A Day out in Bengaluru

After not so satisfactory trip to Bandipur (more about it a little later), we returned back to Bengaluru to my sister's place. We had 2-3 days at hand and were wondering what to do in those days. Conversation led us to two interesting locations in Bangalore - Nehru Planetarium & Science Park and Snow City.

A quick search on google informed that there is a English show at 12:30 PM. Unfortunately there is no provision for online booking and some reviews suggested to reach the venue at least an hour in advance as there are limited seats per show. The trio (Meghana, Mrunmay and myself) didn't want to miss the show and hence rushed to the Planetarium located in Vasant Vihar. The booking was yet to be started and there didn't seem to be much rush. So we decided to take a stroll in the park in the same premise. It turned out to be science park and that too well designed!!


We started with the principle of lever and Mrunmay was amazed to see the difference in the force required to push the endpoints of the lever where fulcrum position was different.

Then there was a model of some molecule (don't remember now!!) which was so similar to jungle gym

                                                                                                                And then there was this model of DNA, which we found very difficult to explain to Mrunmay and probably even he was happy not to get into the details.

We thought this was the only part of the science park so we moved to the only food stall present there and as soon as we reached there, to our surprise, we saw tens of other scientific models waiting for us to enjoy. 

                                                                            Newton's Color Plate: Unfortunately this wasn't working. Mrunmay tried his hard to rotated the palette using the handle below. And when we realized it was broken, he was all enthu to let other visitors know that it was broken!!

                                                                                  Centrifugal force: I had to rotate the wheel vigorously so that the colored balls could move up the arc!!

Next one was interesting. Two wheels, each having different mass, were to be released from upper end of the slope to notice which one reaches first. Pretty easy for Mrunmay to do it on his own and also to explain to others - how to do it and what to expect!!

And the photo from inside the prism - so many Mrunmays, Aais and Babas!!!

 This was a bit difficult for Mrunmay to understand. How the colors get mixed to produce different shades. 

 And the sounds

And the Centrifugal force demo - once again hard work for baba!!

The demo for "Echo":

In between, we also watched the "Solar System" show which was very good and enjoyed by all three of us. After this show, Mrunmay wanted to spend time again in the science park doing things on his own. Almost thrice he said - "there's something more that I haven't seen" and every time when he made us take a round and found something that was missed in the earlier rounds (The echo pipe, Solar System model and something more). Finally we had to convince him to leave the park by luring him for the Snow City. 

From Vasant Vihar, we took auto to J C Nagar to reach Snow city. Snow city is situated next to Fun World and Water World. The entrance and the entry fee are totally separate for all three entertainment zones. Given that this was an entertainment place, we were hoping to get the food here itself. But it turned out that they only had bakery item shop, which couldn't be suffice as a full meal. A long walk and couple of calls to my nephew made me realize that there's nothing much around to eat and had to settle down on Veg Puffs, Veg Hotdog and Veg Pizza inside the Snow City premises. 

Snow City has slots for visitors to enjoy the artificial snow and each slot lasts for 45 minutes. However, it needs at least 30 minutes prior to the slot to get ready to enter the snow area - You are required to wear thick jackets, gloves and rubber shoes too.

All three of us got ready with full clothing on and then at the set timing we entered the hall with all the artificial snow around. A beautiful castle was build at the far end of the hall. There was staircase to climb up to the slide ally and almost everyone was rushing towards it - to slide down the ice!! I was also no different, but it took a while to get hold of the slide board and reach the top. 

It was total fun to slide down and left me wanting more. Mrunmay also wanted to slide down and he took a tube ride instead of a boat, which turned out to be very appropriate for him instead of the board!!


Once this was done, it was all out in open - throwing ice on each other. 

Then there was time to walk through some foot deep ice and we headed towards there. Couple of caves and igloo was made near the castle inside. As we came out of the cave, I realized that ice has entered in the Mrunmay's rubber shoes. It wasn't possible to remove it there, so I decided to take him in the adjacent room, remove the ice and return. But by the time we reached the room, the ice had made the effect on Mrunmay's feet and he was left shivering. The room was already filled with quite a few folks and most of them were parents with kids or the senior citizens. After struggling to get a sit to keep Mrunmay down, removed his shoes, rubbed his palms and feet. After few minutes he returned to normal, but didn't want to go back. 

Snow City has good arrangement to keep your belongings and they also allow you to take mobile or camera inside for some nominal fee. Once you are outside the snow section, there are stalls for tea/coffee and some light snacks. The overall arrangement and management was good.

Given the joy on Mrunmay's face, we were sure that it was a day well spent!!