Life in Academia: GMRT : Once Again..

Winter of 1991. A group of academic greenhorns from IISc, Bangalore arrived at NCRA-TIFR, Pune; ostensibly to learn Radio Astronomy. Notwithstanding, they immediately proceeded to make good use of their time by lounging in the library and playing table tennis. Then, one sunny afternoon the perspective shifted. They were taken to the dusty village of Khodad, off the Pune-Nashik highway - in the middle of untamed wilderness surrounded by low hills of the Western Ghats. This is where a new radio telescope was being built. In fact, it was the day, the first of the 35 radio antennae was going up. When their jeep, driven by none other than the then director (NCRA-TIFR) Vijay Kapahi himself arrived at the site, the gigantic dish, built in situ around its supporting pillar, was being hoisted by ropes and pullys by the workmen with rhythmic chants of 'hneia ho'. We got hooked. To the sky.

35 winters later, those majestic 45 meter wide dishes, continue to quietly listen to the faintest whispers of the universe and evoke the same awestruck enchantment in everyone; whether an old veteran from that first day, or the young first timers having their first view of one of the premier radio telescopes of the world - the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT). Even though my involvement with LGP in recent years has made me aware that Astronomy & Astrophyiscs has truly arrived in the mindspace of today's youngsters, but their excitement and enthusiasm keep surprising me again and again.

These young ones are a group of talented high school students, selected under the Lodha Genius Program (LGP) run by the Ashoka University. After an intense five months of purely theoretical coursework (Aug - Dec 2025), in which some took "Astrophysics for Beginners" and others "Physics of Stars" for their post-summer continued learning module, arrived in Pune last week (8-10 Jan, 2026) to get a glimpse of real-life Astrophysics research at NCRA-TIFR and GMRT.

They began their very first night by having an over-dinner chat with the resident PhD students (Anirban Chakraborty, Esha Sajjanhar, Hardik Medhi, Ramananda Santra et al) and continued the conversation, for the whole of the next day, with some of the scientists at NCRA (Tirthnkar Roy Choudhury, Divya Oberoi, Ruta Kale, Yogesh Maan, Barnali Das, Yashwant Gupta). Not dampened by all the heavy discussion, they were bright and early to board the morning bus to GMRT on the third day, happily chirping like a bunch of excited warblers. 😁

At GMRT, they walked around the dishes that were moving in unison, changing position to look at a different part of the sky, looked at how the entire telescope system is controlled remotely from the central control room, had conversations with the engineers and technical personnel at the site and yes.. also learnt that field science sometimes come with leopard alerts 🐾 Unfazed they read out their very own science fiction stories, themed on freshly learned (and extremely difficult) concepts like - Red Giants, White Dwarfs, Binary Evolution.. 😍

I have been privileged to have the support of so many to make this trip an unqualified success. The credit for arranging the trip goes to the entire Ashoka U - LGP team, in particular to Anupama Ambika, Prasenjeet Patil & Rayhan for managing even the most outrageous request without a glitch. At this end, my very serious thanks to NCRA-TIFR centre director Yashwant Gupta and GMRT dean Ishwara Chandra - without whose wholehearted support and approval such a trip could never even be conceived; to my NCRA friends who are always ready to spend time talking science with the youngsters; to the staff at GMRT (in particular Kaushal Buch, Santa-ji, Tanuja.. and others) and at NCRA (special thanks to Reena Srikumar).

And last, but absolutely not the least, my amazing Teaching Assistants Shagnik Dasgupta and Ved Parekh - physics undergrads at the Ashoka University. After the intense summer session, in which both of them took part, I expected them to take a break. Proving me wrong, both took up tutoring for Astrophysics again. They made the courses far more interesting than my own expectation with their innovative ideas, continuous interactions with the students (only a little younger than themselves), keeping me grounded with the students' requirements (remote courses are never easy, but they are far more difficult with uneven student backgrounds) and being always ready for any work that one could throw at them. Shagnik & Ved, you guys have set the bar really high for all the future TAs. 😍

Just like last year, the trip with these youngsters has been a time of joy and immense pride. As I take sustenance from their youthful enthusiasm, I hope they are taking the sense of passion for research back with them, with a feel for the infinite Universe that is just out there beckoning us to solve its mysteries.