This particular article may be a bit lengthy(may not fit in one page) since I need to explain almost everything.  If I write like this: “We went to Rameswaram, saw the annular eclipse, it was wonderful, it was a life time event, amazing!”, then it won’t reveal how I really enjoyed the episode.  So, I’m writing in detail here:

1. Plan:

When I called my Physics Professor.  Ananthan on 1st Jan 2010 at 00:00 hrs (since 1992 I’m greeting him every year like this), he told me that he had planned to go to either Kanyakumari or Rameswaram on 15-Jan-2010 to watch the Annular Solar Eclipse (which will not happen again in our life time).  I expressed my interest to join him.

2. Travel:

Mr. Badri Seshardi, one of the promoters of New Horizon Media, booked the train tickets to Rameswaram (since tickets to Kanyakumari were not available even in ‘Tatkal’) and Hotel rooms in Ramanathapuram – 60 kms before Rameswaram.  The train reached Ramanathapuram on 14th Jan 2010 at 3:30 am and it was a pleasant journey. The Hotel was just 3 minutes drive from the railway station in an auto rickshaw.

3: Stay:

I never imagined that such a good hotel will be available in a small town in Tamil Nadu.  It was an amazing hotel named “Hotel Garish Park”  [ neat rooms, luxurious look, clean bathroom (very important) and with TV, split AC & backup power supply].  The only drawback was, they didn’t accept credit/debit card for payment.  We had food in near by restaurants which was quite good and reasonably priced. We didn’t get a room in Rameswaram itself because the Governors of TamilNadu and Puducherry were there those days ( not to watch the eclipse, but for some religious reasons, I guess).

4: Observation Location

The day before the eclipse, we went to Rameswaram to decide about our observation location.  Initially we thought of going to Dhanushkodi - a ruined city at the edge of Rameswaram (about 6 kms from it).  But later we decided to watch it from Rameswaram itself (on the roof of a Guest House Building) as there were many other scientific groups.

5. Expected things that happened:

A few things happened as I expected during the Annular Solar Eclipse:

a) During the eclipse I expected the ocean waves to rise higher. It happened.

b) During the eclipse I expected that the birds and animals might get confused about day & night.  It happened (many eagles that were flying there returned to their nest during eclipse time).

6. Unexpected things that happened:

Few unexpected things that thrilled me are:

a) I was thinking that the Sun may not be visible during eclipse and only a thin ring would be visible.  But without a cooling filter, the Sun looked normal with less intensity.  i.e. if you looked at the Sun during eclipse with your bare eyes, then it would have appeared normal to you.

b) Before the eclipse, the temperature at our location was about 34 degree Celsius.  After that, within 2 hours, the temperature decreased to around 26 degree Celsius. i.e. 8 degrees change.  It was amazing.

c) My shadow on the ground changed.  During eclipse, the shadow of my hand became blurred as I moved away from the wall.

d) I went there with my simple 5 mega pixel digital camera.  I never thought that, using a simple filter, I could capture the annular eclipse in my own camera.  It was really a great surprise for me. SEE THE VIDEO here –>  http://tr.im/ase15jan2010

e) An young boy from “Sky Watchers Association of North Bengal” taught me how to adjust my digital camera settings to capture the photo.  So far, I was using only the “Click button”, “ON button” “Zoom button”, “View mode”  and “Delete button” of my camera.  I never bothered to learn how to set the camera for different exposures (though they were available in the camera).  I felt ashamed. I never expected that my ignorance would hinder me taking pictures during eclipse.

7. Conclusion

I witnessed once in a life-time event on 15th Jan 2010 with my Physics Professor Ananthan at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu India.  When I saw people from other parts of the country there to watch the event, I was happy that “scientific temper still exists in our country”. I’m grateful to my Physics Professor Ananthan and Publisher Mr. Badri who helped me watch this event live.

Photo Album:

Annular_Solar_Eclipse_15Jan2010_at_Rameswaram_Trip

I am a member of The Physics Society and I am very much convinced about the reason for the existence of the society.   According to the founder and my Professor R.Ananthan, the education system is in such a way that students who can memorize better can score better in exams.  Very few exams test the knowledge of students.  Also, the so called ‘brilliant’ students are more informative about the subject and less knowledgeable about the subject.

