At our time in 1970s, Netarhat School, we used to have a variety of hobby clubs and one had to choose one of them each year. I had chosen French, Industrial Chemistry, Metal work. There were others like Bird watching, Aero-modelling, Ship Building etc. However since 1980s these started to go out of option and for all practical purpose stopped all together.I had been worried about this as it is an important part of learning process and more so for divergent thinking. During my visit to Ranchi, few months back, I had a discussion with Netarhat Vidyalaya Samiti and Shriman Swaroop Jee was very enthusiastic about reviving the hobby clubs. He offered to come along with me to School, when I came next for this purpose. I had proposed Feb 2015 for this purpose but I could only manage time later. Based on mutual convenience, we finally planned to visit Netarhat on May 17th and return on May 19th morning. In the mean time, through a Delhi NOBA member, we obtained DIY Electronics Kit and Lego Mindstorm Robotics Kit. We also planned to procure a 3D printer but its delivery got delayed. Hopefully this would be available in Netarhat soon!
From an event in Patna, where TIFAC and NIFT, Patna is involved in upgrading technology of ready made garment manufacturers of Patna City, I came to Ranchi on May 17th and went to Swaroop Jee’s house. I also took the opportunity to spend a short time with Deogharia Jee, my Ashramadhyaksha of Nalanda Ashram. We started for Netarhat around 11:50 AM. We stopped on the way at Ghaghra to have packed lunch given by Shilpi. This may have led to a break of 10-15 minutes. Then only other stop was at the Koel River bridge at Banari to take few customary pics and “selfie”! We reached Netarhat Guest House around 3:20 PM. So total journey time must be around 3 hours!
Pracharya Mallik Jee dropped on way to home for few minutes of courtesy call and informed that Girindra Jee would take care of various arrangements associated with my visit. After some time, Anil and Girindra Jee, two senior teachers dropped in and we decided that in Physics Lab we would show Electronics and Robotics kit to few students and teachers around 7 PM. Message was sent and we had a gathering of about 30 students and few teachers. I could briefly show the electronics kit, which can be used by any group of student and does not need any wiring. This is a kit from “littlebit”. Other kit is Lego Mindstorm Robotics Kit, which I requested Physics Teacher Maruti Jee to learn and train students. There was lot of interest in students and they seemed eager to put their hands on the kit. When I tried to ask some of the students in front to move back to let the other students see the kit functioning, they seemed very reluctant to move back!
