NIMHANS Brain Museum — Attraction in Bengaluru

For a mental health and neuro sciences institute it is amazing how disrespectful and petty NIMHANS' highly trained and educated staff can be! There are scheduled tours of the brain museum every Wednesday and Saturday (led by, I'm repeatedly told, Doctors). I first called on Wednesday to confirm if the tour was on for Saturday and got a confirmation. On Saturday, I called again to confirm the Museum was open and the tour will happen at scheduled time (2:30 PM). When this was confirmed, I drove two hours from the other end of town with my parents (both senior citizens), sister, niece and her friend (the children for whom we made the trip). On reaching the premises, first we were denied parking in the designated visitor's parking zone and asked to park near some quarters which were a few hundred metres away (it was raining). On entering the museum building we were greeted by a locked door and a notice stating the museum will be closed between 5th and 10th October - on account of Dussehra. When we spoke to the staff and told them we had come after confirming, we were asked to wait (it was only 2 pm). When no one turned up for quite a while, I called up the number again and the staff said the museum is closed, on reminding the staff that they had confirmed a couple of hours back that they were open and we could come, i was told to wait until relevant staff comes back after lunch. The relevant staff member on return said the museum was closed and there would be no tour, but since we had come all the way, he helpfully arranged for the museum to be opened and allowed us in. Within minutes we were accosted by multiple other staff members one after another, who wanted to know how and why we were there. As we narrated the whole story again and again, they refused to believe us and indicated that we should leave, before storming out to take issue with colleagues who had been more sensitive to our predicament. When I mentioned that it was their team which had unlocked the door and let us in and that they needed to sort things out between themselves, they took time to remind us that the museum was free (which is factually correct, even if irrelevant to the context) and that we should not be inside since it wouldn't be fair on others who were turned away. We told them we would go out if they wanted us to, but we had nothing to do with not letting others in or letting ourselves in and that we should have been informed the museum was closed before we came. After much unnecessary debate - where we were told, inter alia, to listen and not speak we were asked to hurry up and wind up in fifteen minutes! It's never a pleasant experience to be treated as second class citizens, it's even more tragic when it happens in your own country and when your septuagenarian parents and young children have to bear the brunt of such behaviour. There were multiple other visitors that day, and they kept trickling in (many had come since Google Maps indicated they were open, which the staff responded to with a 'we are not responsible for Google Maps' kind of response). I sincerely hope they also take up the matter. It was a miscommunication on the part of NIMHANS' staff which could have been easily resolved by apologising for the miscommunication and letting people visit the museum unguided, since they'd travelled all the way, anyway (which is what those members of the staff who were more sensitive, were trying to do). Yet people chose to blame the visitors and leave them with bitter memories. NIMHANS may not charge for the museum (and I think they certainly should if they'd like to), but NIMHANS, like other government funded institutes runs on money we citizens pay as direct and indirect taxes. Also, what price would you put on human dignity and self respect? If you've been amongst the privileged lot in this country and not had an experience of what discrimination feels like for the majority of our countrymen and women, this is a great...

EVERY SPECIMEN AT THIS MUSEUM CAUSED US GOOSEBUMPS

I would rank NIMHANS Brain Museum among the top places of interest for kids. Every parent mush take their children to this museum without fail.

As the name suggests, this is a museum located inside the premises of NIMHANS institute - the world known institute for studies into Neurosciences and Mental health.

The museum is hosted in a mid-sized room at ground floor in NIMHANS's Neuribiology Research Center. The wealth of information that this museum provides is of immense scale.

The museum hosts real specimens of Human Vital Organs. They have kept for public view real human - Brain, Lungs, Kidneys, Intestine, Lever, Spinal Cord, Skull, Vertebral Column and skeleton. Visitors get to see these specimens right in front of them on a table and can even touch these. An experience that sent goosebumps to us.

Next very interesting part of the museum are the preserved specimens of various Brain and Neural diseases/hemorrhage etc. We hear a lot about Brain Hemorrhage, Menengitis, Brain tumor, Brain TB etc. This museum displays actual human brains that have been through these conditions. They also display lever, lungs, eyes etc affected by different diseases. Also on display are various other real human internal organs.

The museum provides entry as well as a guided tour/detailed explanation/discussion at no cost. Their main motto is to spread awareness about mental and general well being. We highly appreciate the detailed narration/discussion that we had with the research scientist.

Important points : Photography and Videography of the specimens is strictly prohibited. Let us respect the rule. Brain museum is located in the research facility of NIMHSNS which is on the opposite side of the hospital section. We need to park our vehicles in the actual hospital section (NIMHANS left side gate when we go from Dairy Circle towards Lalbag) Then we need to walk till the main road, take the overbridge and get into the other side campus of NIMHANS. Security guards helped us promptly in locating parking and guided us about reaching the Brain museum.

Signing...

An absolutely unique and informative experience brought to life by visionary Shree. S. K. Shankar, who is regarded as the 'Father of brain banking in India' - he founded the first and only Brain Bank in India at NIMHANS to encourage neuroscience research in the nation. The brain museum located in the Neurobiology Research Center of NIMHANS, Bengaluru, provides an opportunity to the visitors, of almost all age, to get a glimpse of the brain and everything around it in one place. The facilitator for the day when we visited, Mr. Prabhu, a scientist at the center, walked us through the different parts and functions of the brain, primarily, followed by other parts of human body. He is very kind and knowledgeable and was considerate of the curiosity of the attendees and made sure to keep the time interactive while also answering every simple to complex question that was shot his way. The visitors can touch the specimens used during the sessions, to hold and feel the structure of the parts. This is especially helpful for those practising or learning CST- Craniosacral Therapy. The museum hosts specimens carefully protected and treasured for the benefit of research enthusiasts and common public. The specimens of brains aged a few days/weeks old to the fully developed ones are kept here. There are also many specimens showcasing various brain health issues, injuries, etc. Kids of all age are allowed with their parents (though, their website says only the kids of age above 12 are allowed, you may give it a chance. Today there was 8-10years old kid among the visitors who was accompanied by the parents. There was also a team of young college-going engineers who were there to learn about the electrical signals and things around it to aid their engineering project aimed at helping patients suffering from have brain health related conditions. I’d thus recommend this to everyone who is interested in learning about human bodily functions, especially brain, to visit this facility in person at their leisure and get to know more about the human...