What’s chemistry? “It allows us to understand the material nature of our world and the chemical reactions that control all living processes,” Jyothi, a student of the St Francis College for Women, defined rather academically. Anand, another student, offered a more commonplace definition: “It could well be chemistry between a boy and a girl.”For Prof PSN Reddy, Dean at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies, Hyderabad, though, it’s the love of his life. “I am yet to come across a person more beautiful than chemistry. There is no activity in a man’s life without chemistry,” he said summing up the mood on the college campus.The professors and students gathered at the college on Thursday for a two-day National Chemistry Festival. Chemistry might send several students into a tizzy with its bewildering equations and reactions but for the girls and boys at St Francis, at least for the day, it was pure fun.Speaking to them during the inauguration of the festival, Prof PSN Reddy addressed a pertinent question. “Chemistry is blamed for causing maximum environment pollution. There is a need to create awareness about chemical hazards as well as advancements in the field. I see a change which ought to happen in 10-15 years. Green-Chemistry and Click Chemistry are already taking huge strides,” he pointed out.The National Fest named AMALGAM, sponsored by the University Grants Commission to commemorate the International Year of Chemistry, is aimed at stimulating students’ interest in the subject. Exhibitions and competitions were arranged to let students get a feel of the new and emerging technological developments in the field. The event was inaugurated by Prof PSN Reddy in the presence of Dr Sridhar, IICT and Principal Sr Alphonsa Vattoly. Colleges from not just the twin cities but also across the country were invited. Food stalls, garments and ornaments on sale added to the fun and frolic. Among the major events of the day were quiz, demo experiments and 3D models, short film-making and collage making. But the one which attracted maximum numbers was the sci-fi Tambola.Abhay from St.Josephs, a regular participant in college fests, and who did not have any idea about sci-fi tambola, tried explaining, “You know, it has elements of periodic table instead of numbers on the sheet. You will be given a questionnaire with incomplete chemical reactions, the first one who solves all the questions and the tambola sheet is the winner”. Mrs A Saritha, one of the organizing committee members, explained, “It is not complicated, one need not know chemistry to play this tambola. The difference here is that we just use elements of periodic table instead of numbers and the rest is all the same.”The topic for the short-film competition was ‘eco-chemistry’ and students did their best to convey the message through the visual media. Mass Communications lecturer Arun John, who was judged the competition, said, “Movie-making is no longer a property of a select few. Anybody who has a camera and a little bit of interest can make a movie.”
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