A Mobile Science Lab (MSL) set up by Dr.Madhukar and Pushpa Deshpande is bringing science to schools in Rural Maharashtra.

Dr Madhukar (70) and Pushpa Deshpande (68) lived in the US for almost 30 years where they both taught mathematics in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Twelve years ago they returned to Pune where they set up a Mobile Science Lab (MSL).

The children were growing up and they were planning for their future when a news item about a 'Science on Wheels' project caught Pushpa's eye. "The idea of a Mobile Lab for rural schools in India came like a flash to Pushpa's mind," lets in Madhukar. The idea appealed to both and since they were graduates of Pune University, and it was their last home base, Pune became a natural choice for the MSL.

Today the MSL project of Vidnyanvahini (VV) takes a wellequipped Tata 709 bus with science experiment kits, VCDs, a generator, laptop computers and four to five volunteer-instructors to rural high schools of Maharashtra. "India has developed very fast in fields such as medicine, engineering, computer science, space research and Information Technology. But rural India has not been included in this celebration. Rural schools are ill equipped to share the knowledge," says Pushpa.

The schools apparently are not charged any fee for services. And all expenses are covered by a corpus fund as well as donations of individuals and commercial/charitable organisations.

So how easy or difficult was the relocation? Says Madhukar, "It would not have been possible to undertake this activity while we were still living in USA. In fact, during the early years, we had to work much harder than we did in the US." Now, after 12 years of work things are far smoother. Both Pushpa and Madhukar claim that a comfortable life style was never an issue for them. And adjusting to the 'once familiar' Indian environment was no big problem.

"We would like to see other independent organisations take up this seed of MSL in their own states," says Pushpa. Madhukar seconds that.