Half a Century of Workship at “Tata’s Temple of Science”

Gadagkar, R (2020) Half a Century of Workship at “Tata’s Temple of Science”. In: Resonance – journal of science education, 25 (5). pp. 727-733.

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Abstract

An evolutionary biologist recounts his love for the campus of IISc which has also served as a laboratory for his research. The year was 1963, and it was my first week in Bangalore. As a 10-year-old boy, I was travelling with my parents and my two siblings, in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) bus no. 11, from my grandmother’s house in Jayanagar to our new home in Yeshwantpur. The bus conductor was a flamboyant young man who clearly took great pride in his work, moving up and down the aisle loudly announcing the name of each bus stop with great flair in chaste Kannada. At the last-but-one stop he roared, “Tata ravara Vignana Mandira” (Tata’s Temple of Science). I was intrigued. I was already hooked on science and the name ‘TATA’ was inscribed on the bus I was travelling, having been made by the Tata business house. But what was the connection between the business house and science? There was no Google at that time, but I soon found out that IISc was founded by the Tatas in 1909 on 1.5 square km of land donated by the Maharaja of Mysore Krishnaraja Wodeyar. IISc is still locally known as the ‘Tata Institute’ in homage to JN Tata, who could not build the institute in his lifetime but left money for it in his will [see In Pursuit of Excellence: A History of the Indian Institute of Science by BV Subbarayappa]. And what luck? India’s premier institute of science was located just 1 km from my house in Yeshwantpur! I soon found out that I could just walk in and observe this ‘big school’ meant for adults interested in science. The name of the Nobel Laureate Sir CV Raman was closely associated with the Institute. I also found out that the adults in this school had time to play tennis and that they were rich enough to discard tennis balls which were good enough to play cricket with for several months! And they sold them at 25 paise a piece, and we could go across the road and play cricket in the part of the campus which is now the gymkhana. That was my first encounter with the Institute.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Resonance – journal of science education
Publisher:	Indian Academy of Sciences
Additional Information:	First published as: Gadagkar, R. (2019). Half a Century of Workship at “Tata’s Temple of Science”. Connect – Indian Institute of Science, 6(4), 16-19. https://connect.iisc.ac.in/2019/12/half-a-century-of-workship-at-tatas-temple-of-science/ Gadagkar, R. and Sharma, R. Translated by R. Sharma. 2020. Half a Century of Worship at "Tata's Temple of Science", Ejnana Trust, Translated by R. Sharma. Podcast in Kannada Available at: https://www.ejnana.com/variety/worship-at-temple-of-science Podcast in Kannada is also available at: https://anchor.fm/kollegala/episodes/4-8---em3g55/a-a3ovjd6
Keywords:	Campus Chronicles, Community, Environment, Kannada, nature, science in kannada, IISc, Raghavendra Gadagkar, Ropalidia marginata
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Ecological Sciences
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2021 09:10
Last Modified:	13 Jan 2021 09:10
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/67571

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