Suryagrahan day - 2009

Its Solar eclipse today! I was all exited about it since yesterday eveinig, I got up today at 4 in the morning and headed to Nehru planetarium. There was a lot of rush, school student people civilians and also some college student. The wheater was not quite right to view the eclips properly, but nevermind we were able to see it for like a very less time.

I never thought that such huge amount of people would come to watch the eclipse as there are so many superstitions and myths related to it. Personally I dnt really belive in them, its not like I don’t follow my rituals but sometimes it’s a bit over the top. I mean just because of some celestial conditions why would our life’s be hampered? Some of the the myths are acceptable, like we are not supposed to look at the sun during the eclipse that is right we have scientific proof for that. But what about other things?

· For example - One should not eat nor prepare any food during the eclipse, and one should throw away all the cooked food.

If this is to be followed, then What happens to millions of tonnes of food grains, vegetables and fruits in the fields, the very next day, they come to the Fruit and Vegetable markets and we buy and consume them, if nothing happens to that which is in open, they why to throw away cooked food which is within concrete walls and steel utensils. And what should the Road Side vendors do, who sell their Pani Puri, Chat” – In several eclipses since two decades I deliberately ate while watching the eclipse, nothing has happened and I am all healthy all the time. I believe thousands of others had done, without any ill effects afterwards.

Another thing is this that

· Pregnant women, should sleep on floor, should not eat, and should not touch any sharp objects – knife / blade / razor etc.,.

It’s all nonsense – as per the world / india population meter, every 30 Seconds and a Minute a child is born and we haven’t seen any earlier records or proofs that a child born when the eclipse is going on in the sky, is born with any abnormality physically or mentally

So basically I don’t really believe in any of these things, its just a beautiful celestial happening and it will happen once in 100 years, so I would say I was lucky enough to witness this event.

And on the other hand we did have a lots of fun there. There were these two guys who belonged to some medical college who gave me some information on the terrace while we were waiting for the sun to rise. I never knew the proportion of the distance between earth and sun and earth and moon is 1:4000, nor did I know the difference between the diamond ring and the Baily’s beads. So I did get to know new things.

Then there was Rj jeeturaaj, from radio mirchi 98.3fm. and he is a darling! He was so nice with everyone around. He also made us comfortable had a talk with us, and was really very friendly. He had to go on air at 7 in the morning and he was with us with from moring 5 to 6.30.

The school children rushed behind him as soon as they got to know whohe was for autograph and soon he was surrounded with all school kids, he not only gave them autograph but also told them not to waste paper like this, they better recyle used papers. As he was about to leave for his show, one of the teachers there slipped her leg on the wet floor and fell down, jeeturaaj not only came runnig to make her stand up but also massaged her head where she had got hurt. This is what we call a sweet guy, isn’t it?

After watching the eclips from the telescope we went to the auditorium, and they showed us some slides about eclips and a live coverage from japan and varanasi where the eclipse was seen fully. After the show was over I had a round in the museum and clicked some pictures.

So all in all, it was a great event and I enjoyed being a part of it :D