2 months into the summer vacations and I am, finally, going home. As I write this piece, the train has finally started moving after a long halt. And so has the beautiful panorama with the 12th July rainy sky. And I am lost in the recollection of how the past 2 months went away.
So, where do I begin?
There, where it all started.
The Indian Institute of Astrophysics is a premier institute in India devoted to astronomical research. It has various observatories in many parts of the country and has the main center located in Bangalore. Being a person who has always been interested in astrophysics, it was a dream come true when I got the mail of confirmation of being selected for the Summer Project Programme 2014. After all, I had been eyeing this particular internship since my second year! (I couldn’t apply then as the rules mention that only pre-final years can apply)
The SPP conducted by IIA has two phases: a Summer School in Physics and Astrophysics conducted at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory of IIA and a project to be undertaken at IIA, Bangalore. I had applied only for the project, but as the rules have it, those selected for the projects also have to attend the summer school along with those selected only for the school.
Having written my last end semester exam on 10thMay, I reached Kodaikanal on 11th noon, with the school starting the next day. It was my first trip to the hill station and what I was expecting was found to be right: beautiful place and extremely cold weather!
The Kodaikanal Solar Observatory is a very old observatory. It’s the place where a British astronomer John Evershed discovered an important phenomenon occurring in the Sun, named aptly in his honour, ‘Evershed effect’. I will give more details about the observatory in a bit!
The IIA campus of Kodaikanal is huge. Kodaikanal, and what will one expect? I haven’t ever lived before in a prettier place for such a long span of time (10 days). The campus reminded me of the forbidden forest of Harry Potter! True to the sense of the word ‘hill station’, the campus isn’t a patch of leveled and straight land. The different guest houses, library, digitization centre and an auditorium: all these on DIFFERENT levels of land, in different corners of the campus!
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| Foggy! |
To begin with, let me talk about the guesthouses. There are at least four, if I am not wrong. Ours, which housed 8 of us and is called ‘Evershed annexure’ (if I remember right!), was nearest to the canteen. Another one for the rest of the girls was amidst a beautiful garden and next to the museum. And, from what I hear, the boys (who were much smaller in number) got the best guesthouse. Nevertheless, I am not complaining!
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| The guesthouse where I stayed! Looks dilapidated from outside, but is quite cozy inside 😛 |
On the first day, we were given our timetable for the next 10 days. Here’s what it looks like.
Interesting, no? Our timetable was like this: Wake up, get ready, have breakfast, then walk UP THE HILL to the auditorium. Classes from 9:30 to 6:00, with breaks in intervals of 1.5 hours. The breaks saw us dashing towards the Vainu Bappu Hall for our timely tea-coffee-snack ritual. As one of our professors said, ‘the more tea you take, the better researcher you become!’ Not to forget- go down for lunch, have lunch and then walk up again! Sigh. Enough walking to digest the food we just ate.
The best part of the school was this: we (at least I) had nothing to complain about. (Except the cold, maybe!) The 10 days saw me meeting new people. The food was amazing, the accommodation also good. Lectures varied from good to absolutely brilliant, but all of them gave us the basics of astrophysics. The teachers were really friendly too, with us getting chance to chit-chat with them during the breaks and dinner time. The observatory staff was very welcoming and friendly. I have said this repeatedly to many people, and I state again: Kudos to IIA Kodai for its hospitality.
Come 18th May and we went off for a trip to the town. Few days before that, we had just mentioned about a trip plan to Selvendran Sir (Senior Technical Officer, Kodaikanal Solar Observatory) and he arranged a bus for us, sending another sir (a staff member) with us. Need I say more about how much I like that place? (No. Sending students for a trip is not a part of the summer school).
The trip was a memorable one, too! Of the total 9 points to see in Kodai, we saw just three, but whatever we did was fun. Not to forget the Pine forest which have witnessed the shooting of many Indian movies. Apart from that, we shopped, saw the famous Kodai lake (they charge heftily for boating for a really small distance. Glad that I didn’t go) and gorged on some food in Dominoes. Evening time, we went back to the beloved observatory campus.
Aah! Now I come to one of the most interesting parts of the summer school. Trip to the actual observatory. We got to see the old and new telescopes, saw how they are focused, what science happens. In the digitization center, we saw what digitization process is. The digitisation process in the observatory is ongoing and once complete, the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory will become the only one of its kind in the world. Already, it’s the only one in the world having data starting from as early as 1904.
On the second last day of the school, the Director of IIA had arrived. A bonfire was arranged. What followed was a night full of super fun, with some professors also taking part in Antakshari. After that, we had dinner and the professors left. After that, we danced and danced to Hindi movie numbers for an hour and half around the bonfire. Fun-filled night!
Having done all this- classes, fun time with newly formed friends, trip to the town, chit-chats with profs, seeing the observatory, clicking loads of pictures and dancing away to glory on bonfire night, we were now ready to see another phase our journey: Bangalore. It meant bidding goodbye to almost half of the students in the school. 14 of us were going to Bangalore for projects while the rest were packing up to leave for their respective places. The final day saw us clicking some final photos and bidding adieu to friends (when shall we meet again?). Bus tickets for us were booked by IIA itself.
On 23rd May, in the evening, we boarded the IIA bus ready to take us to the main bus stop of the town.
And as it happened, I bid adieu to that beautiful place. Bid adieu with a heavy heart. I knew what I was carrying: memories.
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| The auditorium where we used to have classes. Picture credits: Priyank Mehta |
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| The ‘kitchen-dining hall-TV room wala’ guesthouse 😛 Picture credits: Priyank Mehta
This is US! SPP-’14 students at the pine forest. Go IIA! Pic credits: Kunal Soni |
Symphonies of a lifetime 
Oh yeah! I actually forgot about the bisons! And yes, about your bonfire too! Anyway, never mind- now I remember :p
Honestly speaking, when I was writing both these posts, I felt soooo nostalgic. It was a trip down the memory lane for me too. I actually felt like writing down EVERY detail of both Bangalore and Kodai! But then, I thought, 'let's have some mercy on the readers' 😀 Haha! Glad that you enjoyed reading these posts.
Missing you all.
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Thanks for finally writing it and sharing it with us..You have really gone into every details…It was really great reading it … like trip down the memory lane…all those beautiful memories coming back!
But one thing tha u forgot to mention was the BISONS!!!! 😀
And yeah..we(boys) also had one unofficial bonfire in front of the class once..although small in number…we really had so much fun that night…dancing and singing around the fire in that cold, chilled night(but everytime keeping an eye out for the BISONS :D)
Really miss that place…and the people!!!
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