Eclipse

Again there was a solar eclipse yesterday and this was the longest eclipse of the century. But I missed it because it was mostly visible in India, northern part of India. I watched it live on the news channels, also found that there were airlines which scheduled a special flight just to see Solar Eclipse. I was surprised to know that people in India are so excited about the eclipse and there are special flights for watching the eclipse.

We have really come a long way, I remember when I was in 12th grade and we watched the solar eclipse, we were really excited about it as it was our first solar eclipse when we understood what it means and how rare it is. It was around 8AM in the morning and when I was going to my friends place to watch the eclipse all the roads were empty, the doors and windows were shut, no one was even peeping out to see whats happening. There were articles in newspaper about how to protect your eyes from eclipse but at the same time there were bigger articles talking about superstition related to eclipse. My neighbors had their glass windows covered with black sheets so that none of the rays could enter their house and cause ill effects. We had a nice time watching the eclipse we took several pictures of the eclipse using my old film camera which hardly had any zoom. But the pictures were really nice and one can make out that it was clearly solar eclipse.

Even this time I saw people praying and taking bath in Ganga after the solar eclipse to avoid any ill effect of those rays, I understand this is superstition and nothing is true but I really like it. I like that there are always 2 opposite believes in India and people on both the side practice what they believe with complete freedom. Also media covers both the sides equally well and both the ideas are supported and opposed in the society. These things wont ever end we cant imagine India without a superstition and at the same time we will keep seeing those blasphemous people who have strong scientific reasons to oppose the superstition going side by side. There was a time when I use to strongly oppose the superstition and use to put examples, proofs from scientific experiments against them but in last few years I have started believing that there is nothing right or wrong its all about what one believes and its more important to respect what others believe in, respect the freedom that others have to choose what they believe. And I think for centuries India will still have 2 schools of thought, one of them will be superstitions. Because no where in this world can an idol suddenly start drinking milk, its only possible when so many people have so much of belief in that idol. I am proud to say it can happen only in my country.