Kerala - Kochi   

President to open science museum today

The joy of giving back something to your alma mater is always special. And it becomes so special when you are giving something unique for the present and future generations to cherish.

Five decades after he passed out from S.R.V. School in Ernakulam, former Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) K. Kasturirangan returns to his school with a really `big gift'.

On Tuesday, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will formally open a science museum built using Rs.1.13 crore given by Dr. Kasturirangan.

"He was a student of this school from 1949 to 51. We are so overwhelmed by his decision to contribute so much of funds for setting up the science museum on the campus," said A.K. Sabhapathy, Chief Medical Officer of Krishna Hospital and president of the Old Students' Association of S.R.V. School.

In his capacity as a Member of Parliament, Dr. Kasturirangan offered Rs.66.35 lakh for the museum building. For setting up the infrastructure facilities, the renowned scientist gave Rs.20 lakh. He later contributed Rs.25 lakh to repair and beautify the heritage school building.

The museum is a real treat for budding scientific talents. More than 40 gadgets have been displayed on the top floor.

"The gadgets promote the concept of learn-science-through-play," says A.S. Padmanabhan, Director of Ankidyne Toys and Sports based in Chennai, who supplied the equipment for the project.

Some of the interesting gadgets set up at the museum include double-ended cone, cyclodial path, floating bird, lifting screw, angular momentum; mass and inertia pulley and pulley blocks, bell tower, echo tube, and gyroscope.

Mr. Padmanabhan claims that S.R.V. is the first school in Kerala to have a full-fledged science museum. He had earlier set up such parks in New Delhi, Karnataka and Chennai.

The new science museum is yet another achievement for the S.R.V. School that was established in 1845. History books say that the first batch of matriculates came out in 1855.

Some of the former students of the school include Poothampilly Balakrishnan (later Swamy Chinmayananda), Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, Vyloppilly Sreedhara Menon; K. Kasturirangan, N.S. Madhavan, and T.N. Jayachandran.

G. Krishnakumar

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