STONE AGE TO SPACE AGE..................
For all us wishful Moonrakers out here, Chandrayaan 1 seems to be making dreams come true. Exploring boldly into the final frontier where few men have gone before, to the land of lovers -the Moon .While mere mortals rejoice with the celestial pictures it sends back, very soon, we Surtis will be able to observe the Moon, Space and various Planets through our own Hubble adaptation..................
If you’ve noticed, there is a majestic piece of architecture coming up at the corner of Citylight .With its lofty Cuddapah stone exterior and an interior that will boast of one of the country’s most modern Planetarium and Art mueseum.At present the project is called the Science Centre.
By midsummer next year, the SMC is hopeful to shift and inaugurate the Sardar Vallabh Patel museum and planetarium from Chowk to Citylight. This area originally was part of the Panas cotton farm project that was once a walker’s paradise .Panas agriculture farm still exists albeit now has lost its quaint old charm to more modern roads and crazy traffic flowing within the fields of cotton crop.
Many famous ancient observatories around our country were made in the early eighteenth century by Sawai Jai Singh the second. Known as Jantar Mantar, they still exist in Jaipur, Delhi, Varanasi and Ujjain. A clever politician and keen astronomer, Jai Singh owned all the land between Delhi and Southern shores of Gujarat including Surat, from where he sent out a fact finding scientific mission to Europe.
The museum at Surat was put up in the premises of the Leiy Weaving Shed at the East end of the Mecca Bridge, just across Victoria Garden [Gandhi Baugh].The then collector of Surat-Mr.Winchester,organized setting it up and it was named after him. Locals would call it ‘ajayabghar’or’jadughar’.Housing stones that depicted various phases of the Moon, ancient text, sandalwood carvings,porcelain,stuffed animal,bird species, exotic marine fossils ,exclusive jari and lace work, it used to generate a lot of curious visitors then.
Post Independence, it was revived and renamed Sardar Vallabh Patel museum; inaugurated by Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri on 6-5-1956.Unfortunately, along with the city, it has faced a number of floods in 1959,1968,1970,1998 and of course the most recent and worst-2006.The museum has lost unretreivable valuables in these floods. The department of Museology of M.S.University of Baroda and the National Museum of Delhi have been most helpful in reviving what was left.
Since its inception, the most valuable artefacts on display have been donated by the philanthropic gentry of our large hearted town. As the SMC prepares with state of the art equipment for the new planetarium, the museum in its new avatar will display more than 8000 specimens and is open to donations by us citizens.
Once upon a time SMC had decided to shift it to the fort but now, the museum and planetarium will hold a coveted place in Tapi town.Soon, the Sun, Moon and stars won’t be out of reach for us Surtis.
Tapi Town Tattle-In these days of recession, President Obama has changed the three golden words from ‘I love you’ to ‘Yes, we can’!