Chapter 8: Seeds of Science
January 18, 2009 – Dehradun – Saraswati Lane
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The alley behind Ram's house was a dusty strip of ground—cracked concrete, rusting bicycle parts, and a faded chalkboard nailed to a wall.
It had once been a tea vendor's corner.
Now, it was about to become something else entirely:
> The Innovation Garage.
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The Spark of Curiosity
Ram had been watching the neighborhood kids.
Smart. Restless. Always playing cricket or wasting time in cyber cafés.
He saw engineers, coders, inventors hidden under layers of boredom and distraction.
All they needed was a spark.
So one afternoon, he gathered them:
Aman: always disassembling toys
Pooja: known for solving Sudoku in minutes
Zaid: obsessed with fixing cycle chains
Reet: who asked why more than any adult could answer
He stood in front of them with a chalk in one hand and a challenge in the other.
"Build a working model of a hand-powered torch in three days. Winner gets a Cadbury Silk."
They laughed at first.
Then, they got curious.
Then, they got to work.
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Operation: Little Lab
Ram used his savings to buy a basic soldering kit, magnets, copper wires, and AA batteries.
He borrowed a broken bicycle dynamo from the scrap dealer.
Athena helped in the background, projecting safe circuit designs onto Ram's notebook at night.
He started with guided failure—letting the kids make mistakes, then asking the right questions:
> "Why didn't this light up?"
"What's missing in your loop?"
"What does a magnet do inside a coil?"
Pooja figured out the polarity problem.
Zaid rewired the circuit.
Aman melted his plastic torch, but learned about insulation.
Reet brought rubber gloves from her kitchen.
On Day 3, they did it.
A torch flickered to life—dim, shaky, but real.
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And That Was The Beginning
Ram clapped, handing over the chocolate.
They cheered like they'd won a rocket race.
"You all just created energy. With your hands. With your minds."
The next challenge was already written on the board:
"Build a windmill that lights an LED."
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The Innovation Garage Is Born
By the end of the month, more kids joined.
Some brought broken radios. Others brought ideas.
Ram made three rules:
1. No grades, no teachers. Only curiosity.
2. You must fail at least once per week.
3. Everyone teaches someone else.
He wrote on the board:
> "If you can explain it to a 5-year-old, you've mastered it."
Parents were skeptical at first—until their kids started solving their electricity issues at home.
And then came the big moment.
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A Visit from a Teacher
One day, Mr. Mehra, Ram's science teacher, stopped by on a walk and saw the setup.
"What is all this?" he asked, stunned by the wires, motors, and working models.
Ram stepped forward. "It's… just a garage project."
Mehra crouched beside the LED windmill spinning under a table fan.
"This… this is 6th grade material. How did you…"
He looked at Ram for a long moment.
"You should consider the national innovation contest in March. They allow entries from kids above class five. I can recommend you."
Ram nodded. "Maybe the whole team can join?"
Mr. Mehra blinked. "Team?"
Ram smiled. "We're not building geniuses. We're building a generation."
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Journal Entry: January 18, 2009
> "Today I saw what India truly has:
Not a brain drain—just a spark drain.
One spark, one light, one child at a time…
I will turn this neighborhood into the first seedbed of Bharat's Scientific Renaissance."
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End of Chapter 8