After graduating from the
prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur and getting a
plum job at one of the top most engineering companies, not many people
would quit to spend the rest of life in making toys out of all sorts of
discarded material. But Arvind Gupta preferred to take that decision
and still has no regrets.
And, in the last two decades Gupta has a made a
niche for himself by creating toys out of thrown away refills of ball
point pens, rejected bicycle tubes, all types of papers, worn out
bathroom slippers, pins, empty tetra-packs, film role cans, cold drink
straws, old CDs and useless floppies and innumerable other rejected
material found in any household.
What makes them unique is that these toys are not
mere playthings, but each of them helps a kid to understand nuances of
scientific theories ranging from aerodynamics and electromagnetism to
acoustic principles. “Toys give an hands-on attractive means for the
kids to learn fundamentals of science,” Mr Gupta told Deccan Herald in
Pune.
The former Telco engineer detests the way science
is being taught in most of the schools. “Most of the children cannot
relate to science because of the way the subject is being taught.
Children learn by doing. In their free moments they are always
tinkering, pottering, playing and messing around with whatever they can
lay their hands on. It is during play that children learn a lot of
important things about science,” he observed.
This passion of telling the children a thing or
two about science, has brought Mr Gupta to Pune where he has been given
the responsibility of what can be called India’s first interactive
science museum with the backing from Inter University Centre for
Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) and its eminent founder Dr Jayant
Narlikar. Maharashtra-based Pula Deshpande trust has contributed Rs 25
lakh for the project. The museum is likely to be operational by June.
With impressive structures, building and models,
most of the Indian science museums including those created by National
Council of Science Museum barely offer any chance to the kids to learn
nuances and romances of science.
The models are conceptualised
lock, stock and barrel on similar western models resulting into a
complete lack of any Indian perspective. They are high on bulk but low
on content. Then there would be a security guard to protect those
structures and models and the mere sight of a security guard is enough
to make the kids shy away from science, he said.
On the contrary, the museum conceived by the
Toy-maker (as Mr Gupta prefers to call himself and described in a
recently released title on the IITians), would consists of two
room-full of large boxes containing all sorts of household junk. The
kids will be asked to pick up whatever material they like from those
boxes and make toys out of them. Of course, Mr Gupta with his knowledge
of making almost 200 toys out of these junk would be there to help them
out.
So what type of toys will the kids be making? A
hand pump made out of an empty plastic film roll can, a bicycle spoke
and a soft drink straw; or an abacus made from a torn away bathroom
slipper and some broken pencils (in fact the same slipper and pencils
can double up as a tool to teach light’s convergence and divergence
properties) or a paper bird that a kid can rotate using a piece of
string or a DC motor made out of a battery and some commonly available
metal strips.
Mr Gupta who had quit Telco in 1978 to work in the pioneering
Hoshangabad science and technology programme (HSTP), knows the ways to
make hundreds of toys out of these so-called junk.
A piece of log with notches at its tip and a
broom-stick is another of his top favourite. Rubbing the notches with
the broom stick will produce sound in accordance with acoustic
principles.
“It looks simple but fairly complicated science has gone into it. How
deep the notches should be? How far the notches should be? Can it rub
with ball pen refill or with a finger. And while trying out these
tricks the children will learn about acoustics,” he explained with
bubbling enthusiasm.
Without going through pages of complicated
physics and class-room experiments, Mr Gupta has a novel way of telling
the basics of acoustic vibrations. Take a cold drink straw, blow it and
slice the straw with a scissors. As the length of the straw diminishes,
the sound that emanates from blowing changes as per an octave. “This is
a simple way to dovetail a toy with scientific principles. We never
knew it because we never looked at our own reality,” he lamented.
For the IITian, lessons were learnt during his
HSTP days when Mr Gupta encouraged by a fellow IITian and educationist
Anil Sadgopal joined the programme which aimed to teach students
between standard VI to VII science in a Madhya Pradesh district in a
hands-on way. By the time HSTP was forcibly closed down by the Digvijay
Singh government – ignoring the protests from scientists and
educationists from all over the world – a few years back, HSTP is known
all over the world as an unique experiment.
The HSTP has taught the toy maker that children
do not need fancy laboratories and expensive equipment for doing
science.. “There is much which can be done using throwaway things found
at home. Only when children use ordinary things, they realise the
relevance of science in everyday life”, he summed up.
For further details contact Arvind Gupta, Inter-University Centre
for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Ganeshkhind, Pune. Tel:
020-5691414. E-mail to arvindguptatoys@hotmail.com
Kalyan Ray
|
LEARNING SCIENCE *Arvind Gupta graduated from IIT, Kanpur and has acquired the
skill of making toys out of discarded material like refills of ball
point pens, bicycle tubes, CDs and floppies. |