RAJAMAHENDRAVARAM: A house at Lalacheruvu area in Rajamahendravaram looks different from other houses in that area as the top of the house carries a cement model of big airplane of a length of 36 feet on which is written “Aryabhatta Museum”. The museum is a scientific centre for future generations and it is the first-of-its kind in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. The airplane itself is a scientific laboratory-cum-photo exhibition. The development of airplane from Wright brothers to jet planes are being displayed inside this model plane.
The designer, sculptor and scientist Peddinti Satyanarayana Murthy lives in two small rooms loaded with furniture and utensils, leaving four rooms in ground floor and three rooms in first floor for the museum. The museum is having many attractions including growth of a baby in mother’s womb from foetus to ninth month, 20-foot-long fish, model of five-foot sea horse, shark fish, eight stages of thousands of years of elephant, dinosaurs, dolphin, tortoise, python, water elephant and other 200 models. Schoolchildren visit the museum daily and the district education officer wrote letters to all schools to visit the museum.
“We started the museum in 2005 by registering as society in 2003. I got the idea of starting a science museum in 1989 to enlighten children,” said Satyanarayana. He was assisted by his wife P Lakshmi and son who is MSc, BEd, and teacher PVD Prasad in this.