Anjali - Visit to the Birla Planetarium

Anjali's wish to see the Birla Planetarium (and mine too) has been finally fulfilled. Shobhs, Anjali and I finally made it there, with Manasi in tow. The last time Anjali and Anu and I had gone to the planetarium the guard told us that anyone under 5 years was not allowed in the planetarium. The moment Anjali turned five, she reminded me of this new status she has achieved - she was now eligible to see the planetarium. And so we headed off.

Happy together - Manasi and Anjali

As we parked and were about to enter, a guard came running at top speed and told us that cameras were not allowed in the planetarium. Fair enough. Only wish they could tell us this before we get down and walk some distance. But what makes it rather funny is that everyone has such fine cameras on their phones that we don't need anything else - and phones are allowed inside!

Anjali and Manasi were in their own little world and were happily playing about. We had some time so we went to the science museum first which had many interactive science principles in action - optics, mechanics, electricity, illusion and so on - and the kids enjoyed themselves. The interactiveness was the key, and this was so unlike other places where we are normally used to Keep-Off-Else-There-Will-be-Penalties boards and and all that. Also one young volunteer came up and very gently showed all the experiments to Anjali and Manasi. They had much fun there.

Exploring some plants

Then we moved to the Dinosaurium which had one huge skeleton of a dinosaur found in Adilabad district and it is named after that area where it was found - Yemenapalli. After about ten minutes there we headed of to the museum of Modern Art which was a lovely exhibition of paintings from several artistes. I got a depressing view of the concrete jungle that our city had become from there. Not a patch of green anywhere.

The concrete jungle

And then we headed into the planetarium. The show which was to begin at 4 started at 430. We all sat around a giant telescope in seats that recline backwards so much that you are looking at the sky. We see a wonderful night sky. The stars and the constellations are explained but in a sort of a complicated manner and as it went on and on it got rather boring. Pretty little about the planets however, which I think was what Anjali was interested in. The sound kept going off all the time which was pretty bad - so bad that we could hardly catch the last 20 minutes at all. The kids were bored and frankly so was I and I was glad to get out finally. I heard one gentleman behind me commenting that the 'earlier' show was better which meant that they made some modifications which certainly are not working. I think if they keep it simple and explain our place in the Universe clearly it would be much better than explaining the rashis etc. I asked Anjali if she enjoyed the planetarium and she said it was 'boring'.

Posing in front of the Forbidden Lawns

 But she liked the science museum she said and playing on the forbidden lawns near the planetarium. 'One of those 'Get-Off, Get-Off' lawns.