Many people refer “Information” as “Knowledge”.  Recently I saw this in a Tweet: “One person’s knowledge is another person’s information”.  I disagree with this.  Because, in my perception, both are different.

In my perception Knowledge is “Information with understanding/application of mind” and Information is “Data about some fact”.   My view point is this: if both Information and Knowledge are same, then which sentence would you prefer (a) “You are a very knowledgeable person” or (b) “You are a very informative person”?

A simple example will explain the difference between Information and Knowledge:

Many persons who think that they are good in Mathematics or at least the basic four operations (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division) may still be informative about the basic operations and not knowledgeable about them.  For example, they may know that -1 x -1 = +1 (because they were informed about this rule by their teacher) but they may not know “Why -1 x -1 = +1 (and not -1x-1 = -1)?”.

Do you know why “Negative Number multiplied by another Negative Number is a Positive Number” (i.e. -1 x -1 = +1)? If yes, it means you are knowledgeable in Basic Mathematical Operations.  If no, it means that you are informative about Basic Mathematical Operations.

Before you read this article, I request you to have an open mind and try to understand the content (even if I had failed to explain it properly).

As far as I know, all of us must be in any one of these categories  -”Theist or Agnostic or Atheist”.  Let’s discuss this.

Simple Definitions (as far as I understand):

Theist : A person who believes in the existence of God.

Atheist: A person who denies the existence of God.

Agnostic: A person who says “I DO NOT KNOW whether there is God or not”.

Many of us immediately think “which is correct?”.  I would think of “which is needed?”

Since I was born in a religious family, I started my life as a “Theist”.  There are several good things about being a “Theist”. I had been to Church, Mosque and Hindu Temples.  The common thing about all these religions is “to help humans”.  But due to various misunderstandings, misconceptions and superstitions, a religion is not helping humans as it was intended to be (this is my perception).  When the religion started doing more harm to humans, I guess, Atheism started gaining popularity.  Atheism became the solution for the problems created by the religion.  When I saw many superstitions dominating the religion when I was a Theist, I started questioning about God.  Since I studied Science, I was convinced with many concepts explained by Atheists.  Then I became an Atheist.

Atheism is not about just denying God.  It is about protecting humans from superstition and also giving respect to each & every human.   There are several good things about Atheism.  If you are honest, you will understand what great Atheist leaders meant.

Then I met my Physics Professor Ananthan, who is an Agnostic.  He used to tell me, “Viru, like how there is no proof for the existence of God, there is no proof for non-existence of God.  So it is much more scientific to say that ‘I don’t know whether there is God or not’.” His perception about God was more logical and from then on I became an Agnostic.

Agnostic people agree with many concepts of Atheist people, but will not hurt any Theist for believing the existence of God (yes, an Atheist may hurt the feelings of a Theist).  But some people who say that they are “Agnostic” also follow religious rituals just to satisfy their relatives who believe in God.  They have their own reasons for doing the religious rituals.

Which is good?

As mentioned before, there are several good things in all three of them.  It is left to the individual to follow which concept is more appealing to them.

What is common about them?

In any group, there are three categories of people : “Top 10%”, “Bottom 10%” and “Middle 80%”.

Top 10% of them will be really good and will follow the principles of that group properly. They will also respect other group’s belief (or dis-belief) and will have an open mind. They are the ones who really does some good to humans.

Bottom 10% of them will be really bad, do bad things to people and to the group itself.  They will misuse the group policies for their personal benefits.

The worst in all these groups is the Middle 80%.  They will neither follow the group’s principles nor will try to understand other group’s principles.  They belong to that group just because they are in that group.  They will blindly support their group and oppose other groups without any reason. But because they are the majority, the group remains strong with these people and the Top 10% people don’t complain too much about these “Mid 80%” people.

You must be aware of which category you belong to: “Top 10% or “Middle 80%” or “Bottom 10%”.

Which is correct?

If you can achieve what you want (in an ethical and legal way), there is nothing like “Correct” or “Wrong” in being an Theist / Atheist / Agnostic.   What you must try to understand is “Which is needed NOW to help humans?”.

Please send me an email (Viru@HomePlanGuru.com) if you want to write a comment about this article.