Trip to Science City with the kids.

Swaroop Venkata is a sponsor for TCS READS.

While all Saturdays are celebrated by most of the IT guys by "sleeping", this Saturday was special.Because, this was the day when we had planned to go alongwith tiny tots to Science City. 3 of the non TCS READS guys went to collect the food packets and then reached the Islamiya library where the tiny tots had their school. When we reached, the TCS READS guys were already there, spending the time with the children. As a surprise, we also had people who had come from Norway, Iceland and America (though 3 of them were completely getting "baked" in the Indian Sun). The food packets were distributed. But, the excitement of going to Science City had overtaken the urge to have lunch. So, away we went!
2 of the teachers were kind enough to escort the children. All the children were
divided into groups, each TCSer being asked to manage the one of thhe groups. We took 7 taxis (courtesy ... dont remember the bhai's name). Once the cars took off, the children could be heard shouting "Driver saab! Hamara gaadi first jaana chahiye". After a short ride, we reached our destination, Science City.
While some of the guys went to buy the tickets, the remaining guys got the children to finish off their lunch. Then, the umbrellas were distributed to the children who took them and opened them to shelter themselves from the hot sun. Then, started our "Sky ride" into Science City! The excitement could be seen on their faces. This ride took us directly into Science City.
Our first destination was the Science Experiments section. Kids went hopping from one section to another.
Special attraction was the cycle pedal machine which was pushing the ball in a plastic tube up. Then, another one was the voice analyzer where the children shouted their heart out. Then, the whole group was rounded up and we took the lift. This lead us to the spiral staircase which showcased many of the scientific wonders.
The major attraction on the spiral staircase were the fishes on display. (I was fascinated with the piranhas).
Then, we moved onto the Dinosaur theme park which had excellent animatronics. Some of the children got frightened and had to told that all these were just robots.
Once we came out of the theme park, we made our move towards the Space theater. However,
this was hindered by entering into the Mirror maze. After many people banging their heads and losing the way innumerable times, finally we were able to make it out of the maze.
Space theatre, here we come! Let me tell you, this gang of tiny tots is the one of the most disciplined children I had seen. This can be proved by the fact that we did not go mad at the end of day! All the children sat patiently and lost themselves in the high quality visuals of the sea.
With our final task in our plan completed, next was the turn of the ice cream. Everyone, mainly me,
enjoyed the ice cream. Then, we took the return cab back to the school. With this, the day ended, with
everyone tired but fully rejuvenated.

- Swaroop Venkata