The date was 8 August 2002. During this experience I was aged around
17-18 yrs. then. It was a 3-day seminar, the first day at Hosakote, near
Bangalore. This place called CREST (mostly that's the name) is the
control center for the Himalayan Hanle 2-metre telescope, which is owned
by Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and is currently the world's highest, in Ladakh at
13,000 ft. This was a day when scientists mostly from IIA gathered and
gave lectures to each other, and these lectures were nowhere, nowhere of
my level, PhD stuff. (I was just in 11th std !!) I got this privilege to
go there because of Dr. B.S.Shylaja at the planetarium. She's a noted
astrophysicist in the city and has written few books but innumerable
newspaper articles. I've cut many articles written by her, mainly from the
Deccan Herald supplement, Science and Technology. I was in close and
good contact with her then, so I was the ONLY, ONLY student that day to
be among 50-60 or so mainly astrophysicists !! What a matter of prestige
and privilege!! At a time I was even feeling very odd to be there.
I had to go to IIA early morning at around 8 am, which was the starting
point of two luxury buses carrying loads of scientists. Finally we
reached Hosakote by a beautiful luxury bus. Many scientists and press
media arrived there after we reached there. It was exactly like I was in
V.I.P territory. Among the notable scientists was Prof. J.C.
Bhattacharya. After knowing that he is the co-discoverer of Uranus'
rings, I was the most eager to get his autograph then, just as any kid
would've thought. I had just 1 year back, in 10th std. read his name in
my textbook, and here I was seeing him so closely, finally face-to-face
!
Since then the most important botheration in my mind then was to get his autograph,
I just had to get it before leaving that place. I was just waiting and
waiting for that golden opportunity, I was feeling shy and nervous to
ask it in front of other scientists there, so I waited to catch hold of
him when he was alone. It looked like that moment would never come that
day, because they all were always together, but finally for some time I
saw him alone looking at some photos displayed, and there was even no
one around. I was holding a paper and pen since the moment I came to
know who he was !! I just rushed to him and in all the excitement to get
his autograph, by mistake asked him - "Sir, can I have your 'signature'
please?". He was a old man, so, behaving odd when I asked his
'signature' was not strange. He looked at me through his spectacles and
asked with a slightly angry or rather I should say shocked tone of voice
and face - "Why?". I then answered - "Just like that", instead of
correcting and saying - "I'm sorry. I meant I want your autograph". But
fortunately enough, maybe looking at how small I was, he "signed" on
that page of mine what I had, and I rushed from there with that reaction
of his permanently etched in my mind. And guess what?? For the next few
days when I remembered his angry face (to me he seemed like that) and
after this event I just couldn't sleep, eat and so on. This trauma
continued till maybe a week. All I repented then for a more than
week-long period was having replaced "autograph" with "signature".
Now that's something that you can't replace afterwards.
But the other fantastic experiences that I got to have there were I got
the privilege to be the ONLY student among all the scientists there. I
got to see a big computer screen with only a keyboard and a webcam which
directly relayed images from Hanle telescope in Ladakh in Himalayas. But
I didn't know from where do they control this telescope, where the actual
control center was? I finally got the "signature" of Prof. J.C.B. which
might still be there with me today. But of course, those lectures were
the most boring and meaningless in my life !!
I remember the exact date because I have a poster on my wall with the
date. A big bundle of posters was kept on the reception table and
everyone was supposed to get one. It just had names of speakers for the
schedule, and a photo of Kavalur observatory with star-trails in the
background with photo of Prof. Vainu Bappu himself. So my main
attraction then was to get as many for myself as possible. The ONLY
option to accomplish that was to rob them from there and I even
succeeded in stealing around 5-6 extra posters from the table right in front
of the eyes of the receptionists !! (I don't know how !)I then was desperate
to see the actual place from where they controlled the telescope
thousands of miles away. I asked Dr. Shylaja and I accompanied someone
to one floor upstairs, removed my slippers and entered a room with a
medium large computer monitor and a web camera. And on the screen I
could see live images of the Observatory, and the operators there. Is
that all? I thought. But where was the real control center. But having
seen that, I had to be satisfied. It is after this event that I came
downstairs and before leaving the place managed to flick the posters
there. I wanted to attend the remaining 2-days also and especially the
next day which was at Kavalur Observatory. The main attraction of next
day was the inauguration of a new CCD camera for the Observatory. But I
just couldn't go the next day as my father had gone out of station and
we were scheduled to return late that same very night from Kavalur. I
was young then so this was a problem for
my mother who insisted that I do not go. Hence this is an important
event I've missed.
