A mixed bag of science tricks

The Edinburgh Science Festival. It had been a long awaited event, and was happening for the first time in India, brought to Bangalore by the efforts of mycity4kids.

We went on Sunday, with some friends - a couple with two children. It was quite a long drive to Bhartiya City, which had rented out their extensive grounds. The directions were easy enough, and when we reached there around 11am, there was already a crowd, and a long line at the ticket counters. Fortunately we had booked tickets online the day before, so we had to stand in a much shorter line to get them. Fortunately, too, as the tickets were sold out just around noon, and many people had to be turned away despite having come long distances, if they had not booked in advance, online.

First, the good.

There were large tents around, which housed the different exhibits. These were arranged quite far apart, with plenty of open space, interspersed with pavilions that had small tables and plenty of chairs.

Drinking water and large garbage bins were placed at convenient places.

There was a food court at one end, with plenty of eating options, from pizza/ sandwiches/ burgers/ frankies, to dosas, biryani, parathas, fried chicken, some Chinese stuff (that didn't look too good), as also tea/ coffee/ fresh lime sodas/ ice cream. You don't have to carry any food or water at all.

The exhibits themselves were in three categories.

There were the shows that were put on every hour - two different shows that alternated throughout the day. These were on an open stage, with plenty of space to sit/ stand in the front. In the format of a play, many scientific principles were explained, and the children in the audience were encouraged to participate and interact with those on stage. This was easy for even 5-6 year-olds to understand.

Next, there were the exhibits which were in tents, but open to both the children and the adults. Many of these were presented by some wonderful people from Indian organisations like mylearnbuddy, Fun Lab, ScienceAdda, and ScienceUtsav, whom I discovered thanks to this festival. The presenters were very knowledgeable, and could satisfactorily answer any questions, and had a way with words that kept the children engaged. Since parents were at hand, even little kids were permitted inside, and yes, they, too, were encouraged to interact and ask questions.

Third, were those that were only for children. These were the most interesting, and the most in demand.

1. Forensic Science - Be a Spy, was presented by Indian Forensic Organisation. The children went in here immediately upon entering the campus, and thoroughly enjoyed solving a murder mystery.
2. Emergency Room. This was facilitated by Columbia Asia Hospitals. Children wore the disposable green gowns that most hospitals use these days and actually performed surgical procedures on life-size rubber dummies. Removing a cyst, removing gallstones using scissor forceps and a laparoscope, and cleaning and treating a realistic deep thigh wound were some of the things that A reported doing. The gowns were their souvenirs.
3. Splat -Tastic. What child does not enjoy playing with something that adults find slimy and yucky? This one was about physics and chemistry dealing with viscosity and stickiness of substances. The kids even created some of their own and came out with slimeballs in paper cups to take home.
4. Pongy Potions. The very name got A thinking of Harry Potter, Severus Snape, and Potions classes. Unlike those, though, these were great fun. This one is about scents and smells. Fragrant and stinky. The children had great fun messing around with them, and came out with fragrances that they had created using veg oil base, and an array of essential oils. What did A use? Lemongrass, vanilla, and patchouli. Why? She said she liked them the best.
5. Sound and Light shapes. This was very interesting - at least what the children described was. One of the things here was a row of flames that were connected to a recording of a piece of western classical music, and the flames danced in response to the decibel levels. Sounds interesting.

Next, the not-so-good.

The above-listed ones were what the adults had been looking forward to most, but we were disappointed to be kept out of all the fun. These also had the longest lines. After sending the kids in for Be a Spy, we adults had chilled out under one of the nearby pavilions with some cold drinks. That was our mistake. After a while, we realized that the lines at all the exhibits were beginning to grow like Hanuman's tail, and if we didn't do something about it, we would end up having a wasted day on our hands. So we decided to make full use of our mobiles, and stood in line in pairs. The husband and his friend together, and the friend's wife and I together. As soon as the children got out of one place, they were ushered in for the one where we were closer to the entrance. Lunch time meant that I went to stand in a very long queue at the frankie counter (the children's choice of meal) and got one for each one of them. A quick munch between two exhibits, and they were sent on to the next one. As soon as we were sure they would be able to enter The Emergency Room, that had the longest duration, of 40 mins, I went to stand in a food line again, this time for parathas for the adults. We had our picnic sitting on the grass near the tent when they went in to do their operations. Hot sun above, shamianas for shade for those standing in queues not yet put up at all places - it tired us out a lot. Between us, we consumed more than 10 litres of water (we bought the water bottles there, as the drinking water drums were set up sometime around 4pm, and I kept a count), probably the only reason we lasted out there under the blazing sun all day. We hadn't checked the festival site properly, and had not carried the requisite caps, etc.

