The lost city

One of the biggest and most modern interactive science centres in the country has all it takes to be successful but remains mostly unseen.


It's a mighty heart: you can walk right into it to figure out the human circulatory system and see how it pumps blood. This 12-ft model of a beating heart greets you at the entrance of the innovatively designed health gallery at the Pushpa Gujral Science City, Kapurthala-one of the biggest science cities in the country. Named after former prime minister I.K. Gujral's mother, the science city has tried to cover the wide world of what qualifies as science.

Science citySchool children enjoy a day at the science city
The space theatre has a 23-m diameter screen which is ten times larger than normal cinema screens. It is a different world altogether: A digital planetarium, a flight stimulator that provides a real life experience through virtual expeditions to space, a space and aviation gallery displaying cross section views of satellites, fun science exhibits and a dinosaur park that takes you to the Jurassic-era populated by 44 life size dinosaurs.

Yet it is the health gallery-Amazing Living Machine-that draws maximum visitors. A transparent model of a man tells the story of body parts and their functioning. Terms like mycosis and mitosis that science teachers have struggled to explain actually generate excitement among the students who throng to science city.

Also, most visitors are keen on the stories of modern diseases and medical devices. Visitors operate and see how a CT scan works. Even the functioning of the kidney and dialysis are explained here. In fact, a visit here saves many people from visiting doctors. "They can find out their eyesight, know if they are colour blind and find out their pulse rate,", says Manish Soin, scientific officer.

Visitors can pedal a bicycle and see for themselves how increased heart rate brings about changes in their ECG pattern. The science centre is involved in spreading the message of HIV/AIDS through its bus, the Red Ribbon Express Bus, which shows films at various colleges. Science City Director-General R.S. Khandpur now plans to have a cyberspace unit and virtual reality gallery with a computer-simulated environment. Here visitors will get to see how the email system works.

The 72-acre city came up in 2005 as a Centre-state project at a cost of Rs 100 crore with the Centre sharing 70 per cent of the cost. Despite its size and magnificent displays, it gets just 3.5 lakh visitors annually. In fact, not many are aware of its existence and fewer know the treasures it showcases. Maybe better public relations by the Punjab Government can up its people quotient.

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