Chandrayaan-I inspires them to be scientists

This small village, which is 38 km from Bengaluru, is buzzing with activity. The schoolchildren from Byalalu village are extremely excited about the launch of the Chandrayaan-1 and the mission has insipired most of them to become scientists.

The enthusiasm has been sparked off among these kids after the Indian Space Research Organisation set up two large parabolic antennas in Byalalu. Manoj, a Class 6 student of the Yesgohalli government primary school, says his ambition now is to become a scientist. It is quite surprising the manner in which he explains with ease the functions of the antenna.

Balu, a school teacher, says that thanks to this project their village has become famous.

The two parabolic antennas in Byalalu play a very important role in this mission. It is the only contact on the ground and will record all data sent by the satellite for a period of two years. The antenna will send commands to the Chandrayaan-1 in order to perform manouveres during its 3.84 lakh km journey to the moon.

While the India Deep Space Network is in their backyard and kids dream about contributing scientifically to their country and serve the people, a harsh fact remains that there is a long way to go and this is thanks to the lack of infrastructure.

While kids are really enthusiastic about realising their dreams and making it big, the question is will it be possible considering that they have just seven teachers in the village. The village has two government schools, five teachers and 300 students.

The kids are not taught English and all classes are conducted in the local language, which makes it even difficult to realise their dream. According to some locals the issue is that none want to take a posting to Byalalu. The seven teachers who come to this village, travel everyday from Bengaluru and there are many times that some do not even turn up as a result of which kids end up going home without having learnt anything.

Education department officials give the run of the mill reply and state that they are looking into the matter. They are taking steps to post more teachers in the village.

However, the kids of this village are too innocent to realise all this. They have only their dreams and they look confident of achieving their goals. How much will the government do to help them out is the big question.