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 130 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Jungli Pudina: From Weed to Wonderful Remedy
  Mr. Bhanu Kumar*
Email: bhanu.kumar85@gmail.com
What do you do in the lab even on Sunday, my ten-year-old annoyed cousin asked me when I visited her after a long time.
“Nobody goes to work on Sunday,” she exclaimed before I could begin to reply to her very genuine complaint. She looked at me skeptically when I said, “I was not free to come home on weekends,” in spite of her many sincere requests.
“Listen, my dear sister,” feeling the disbelief in her eyes and I started to tell her about my work schedule.
“Look, I am a research scholar and for us and the scientists there is no such thing like a holiday. The research labs unlike your school remain open 24x7 throughout the year,” I tried
to defend myself sincerely.
“You lie...,” she was not able to comprehend
that I belonged to that lot of people who work on Sundays and other holidays too. “Ok fine, I’ll take you to my lab on 2nd October this time,” I tried to convince her. “But 2nd October is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi and it’s a holiday,” she reminded me quickly.
“Yes, that’s why,” I grabbed the opportunity to put forward my point, “ I’ll take you to my lab so that you can see it’s a working day for us and many children from different schools come to visit the laboratories.”
“Ok, but what do you do in the lab,” she asked looking somewhat convinced. I felt this was the right time to her about my Ph.D. work at one of premier institutes dedicated to plant sciences.
“Do you have lice in your hair?” I asked her
 * Mr. Bhanu Kumar, PhD Scholar from CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, is pursuing his research on “Studies on Chemotypic Variations and Acaricidal Potential of Ageratum conyzoides L. Germplasms collected from Different Phytogeographical Zones of India”. His popular science story entitled “Jungli Pudina: from Weed to Wonderful Remedy” has been selected for AWSAR Award.




















































































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