the Sun emerging from the clouds. The eclipse was already on and was its maximum of 24% but the clouds would not oblige. Finally by 6.45 am, the top portion of the Sun emerges from the clouds but we knew that the moon would be blocking only the bottom hemisphere of the Sun's disc. THere was just 2 minutes left for the eclipse to get over and the chances were very meagre to catch a glimpse.

Anyhow, there was already a long que at  telescope to view the emerging sun and with a solar filter fitted, it was of course an amazing visual to watch the sun through the telescope which everybody do not get a chance...

And there, at 6.48 am just when the eclipse was completed and the moon would have moved out of the earth-sun line, the Sun emerged out of the clouds and here is the photo on the left side.

Anyhow, solar eclipses are still going to occur many more times, and I may still get chances to view them and even photograph them.. IT was a good day, to interact with lots of people, public and explain to them that it was the moon just crossing in between the sun and the earth and there was nothing to worry as proclaimed by the temple authorities all over India. IT is indeed an occasion to be cautious since viewing the eclipse with naked eyes could take away your precious eye sight..

A memorable day, though the clouds did the eclipsing , the one hour spent on the Puducherry beach road was satisfying and a couple of photos made my day too..

A school and a programme: Govt. High School, Kodathur, Puducherry.

We all have gone through our own schools. From the first school to where you have passed out your 10th standard. All of them have beautiful memories. Sweet memories. I still remember my first school in Thottekkad, in Pulpatta near Manjeri in Malappuram distrit of Kerala State where we used to walk about 4 km every day to school climbing two small hillocks, passing a couple of brookes, and the day the school reopened, we will be welcomed by the fresh rains ... Schools always bring nostalgic memories to you..

As part of the ongoing Water Festival 2016 which we are organising in Puducherry, Aurovile, Villupuram and Cuddalore (PAVC) bio region, I have been visiting a good number of rural schools in Pondicherry as well as a few in TN districts of Cuddalore and VIllupuram as well. One such school was the Govt High School, Kodathur. While one goes to Thirukkanur via Vazhuthavoor, you take a right turn at Muttrampattu and you are there. A small beautifully located school. It was established in the year 1957 almost a decade before I was borne. The HM Mrs.Pushparoja and the Science Teacher Ms.Hemalatha and other staff welcomed me. My friend Alexander was already there setting up the banners and posters giving water conservation messages etc.The school has about 300 students.

I was moved by the affection and care given by the teachers and HM of the school and the importance they gave to the programme. While conversing with the children, I could feel the energy and happiness of the children. May be it is because they enjoyed the programme which was different from their daily routine classes. May be they got a chance to answer the question we put to them, or may be because they felt empowered in giving their suggestions for conserving the water. The staff told us we could come back anytime for such awareness programmes.

I felt happy because if at all, the All for Water for All collective which is organizing the programme have achieved anything is reaching out to these young children who feel energetic and are better informed than actually I was during this age. Or is it that we did not have these issues in our times? Or is it that we just did not realize it then?

More schools, more children, there is a need for many more such initiatives like the All for Water for All collective or movements like the Pondicherry Science Forum and the like in many states which are part of the People's Science Movements (PSMs) to take these issues to the people and make them aware that unless we act today, tomorrow will be too late...

Waterman of India- Sri.Rajendra Singh at Pondicherry

Pondicherry Science Forum with a host of voluntary organisations and NGOs, govt. departments, farmers' associations, activist groups from Puducherry, Auroville, Villupuram and Cuddalore (PAVC) which forms a bioregion came together to form a People's Collective called the All for WATER for All (All for Water, Water for All) and launched a sever week long Water Festival 2016.



This was launched on the 2nd February 2016, the World Wetlands' Day and will go upto 22nd March 2016 which is the World Water Day.


The entire bioregion is divided into 7 sub regions and in each bioregion 7 days of activities would be held - total 7 sub regions and 7 weeks - to have a massive outreach programme to reach out to the children, women, youth, farmers, and the general public - to create an effective awareness programme around water in the entire bioregion.


In this connection, we had the Waterman of India - Sri.Rajendra Singh visiting Pondicherry on the 5th of March 2016 where he joined a team of bird watching in the morning around the Ousitteri Lake, the largest lake in Pondicherry. Later he interacted with the public at Sharanam near Ousitteri Lake.


He appreciated the efforts of the All for WATER for All collective and individual and collective efforts of Pondicherrians in protecting its water resources.


Some photos of Sri Rajendra Singhji during his interactions.