Verdict.

We were there from 11am to around 6pm. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves, no doubt about that. They learnt much of science in a fun way, as science should ideally be learnt.

There is stuff for younger kids as well as for older ones. Actually for most 6+ year olds. Some, like Be a Spy, are for 8+ kids.

Be ready to do the kid-sitting. No use trying to get into exhibits where adults were permitted if you do not have a person with you who is not really interested, and who will agree to stand in the queue while you go take a look. Or at least be prepared with a book, to take turns at queuing up and going to learn some science.

Take caps, hats, sun protection - we've come back with some really painful sunburns. Unless the weekend was about teething troubles and the shade-providing shamianas for queues are now up.

The shows, though very kid-oriented, can get kind of boring for adults. Be ready to sit through it with your children, or sit it out at a pavilion with a cold drink and a book/ some socializing, while the kids enjoy themselves.

Book your tickets in advance online. So that you don't reach there to find them sold out.

Weekends can get a bit crowded, but most exhibits can be covered in the whole day. A visit on the weekday may not really work if the venue is very far for you. The day is for schools exclusively, and the gates are open for families and the general public from  4,30pm to 8pm. That might not be enough time. Not unless you study the list of exhibits at the festival website, choose what interests you most, and target those in the time you have. Evenings can also mean rain, so although the exhibits are in covered, enclosed spaces, arm yourself for the rain while you sit it out at queues or having a drink.

The actual festival in Edinburgh is a much more extensive one, with more than 200 exhibits, with the whole town joining in joyfully. While the one in Bangalore is nowhere near that, it is at least a beginning.

I also wish more people were interested in this sort of thing. I expected more familiar faces. Among all those who attended on Sunday, the only other face I recognised was that of A's science teacher at school. While malls feature high on most people's lists of places to go to on a weekend, science should, but doesn't.

One thing that struck me was - if we develop a similar infrastructure, and if there is political will, we have our own wonderful scientific communities, who can put up something comparable. Now that's a thought worth mulling over.

Book Review: The Deadly Royal Recipe

Masterchef meets Inkheart meets The Famous Five meets Bollywood. That is Ranjit Lal's latest book by Duckbill publishers, The Deadly Royal Recipe for you.

pic courtesy flipkart

The Deadly Royal Recipe
Written by Ranjit Lal
Published by Duckbill
Ages 10+

Zafira is a lonely, homeschooled-till-now princess, who comes from an extraordinary royal family. The family has an ancient tradition of excellent cooks among its scions, and consequently, the House of Kamargarh is legendary, almost revered among culinary circles.

The principality, placed around the north-west of Delhi, has a sinister neighbouring Rajah who has evil designs on its most protected treasure - a Masterbook of royal recipes handed down through the ages. These are written in a code that only members of the royal family can understand. So he does the obvious. He kidnaps Princess Zafira and her new-found school friends and holds them for a royal ransom - you guessed it - the Masterbook.

What follows is a nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat narrative that had us wanting to know what happened next; and what the recipe is that is royal as well as deadly.

There are some spine-chilling and seriously yuck moments - a la Roald Dahl - that one needs to be a preteen/adolescent to be able to stomach, and a lot of suspension of disbelief is required. That, however, is part of this thriller's charm, and Ranjit Lal seems to have his finger firmly on his readers' pulse. I would be less than honest if I don't say this: the book does not aspire to any literary greatness. It does, however, entertain, keep the reader engrossed (grown-up readers too); a well-crafted story that children will thoroughly enjoy. My daughter A finished it in one sitting, reading late into the night, loath to put it down for the next day.

The one grouse we both had with the book is: the delicious, mouthwatering food that is described, and the recipes discussed and savoured (yummy) are supposed to be found at a website that is given at the end of the book. Sadly, this site is a fictitious one, (we both checked, separately, unbeknownst to each other, and found out only while comparing notes) part of the narrative. A request to the author, and the publishers, if they read this - please do create such a site. That would be the tadka on this recipe.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

The thousand nights and one night

Pic courtesy janpienkowski.com

THE THOUSAND NIGHTS AND ONE NIGHT
Retold by David Walser
Illustrated by Jan Pienkowski
Published by Puffin books
Ages 8+

What happens when a book of timeless tales is created when an inveterate traveller who is also a master storyteller collaborates with a gifted illustrator brought up on a steady diet of those very stories? A masterpiece like our book here.

