Shanti Niketan is located near Bolpur railway station about 150 kms from Kolkata. I have already visited the place twice, ever since I joined IICB. Part of the reason is, one of my professor with whom I collaborate is an HOD at the Biotech department at Viswa Bharati. He has the largest algal collection in India and I am very interested in these tiny photosynthetic organisms since nothing much has been studied about them. They have great potential as nitrogen fixers and biofuel producers.
April 9th and 10th are the 2 days we kept for visiting the University. I took my entire group along, some working in this project and some not. It is noteworthy to mention that my students had a blast. We took an 8.30 morning train from Howrah to Bolpur. I forgot the train name though. It took about 4 hours to reach there at 12.30 PM in Bolpur railway station. My professor had also invited me to speak on nextgen sequencing for the Msc. biotech course work. I was felicitated by none other than our Institute directors sister, who is also a professor at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and a visiting faculty at Shanti Niketan. One thing to note here that it is customary to say sadhu in the end of a talk rather than clap. That is a culture at Shantiniketan. My stay was arranged at the picturesque Ratan Kutir and my students stay was arranged at the Purbapalli guest house. In the evening, I had a meeting with my professor and the students and he introduced me to the organisms one by one with their proper history. It was really amazing the way he has kept them and collected them. In the evening I had the opportunity to have a talk with the VC of Ravenshaw University. The next day early morning, I got up to attend the prayer in their prayer hall, that remains largely closed through out except for every wednes day in the morning at 6.30 AM. There is a nice banyan tree under which Ravindranath Tagore used to meditate, that is protected quite well. On 10th there was an Oriya Literary meeting, where they formally introduced me and I had a chance to meet with VC of Shantiniketan. It was incredible feeling to be among the learned. Meanwhile, my students had good time taking pictures of themselves in many poses (courtesy facebook). At about 12.30 PM we returned to the railway station and took Shantiniketan express back to Howrah. From there E1 bus back to Jadavpur. I must say it was a really really nice fun, crispy productive trip. Looking forward to getting good results...
April 9th and 10th are the 2 days we kept for visiting the University. I took my entire group along, some working in this project and some not. It is noteworthy to mention that my students had a blast. We took an 8.30 morning train from Howrah to Bolpur. I forgot the train name though. It took about 4 hours to reach there at 12.30 PM in Bolpur railway station. My professor had also invited me to speak on nextgen sequencing for the Msc. biotech course work. I was felicitated by none other than our Institute directors sister, who is also a professor at Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics and a visiting faculty at Shanti Niketan. One thing to note here that it is customary to say sadhu in the end of a talk rather than clap. That is a culture at Shantiniketan. My stay was arranged at the picturesque Ratan Kutir and my students stay was arranged at the Purbapalli guest house. In the evening, I had a meeting with my professor and the students and he introduced me to the organisms one by one with their proper history. It was really amazing the way he has kept them and collected them. In the evening I had the opportunity to have a talk with the VC of Ravenshaw University. The next day early morning, I got up to attend the prayer in their prayer hall, that remains largely closed through out except for every wednes day in the morning at 6.30 AM. There is a nice banyan tree under which Ravindranath Tagore used to meditate, that is protected quite well. On 10th there was an Oriya Literary meeting, where they formally introduced me and I had a chance to meet with VC of Shantiniketan. It was incredible feeling to be among the learned. Meanwhile, my students had good time taking pictures of themselves in many poses (courtesy facebook). At about 12.30 PM we returned to the railway station and took Shantiniketan express back to Howrah. From there E1 bus back to Jadavpur. I must say it was a really really nice fun, crispy productive trip. Looking forward to getting good results...
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