Science City man heads for Anandpur Sahib

CHANDIGARH, January 9: When Dr Saroj Ghose was elected president of the Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM), it was a recogn...

CHANDIGARH, January 9: When Dr Saroj Ghose was elected president of the Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM), it was a recognition of the fact that India was a developed country as far as museum technology was concerned. And now, it’s laurels galore for Dr Ghose as his innovative ideas and programmes have given birth to the first Science City in Calcutta. Dr Ghose is one of the experts involved in the Khalsa Memorial Complex slated to come up in Anandpur Sahib and in an interaction with CN, Dr Ghose disclosed the secret of his success. "The rudimentary lesson for a museum-creator is that it should be visitor-friendly with an atmosphere where they would love to spend the day. The museum should be clean, sans dark corners and spit-pots, well-illuminated and with a self-sufficient cafe, a rest area and neat toilets." That is his recipe for a normal museum but why Dr Ghose is on the international circuit is for bringing science closer to the masses via his 25 science centres across the country.

When he recently retired as president of the National Council of Science Museum after 39 years of association, he had the satisfaction that his experimental venture in Calcutta, the Science City, had become economically viable. Since he does not believe in talking about himself, you can hear him speak in terms of "we" for he believes in teamwork. "We, at the Science Museum, wanted to involve people in scientific happenings and until they get a feel of it, science will always remain alien to them. So we designed the Science Centre on the American concept of `hands-on’ where visitors can touch and handle the exhibits."

Thus his "learn through fun" centres came up in all four metros, state capitals and important places like Tirupati. But Dr Ghose felt that the result was not cent per cent. Thus came the "minds-on" concept. "After handling the exhibits for some time, people do not carry the experience for a long time. There was need for an artificially-simulated atmosphere in which they can forget space and time for the retentivity of the experience is longer."

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That is what one gets in Science City where visitors can take a "back to the future" ride to the Jurassic era and feel the presence of dinosaurs around them or witness the birth of the solar system.

"Now the trend is `hands-on, touch-on and feel-on concept’ with information technology. This is the era of multimedia exhibition centres and people are not interested in the old school of displays in glass cases with long texts. When you have an audio information system, even illiterate people can get interested in the goings-on." Not a tall claim for a person whose Science City drew eight lakh visitors in the first six months, generating a revenue of Rs 3 crore. It was then that it was realised that such projects can be both crowd-pullers and economically viable. Prime Minister Gujral, who inaugurated it, soon announced his decision to see at least five such centres come up in the Ninth Plan. Thus, the second Science City is all set to come up in Kapurthala (bordering Jalandhar). "The master plan and architectural model are complete. The moment the funds start flowing in, the work will commence."

About the Memorial Theme Park at Anandpur Sahib for the discussion of which he is here, Dr Ghose felt it was premature to talk as they were still in the process of compiling what should be highlighted. "However, all I can say is that the pace is very fast here and the whole system of projection will be the first in the country."

And if you thought he was an architect drawn to building museums, you are mistaken for this electronics engineer from Jadavpur University was inducted into the first Science Museum in Calcutta immediately after graduation, as it was their policy to have curators with engineering background. "Every curator is free to translate his idea into a multi-dimensional exhibit." So, it is no wonder that countries like Australia, Canada, Sweden and even the United States put in orders for both their exhibits and expertise.

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