The book has the expected link of stories. Beginning with the tale of the Sultan who wows to make a new woman a queen every day, only to kill her in the morning, as revenge for being betrayed by his first wife. Enter Shahrazade, the clever woman who can weave a web of stories, leaving it tantalisingly unfinished in the morning. She does this for a thousand and one nights. Until finally, having fallen in love with her, he abandons his wicked resolve.

So it is, in a way, a love story. But every tale she tells is full of a thrilling adventure, taking us to many parts of the world along the way, telling us of fantastical creatures and unbelievable happenings.

The book keeps us enchanted throughout, like the Sultan was, and A could not leave the book till it was finished. She had been put off by the inevitable violence of these tales when we had tried some other books previously. Walser, however, has faithfully brought the tales to life without scaring. As also brought to us the fact that these stories have originated at different places in the world, and not in Arabia alone.

The illustrations!!! I could have picked this book up just for those, even if the story wasn't so enchanting. Vibrant colours- shades of red, orange and yellow in the background, with the actual figures in black silhouette, adding to the sense of drama. The double-spreads at the beginning of each tale are particularly overpowering.

A recommended book for anyone wanting to discover the magic of the Arabian nights.

Crossposted at Saffrontree.

I don't really think Murphy ever went shopping by an auto!

Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong, it will.  This happened a few years back, when A could legitimately be whiny and cranky without being labelled babyish!

When you want to walk, like I did today, going to a grocery shop a kilometer from my house, there will be many empty autorikshaws that pass you. One will even stop to ask you if you need an auto.

However, there won't be a single auto in sight when you are

(a) already tired after a hectic morning in which the househelp turned up late, after you had finished washing some of the vessels, after having cooked and packed lunch for the husband going to office,
(b) got the daughter to hurry through her relaxed morning on a school holiday,
(c) in a hurry to get to some place,
(d) walking a reluctant daughter along, as she has to be taken along, since the shopping expedition is for her benefit, and you cannot leave her alone at home even if it wasn't. She is also be at her whiny best, not willing to accompany you, having better things to do at home, like reading the latest book borrowed from the library or school friends, not willing to walk the distance to finding an auto that is available.

If you do find one, the driver will be      

(a) in no mood to drive at the moment,
(b) not willing to go where you want him to take you,
(c) desirous of fleecing you if he is willing to condescend enough to take you and your unwilling daughter to the (supposedly obscure, in his opinion! After all, it is a major market place, in your opinion!) place you want to go to.
(d) likely to be a rude, risk-taking person prone to road-rage, more in a hurry than you to get to your destination, causing palpitations every time he swerves particularly dangerously, weaving his way through equally unruly ongoing and oncoming traffic, swearing at you if you ask him to slow down a bit, in obscure kannada, which you cannot decipher even though you have a working knowledge (?) of the language, but can make out the force behind his words.
(e) likely to argue with you on reaching your destination about how out-of-the-way-back-of-beyond-cannot-get-any-passenger-here-at-this-time it is, even though you very well know it is not, demanding an excess fare over the excess you have already committed yourself to at the beginning of your roller-coaster ride, which you argue half-heartedly for a while against, but give it anyway, just to be able to get rid of the suicidal, maniacal boor!!!

Ditto when you get to that destination.

You will need to walk through a crowded market street with said uninterested daughter in tow, looking for a shop that has done a disappearing act. You have obviously suffered a short-term memory loss, having got directions to said shop from a friend on phone just a few hours ago, or grossly misunderstood her directions, or said friend has obviously given you the wrong turning.

You try calling said friend on phone, only to get an 'engaged' signal, at least three times in 10 mins, all the while trying to hush the now obviously annoyed daughter who is suddenly hungry.

Finally you get through to said friend, realise with relief (oh, for small mercies!) that you are not suffering from short-term memory loss, after all, the friend realising that her directions were wrong. You then proceed to listen to the correct directions, disconnect the call after thanking her, and continue to search for the shop, after instructing daughter to hold her hunger pangs for a while, as you need to do the job you came for first.

