Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️

✨ Official account of MAS, established in 1976. 🔬 Advancing science, technology & innovation through research, collaboration, and scientific excellence. 🚀🌍

[Pune Art And Culture Foundation @artculturepune]

#AshtaBhavaAshtaNritya_Mahabharata

Eight classical dance forms, 1 timeless epic: Mahabharata came alive in #Pune at Balgandharv Auditorium.
Organised by @artculturepune & @PMCPune, the mega production, casting 52 artists, enthralled the Punekars with spectacular performances.

[Pune Art And Culture Foundation @artculturepune]

The spectacular dance drama was aligned with the theme of #EkBharatShreshthaBharat and #UnityInDiversity. Thank you @navalMH for the great support and encouragement.

[V. Ramgopal Rao, Ph.D. @ramgopal_rao]

I had a rather unusual and deeply touching meeting in #Pilani yesterday.

I met Pappu ji, as generations of BITSians know him. His real name is Kamal Kapoor. He has been associated with BITS Pilani since 1975 and runs a small canteen. After spending the first few years at Connaught, he moved to #Skylab in 1979.

I went into the meeting thinking he might have come with some request. I was completely wrong.

As a conversation starter, I asked him, “You have seen BITS students for more than 50 years. Have they changed?”

His answer came immediately.

“Sir, nothing has changed. They are still very imandar (honest). They are respectful. They are good students.”

He told me that he had once visited another college where students were speaking rather rudely to canteen workers, saying things like “idhar aao, udhar jao.” He said he had never experienced that at BITS.

Coming from someone who has probably interacted with more generations of #BITSians than most of us ever will, that meant a lot to me.

He does however see a few changes.

Earlier, after classes, students would come for chai, samosa, Maggi and long conversations. Now many go back to their rooms and get immersed in laptops and phones. Students also go home much more often during holidays.

But his bond with #BITSians was never really about chai or Maggi.

In the old days, if a student’s money order from home was delayed, Pappu ji would lend him money. It would be returned when the money arrived.

Decades later, those same students invite him to @BITSAA meets in Dubai, Hyderabad, Goa and elsewhere.

During the Covid lockdown, alumni called him from all over the world asking if he needed money.

“I don’t need anything,” he told them.

He never took money from any alumnus.

Once, when his father was critically ill, he urgently needed about Rs 15 lakh. He reached out to a few former students. Within hours, they were ready to help. The procedure was eventually not needed, and he returned whatever money he had received.

Many alumni still offer to help him. He refuses.

“When old students come and hug me, that is enough. I don’t need their money.”

That sentence stayed with me.

He remembers alumni from the late 1970s onwards.

When @RevathiAdvaithi came recently for our Pilani convocation as Chief Guest, he told me proudly that one of the first things she did was come and hug him.

Later, instead of going for the official dinner, she and her husband came to his stall and had Maggi.

I also asked him, “Do you find students more stressed today?”

He looked surprised.

“What stress, Sir? They are all happy. They are all nice students.”

Towards the end, I asked, “Is there anything the Institute can do for you?”

“Nothing, Sir. I am very happy. BITS has given me everything.”

I asked him again. The answer was the same.

I came away thinking about that for a long time.

We spend so much of our lives chasing positions, money, recognition and things we believe will make us happy.

Here was a man who seemed to want none of these.

For him, happiness was in the relationships he had built over five decades. In students who still remember him after 30 or 40 years. In alumni who travel all the way to Pilani just to meet him. In that hug from an old student.

#Pappu ji seemed to have no negativity about anything. Every story had gratitude in it. Every memory was about people.

For more than 50 years, he has served generations of BITSians chai, Maggi, samosas and shikanji.

In return, they seem to have given him something far more valuable.

A very large family.

Perhaps that is what BITS Pilani is ultimately about.

And perhaps Pappu ji, in his own simple way, reminded me yesterday of something all of us know but often forget.

A happy life is ultimately about the relationships we build and the love we leave behind.

@bitspilaniindia

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

IISER Pune Colloquium: V. Ramgopal Rao Calls for Stronger Industry-Academia Collaboration
https://t.co/cR0IVWNCgv
@ramgopal_rao @IISERPune

[PUNEKYABOLTA @punekyabolta]

Internal corporation premises road in Shivajinagar PMC building area bad surface condition of cross cut road .. same is seen all over city @PMCPune @navalMH ..all such contractors should be liable for repair at their cost with heavy penalty on them for such work

[Office of PMC Commissioner @navalMH]

Under the National River Conservation Plan, NRCD Joint Secy Shri Zaigham Ali Khan reviewed STP & sewerage network works for "Controlling Pollution of Mula-Mutha River in Pune" at PMC today. PMC presented project-wise progress. #MulaMutha #CleanRiver
@PMCPune @JalShaktiMin

[Office of PMC Commissioner @navalMH]

Inspected road widening work from ABC Farm Chowk to Tadigutta Chowk on North Main Road, Hadapsar Rly StationRoad, n Kharadi Keshav Nagar Bridge today.
Directed Kharadi Bridge be opened for citizens by 15th August. Instructed officials to expedite all pending works. @PMCPune

[Pallavi Kamat @Pallavisms]

Professor Deepak Dhar has been awarded the 2026 Dirac Medal for contributions to statistical mechanics. The honour adds to a career that took him from Pratapgarh to Caltech and back to India.

https://t.co/e2uRBvlQ3Z

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

Congratulations Prof Dhar !

