Visvesvaraya Museum, Bangalore

I went to Vishweshwaraya Museum from my chacha’s house. Vishweshwaraya Museum was very far from his house. I traveled for around two hour in the bus. I like traveling in the buses. The bus dropped us on the bus stop and we walked a little to reach Vishweshwaraya Museum.

We bought tickets from the ticket counter and entered into the museum. First we entered in the dinosaur’s room. There I saw a model of a dinosaur. It was roaring and moving its tail and neck. We went down by stairs. Down, there was a truck made in 1916. It was looking like a train engine.

There we saw balls in a spiral cage going for a roller-coaster ride. My papa told me that it is an example of how one energy gets converted into another. I enjoyed playing with the balls. There was a lift in which the balls came and stopped . I moved a handle round and round and the balls were lifted to the top.

From the top the balls rolled again. Sometimes the ball stopped in the middle of the cage and then another ball came from behind and hit it. Then the two balls moved again.

Then we saw a cycle with a tube attached to it in which there was a ball. If you pedal the cycle with power, the pressure of the air will take the ball up. First, I tried to pedal it. But my legs were small so I couldn’t pedal it. Then Papa pedaled it and the ball had gone to the top. It was a good exercise for Papa. Papa needs it 😉

I also saw a science model in which a river was flowing down to a village. The speed of the water was used to move a hammer that was hitting a red hot iron and helping an iron-smith.

From there we went to the first floor and there we saw the model of a plane in which the Wright brothers made their first flight. That plane looked very light.

Then we went to the fun science section on the second floor. I enjoyed this section a lot.

I started with looking from a small hole where I could see many planets revolving around the sun.

I saw a model showing how a rocket works. I pressed a button and the rocket that was attached to a string went zooooooooommmm and came back soon. I enjoyed playing with it and played for about ten times with it.

I saw a working model of a helicopter. There was a button and a handle. When I pressed the button, the fans of the helicopter started to move and the helicopter went up. I then used a handle to move the helicopter left and right.

There was a well, when I looked into it, it looked very deep. When I put my hand into it, I could touch the bottom and then I realized that it was all due to mirrors in the bottom.

I enjoyed playing marble rolling game there with Papa and some other big kids. We had to rotate the marbles and the person whose marbles reached the hole first won the game. The balls were in a cone with a hole in the center.

At one place I was given a big air pump from which air was coming out very fast and there were some rings hanging from the roof. With that pump I had to balance the balls in the air and send the balls through that ring to the other side where Papa was standing to catch them. It was very funny.

Near it we saw a pipe. In that pipe I spoke at one end. After a few seconds, I heard my heard my voice from the other end.

Then I played a piano. It was amazing. I was playing the piano in the air. My moving fingers blocked the light and it played the instrument. I played सा रे गा मा पा धा नी सा for several minutes.

Then I saw a plate on which some fruits and vegetables with a man’s head was kept. Papa and I were frightened. Suddenly that head disappeared and now on that plate there was Papa’s head. I also went behind, to see how it was happening and there I saw that there was a small passage and in the end a table with a hole was kept. It was from here that everyone’s head was coming out. When I tried, my head could not come out from that hole.

The place looked like a magic land. There was a tap from which water was continuously coming out but there was no pipe connected to it. It was floating in the air. I asked Papa how it was happening but Papa didn’t have any answer.

There was a tube light, when Papa lifted it there was sparking in it even without any electrical connections.

We saw a room. In that room there was a magic mirror. We sat there for sometime. And then we saw a ghost in the mirror on my Papa’s shoulder. I immediately came out of that room.

Then there was a fan when I pressed a button it moved round and round and started to move up. When I stopped pressing the button the fan came down and bounced several times.

There was a special carom board. I strike anywhere, the striker always went into the hole. I enjoyed playing on that board.

There was a tube with four different colors in it. I tried to mix them. But I could not keep them mixed for long.

There were two whispering dish. I spoke at one disk and papa could hear it at other disk. It was really funny whispering and listening.

3-D movies are also shown in the fun section. I did not see it as things coming out of the screen towards me, scare me.

Then we moved to the ground floor and saw a show on the various constellations in the sky. We took away our shoes and entered inside a dark tunnel. It was semicircular from inside. A star-show started in the tent with a uncle telling with a torch which star was what. It was boring. Papa also did not like it.

After that we moved to the second floor by stairs. That section had models of many satellites. Those satellites were very small. It was not even reaching till my knee. When I asked papa, “Are satellites so small?”. He started to laugh and told me that these are only models. Real satellites are very big.

I saw the model of first Indian satellite – Aryabhata. It was launched from Russia, when my Papa was only two years old. Papa told me that it got its energy from the solar cells that were present on all its faces, except the top and the bottom faces.

We were feeling very hungry. So we went to the canteen on terrace of the museum. There I saw twin towers of Bangalore. They were connected by a bridge. Near the entrance I saw a big model of inside of a train engine. I was surprised to see it. I saw any engine from inside for the first time.

From the top I also saw a plane and two missiles. The missiles were very big. One was coming to the second floor. And the other was coming to the third floor.

When I was taking pictures of them, my papa was looking at this(a horse cart). Generation gap, I guess 😉

(This post was published at ghumakkar.com in January 2010, when I was eight years old)