You finally find the shop, only to find the owner just closing it, it being a friday, the day on which most, if not all shops in this area close for around two hours in the afternoon for prayer. You have obviously
(a) not accounted for it being a friday,
(b) not started from home early enough, having decided at the last minute to take advantage of the holiday and shop for the daughter,
(c) not accounted for that search for an auto with a whiny child in tow,
(d) not accounted for wrong directions, losing out on valuable time in searching for the place.

So you try to make the best of a bad situation and decide to take a hungry daughter and thirsty self to some place where one can relax, eat, drink and make merry. After all, it's a friday, and you have a two hours' respite. Shopping can continue later in a more replete, relaxed, refreshed state of being.

And for another reading challenge. This one is both for A and me, and promises to be fun. It is hosted by the Papertigers at the Reading the World Challenge 2011. It is a child-friendly challenge, and so one in which both of us can participate. This also goes hand-in-hand with the other challenge that I'm undertaking, the 2011 Global Reading Challenge. There are bound to be some overlaps in the books that I may choose for both these challenges, and I'll be able to crosspost.

Rules for the Papertigers challenge:

1. Choose six books from/about/by or illustrated by someone from different countries anywhere in the world, 3 of which must be in different continents.


2. Choose one book from/about your city/district – as local and as relevant to your geographical setting as you can find.


3. You should choose at least one book of each of the following: fiction, poetry and non-fiction.


4. Have the books read aloud to you or read them yourself; share them as part of a book-group or in class. Combine your choices with other reading challenges.

5. There is no time limit for this year’s Challenge, apart from completing it by the end of the year.


I can certainly look forward to some interesting reading choices this year!

Besieged by a rat !

Pic courtesy animalpicturesarchive.com

No, I do not mean the political scenario in the state, including the bundh on Saturday, though that too could qualify. This post is not about those kind of rats. It is about the real thing, our friend Rattus rattus, or the common black rat. Last week, one got into our house.

We have wire meshes on all our doors and windows to keep out the mosquitoes, but allow air circulation. They couldn't keep the rat out, however. There is a bathroom just outside the kitchen. The Saturday before last, we awoke to see a (rat-sized) hole in the mesh on the bathroom window. This bathroom is left open every night. Why? I have no idea. It's just one on those things we do.

As soon as we saw that hole, we knew that we had an intruder. Or at the very least, we had had one in the night, and hopefully he had left. A thorough search of the house yielded no sign of him. This was the stuff of nightmares for me. Just imagine all those books lying in piles in shelves and on the floor in every room, on all possible surfaces, just waiting to be daintily nibbled by a rodent! Imagine all the possible diseases we could get by using surfaces he had walked on, and god alone knows done what else. The very possibilities had us collectively pulling our hair out.

We hoped that the rat had left the way he had come in. But I was taking no chances. I immediately made sure that at least we did not leave any food or water out in the open. I kept the door of the bathroom firmly shut all week, using the other bathroom till the rat was caught. And I invested immediately in a rat trap. The kind which lures them with a bait and traps them without any injury.

So. We set up the trap with a piece of roti (Indian bread), put it in the bathroom to trap the rat if it came back, and kept the door shut. For the whole day, there was no sign of him. The next day, Sunday,  Amma, my household help, suddenly gave a little scream whilst she was sweeping in the kitchen. She had seen the rat just behind the fridge, and no amount of  banging around it would bring it out. We came out of the kitchen, shut the door, and I called the husband. What happened then, and later in the day, was nothing short of high drama.

He put on shoes to protect his feet, took a big bamboo stick we had at home, opened the bathroom door, placed the open rat trap with the bait at the bathroom door (it is right outside the kitchen door), barricaded the small passage leading out to the dining room, and opened the kitchen door. The idea was to drive the rat out of the kitchen, so that he takes the route of least resistance into the bathroom, where we had a trap waiting for him.

We happened next was so quick that I barely realised it. The husband moved the fridge slightly ahead, to allow for manoeuvering. There we were, just outside, watching for the rat. Amma and I were standing there, wringing our hands, Amma at the ready with a broom if needed. A was perched on top of the dining table, the better to see what happened. Here was an adventure. The husband kept admonishing me to keep away, and more importantly, to keep A away. He put the stick behind the fridge, and before we knew it, the rat had run out of the kitchen, and not into the waiting trap in the bathroom, but the bedroom on the other side. I have never moved as quickly as I did then, first jumping out of the way of the advancing rat, A jumping up and down on the table (good thing it is made of good, solid wood!), and then to quickly close the door of the bedroom.

