Oh! The Irony!

The last few years, I suddenly found everything related to astronomy overly fascinating. The 1 hour power cuts at night were a great excuse for me to run to the roof and start observing the stars and compare their positions from the previous days, etc. I had no gear, no equipment to look at these stars, something that was already so difficult under the polluted Hyderabad sky. I just had a pair of binoculars to watch whatever I could. After laying my hands on a software that calculates the movements of stars and planets, I started to understand more about the sky. And it went on and on.. long story that's already been posted quite a few times ever since I started blogging.

But recently the biggest spectacle unfolded over India and China the two most populated countries in the world. The Solar Eclipse. And a total one at that. And what was I doing when people were gasping at the sight? Dozing! True that the eclipse was only partial over Hyderabad, and that there was a frustratingly thick cloud cover, but I never bothered to make an attempt. From what I heard, an eclipse this long wouldn't come back for probably a hundred-plus years by which time, I will have conveniently left this earth. With the amount of interest in my head, I should have actually travelled to some place where the total eclipse would have taken place, though that was a bit far-fetched taking into account my laziness to travel. I should have still made a desperate attempt to catch sight of something at least.



Aftermath of the eclipse, I realised how foolish I had been, and cursed myself for not showing any amount of interest. Instead I was arguing with my house people why someone would mix religious superstitions and an Astronomical Event. Sad part is, they have always been forcibly related. A debate that would never end with both sides happy. After hearing a big list of things not to be done during an eclipse, I wondered why they excluded 'Breathing' from it... These superstitions started by someone years ago, travel down generations, get modified completely (almost ending up opposite to what was started), and finally bug lives of normal humans who dwell on Science for every answer.

Throwing superstitions aside, I end this post with 'Hope and Irony' written all over my face...