[IISER Pune @IISERPune]

#Congrats to Prof. Deepak Dhar on being awarded the 2026 ICTP Dirac Medal, one of the most prestigious international honours in theoretical physics. Prof. Dhar shares this award with three other physicists Bernard Derrida (Collège de France, France), Marc Mézard (Bocconi University, Italy), Haim Sompolinsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Harvard University, USA), and our congratulations to all!

Prof. Dhar was associated with #IISERPune from 2016 to 2024 in various capacities, including as Distinguished Visiting Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and made significant contributions to the academic and intellectual life of the Institute.

The 2026 Dirac Medal adds to an extraordinary list of distinctions received by Prof. Dhar, including the Padma Bhushan (2023), the Boltzmann Medal (2022), and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (1991). He is also an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India, and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

On behalf of the #IISERPune community, we extend our heartiest congratulations to Prof. Dhar on this exceptional achievement and wish him continued excellence and success in his scientific endeavours.
https://t.co/ytESw57DUv
#ICTPDiracMedal #StatisticalMechanics #DeepakDhar

[IISER Pune @IISERPune]

#Congrats to Prof. Deepak Dhar on being awarded the 2026 ICTP Dirac Medal, one of the most prestigious international honours in theoretical physics. Prof. Dhar shares this award with three other physicists Bernard Derrida (Collège de France, France), Marc Mézard (Bocconi University, Italy), Haim Sompolinsky (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Harvard University, USA), and our congratulations to all!

Prof. Dhar was associated with #IISERPune from 2016 to 2024 in various capacities, including as Distinguished Visiting Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and made significant contributions to the academic and intellectual life of the Institute.

The 2026 Dirac Medal adds to an extraordinary list of distinctions received by Prof. Dhar, including the Padma Bhushan (2023), the Boltzmann Medal (2022), and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (1991). He is also an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India, and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS).

On behalf of the #IISERPune community, we extend our heartiest congratulations to Prof. Dhar on this exceptional achievement and wish him continued excellence and success in his scientific endeavours.
https://t.co/ytESw57DUv
#ICTPDiracMedal #StatisticalMechanics #DeepakDhar

[SANDIP KOLHATKAR @SandipKolhatkar]

Waiters wearing gloves at a restaurant on Salunkhe Vihar Road. No, this isn’t a throwback to the COVID days—it’s the “darr” of FDA Commissioner Dr Tukaram Mundhe, pushing restaurants to strictly follow food safety and hygiene measures.
@Tukaram_IndIAS
#foodsafety
@Dev_Fadnavis

[Office of PMC Commissioner @navalMH]

“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself. This, in brief, is the law of dharma.” - Mahabharata, as quoted in The Difficulty of Being Good by Gurucharan Das

[Amit Paranjape @aparanjape]

@ramgopal_rao @IISERPune Welcome to Pune, and to the beautiful campus of IISER Pune... an excellent young institution.

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

@IISERPune and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences jointly host a colloquium on “Unleashing India’s Scientific Potential: Breaking Barriers and Igniting Innovation” by Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani. Aug 20, 6.15 pm.

[IISER Pune @IISERPune]

⚡ Join the next workshop in the STEM Classroom Innovators Program (SCIP)!
Topic: Light Beyond the Classroom: Teaching Optics Through Inquiry and Simulations
Instructor: Ms. Prachi Pasalkar
(The Science Outreach Initiative, IISER Pune)
📅 7 August 2026
🕔 5:00–7:00 PM (IST)
⏳ Register by: 4 August 2026
💰 Fee: ₹500
Discover how inquiry-based activities, simulations, and everyday phenomena can make the teaching of optics more engaging and conceptually rich. Explore reflection, refraction, dispersion, image formation, and the human eye through classroom-ready strategies.
🔗 Register:
https://t.co/RM0dZYDqk6
#SCIP #STEMEducation #PhysicsEducation #Optics #InquiryBasedLearning #TeacherProfessionalDevelopment #CODEIITMadras #IISERPune #NPTEL

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

@IISERPune and Maharashtra Academy of Sciences jointly host a colloquium on “Unleashing India’s Scientific Potential: Breaking Barriers and Igniting Innovation” by Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Group Vice-Chancellor, BITS Pilani. Aug 20, 6.15 pm.

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

AI can transform urban #mobility through data-driven planning. 🚦🤖
#PuneTraffic #ArtificialIntelligence
#Technology
@PuneCityTraffic @PuneCityPolice @Dev_Fadnavis
@daily_prabhat

[Maharashtra Academy Of Sciences ⚛️ @MahaScienceAca]

Maharashtra Academy of Sciences (MASc)'s Golden Jubilee Colloquium at NMIET hosted Prof. Ajit D. Kelkar, who delivered a lecture on nanoengineered materials for aerospace.

[Pune Art And Culture Foundation @artculturepune]

Coming soon ! Stay Tuned ...

August 29, 2026