Dramatic representations of scientific temper

Plays present social issues in scientific light

November 23, 2014 10:22 am | Updated 10:22 am IST - Mangaluru:

A group of school children staging a drama at the science-drama contest, Urva Church centenary hall, Lady hill in Mangaluru. Photo: H.S. Manjunath

A group of school children staging a drama at the science-drama contest, Urva Church centenary hall, Lady hill in Mangaluru. Photo: H.S. Manjunath

As is the case every few years, drought ravages a village. The farmer looks at his drying field in consternation and announces that he may have to perform an animal sacrifice to pray for rain. The elder of the village and a policeman interject, chastise the farmer for the belief, and point at the cutting of the forests to explain the withering monsoons.

The scene changes to the personification of the Ganga as a woman who is under attack from industrial pollutants, rampant misuse of water, and dirtying through funeral rites by its banks. The solution is not just through governmental action, explains the play. It is through knowledge of science that each citizen can contribute to a solution to problems of deforestation, pollution and climate change, the play says.

Developing scientific temperament and the ‘need to discover’ remained the prevalent theme at the science-drama performances held in the city on Saturday.

Nearly 250 students from 25 schools across Mangaluru watched with some amazement the elaborate settings, often humourous dialogues and near-flawless performances.

The participants were schools that had won the regional-level competition organised by the Directorate of State Education Research and Training, Bengaluru.

The other schools that took to the stage were: Murikaba High School, Sirsi; Government High School, Kushtigi; Mahatma Gandhi Boys High School, Chintamani; Government Women’s Pre-University College, Udupi; Government High School, Sedam.

B. Ramanath Rai, Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment, who inaugurated the programme, said science was essential to counter superstition and it was only when the youth had a scientific temperament that society could progress.

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