Here was a new set of worries. The door to the balcony off the bedroom was closed, as was the door to the bathroom attached to it. But the bed was unmade, with sheets and blankets all lying higgeldy piggeldy, with the mosquito net still up. There were piles of books along the wall, and suitcases still piled up in the corner next to the wardrobe, not yet put away after our vacation. The rat could not escape from the bedroom, but it was still able to hide among all that, making things more difficult. 

So now we removed the barricades, which had not deterred the rat from sprinting over them, the husband picked up the rat trap with its bait, gingerly opened the door of the bedroom, placed the trap inside and quickly closed the door. We were hoping for a quick catch, now that the trap and the rat were in the same room.

But rats are canny creatures, and this one turned out to be a smart one. He was not going to come out of his hiding place, no siree, not after being frightened out of its skin by a stick wielding human like that. We waited all day for the loud BANG which would indicate that we had the intruder apprehended, but there wasn't any. All day, A spoke about nothing but the rat, and whether it was frightened, and what would happen if we don't catch it. Also why we were using the trap, and why not the ratkill (rat poison) that is seen in advertisements? How does a trap work? How the rat is just trapped but not injured by the trap we had.

Finally in the evening we decided to take matters in hand again, or else suffer sleeping in the hall. We opened the door, and there was the trap, still open. No peep from the critter. We closed the kitchen door, and opened the bathroom door, so that it might run out, if not caught. The husband again donned the shoes, and armed with the stick, tiptoed into the bedroom. Again, there were fascinated onlookers- me standing just outside, keeping a sharp lookout for any movement, and A on her perch on the table, jumping up and down in excitement, telling her father repeatedly to be careful, me trying to hush her up.

The husband carefully pulled the piles of books and suitcases away from the wall, watching for any signs of life. Nothing. He then took the trap to the corner on the far side of the wardrobe, and approached its back from the side of the door with the stick. I was just outside the door, peeping in intently, for any sign of the rat. Suddenly, I saw it moving down the back of the wardrobe and running in the direction of the trap. I pointed quickly, "there, it's gone there!" The husband ran quickly to that side, but the rat was not to be seen. He tapped on the trap to close it, just in case. There was no sound from inside, and we could not see inside, as it was not a mesh trap. Slowly, to check, the husband opened it just a crack, and A screamed from outside. The rat had streaked as quick as lightening out of the trap, out of the bedroom, into the bathroom and out of the hole in the mesh. Slam! The bathroom door was closed, and the rest of the house was now rat-free.

I tidied up the bedroom. We took the trap, opened the bathroom door gingerly, and placed it inside. Now all we had to do was to wait for it to be trapped, keeping the door closed till it was. The rat had taken the trouble to cut a hole in the mesh, so it was sure to try its luck again, once it was dark and all the noisy, scary, stick wielding humans had gone away.

We had spooked the rat, however, and there was no sign of him for the whole week. Every morning, we would open the bathroom door very hopefully, after taking the precaution of tapping on the door, so that it would back off from the door if it was free in there, and not try to run out the door. Nothing. But there very distinct signs of his having visited us: droppings on the bathroom floor. Obviously he did not think much of the bait offered him.

Finally, on Saturday, Amma told me that the roti placed inside had fallen to bits. So we decided to place a fresh bait inside. Amma asked me if I had cucumber or fresh coriander inside. In her experience, rats were partial to these. So we rolled up a bunch of fresh coriander in a slice of bread and put it inside.

Sure enough, that proved irresistable. We were woken up in the middle of the night by a loud BANG! We listened at the door, and there it was. The sound of the rat, now realising that it was trapped, scrambling around in the box, trying to escape.

To his credit, the husband, who is not as much an animal lover as to agree to keep pets, is enough of a softie not to let the poor critter be trapped all night. At 1am, he took the trapped animal, drove many kilometers into the outskirts, away from any houses etc., released the intruder and came back. I hope he doesn't return.

P.S. : The hole in he mesh has been stoppered with a thick role of newspaper, and now I have to look around for someone who will agree to make just one mesh for us.