Neem ka Thana memories

October 1995

Oh for the good old days!

The Taregna eclipse was not a patch on the fun we had during the 1995 October eclipse. It was Doordarshan's first live coverage of a total solar eclipse, and the centre of action was the little Rajasthani town of Neem ka Thana.

The moon's shadow bypassed Madras, so we decided to follow it on the telly. Prof Yash Pal of the UGC was anchoring the show from the studios in Delhi, and they had a remote unit at Neem ka thana. We were very impressed with the set up and excited as well.

Prof Yash Pal of course gave us a scholarly start by giving a little history and science of the solar eclipse and dispelling and rubbishing superstitions and myths of the effects. Then it was time to join the live stream from Neem ka Thana, and thats when the fun started.

The Neem ka Thana reporter was given to poetic and eloquent commentary, and went on about the birds chirping and the light wind blowing, while the cameras scanned the scenery, ignoring the sun altogether. After tolerating this for a couple of minutes, Prof Yash Pal interjected rather politely that maybe they should show the sun as well.

So, the camera did move to the sun, which was still under partial eclipse....but then wandered down again to the crowds milling around, the trees in the background, doing its bit to set the mood for this great event.

Slowly, the professor's agitation increased. At one point he barked,"Arre Neem ka Thana thum totality ko miss karoge, show the sun!" Then, the cameraman again went back briefly to the sun, but somehow his artistic and creative side needed expression and once again the camera moved on to more "scenery".

The good professor then reminded the remote DD team," Poora Bharat dekh raha hai, scenery math dikhana, Neem Ka Thana!"

By this time, my husband and I were rolling with laughter, just short of ROTFL, it was like an episode of Fawlty Towers, with the Prof assuming Cleese-like, over-the-top agitation at Neem ka Thana's Manuel-like obtuseness.

I was also amused at my mother's consternation and clucking, as she was in full sympathy with the professor's plight, not seeing the humour of the situation, while her irreverent daughter and son-in-law guffawed away.

The last straw on the Professor's back was when the cameraman started scanning the skies, looking for the IAF plane that was doing a pioneering sortie in the path of the eclipse to catch pictures at 80,000 ft!

As the commentator also droned on about the IAF mission, the Professor in the Delhi studio finally lost it!

He started a non-stop verbal barrage of the N-K-T commentator and his cameraman, and we just about saw totality as a result of this.

More than the eclipse, the good Professor will be etched in my mind forever. (I do wonder if he ever got invited again to the DD studios.)

July 2009

The eclipse of a few days ago, I watched for a bit on CNN-IBN, which had feed from China, Tokyo, plus a couple of Indian cities and Taregna....all very slick and colourless. Oh well.

The excitement for us, this time around, was that we could see it in Madras as well - we had 62% eclipse - and so my husband and son (who actually came and roused us to go to the beach. This is an event in itself, a red-letter day in our family history, since waking up early in the morning without need is unheard of!), went off to the beach, down our road.

The TN Science Forum - may their tribe increase - were out on the beach, distributing sun-filter glasses to groups of five, clearing doubts of enquiring minds, answering questions and dispelling myths.

There was one lady arguing loudly with them about the rationality of the beliefs, and the science behind it, and soon there was a shouting match between the volunteers and the pseudo-scientists!!

Re-energized and invigorated, father and son returned with the sun glasses, and I daashed off to our verandah, from where I also had a good view of the eclipse. I saw it when it was half covered and waning.

Mr Ramanan went to the Eliots beach, in Besant Nagar, and these are the pictures he took.

Through the clouds - Photo by Mr Ramanan

"We arrived at the beach at around 6am and found that there were already around fifty people at the beach, many settled around the Schmidt memorial. It was cloudy and I did not have much hope of good shots in my camera.

We had done some homework and arithmetical calculations, and arrived at the conclusion that 6:20 am would be when the eclipse was likely to be at its greatest phase. I did not have the special glasses, and so was just looking at the sun and unable to see if there was an eclipse.

When the clouds lifted - Photo by Mr Ramanan

"Around that time, luckily, there was a gap in the clouds, I just aimed at the sun and took as many as 30 frames, continuously. Later on at home, on reviewing the files only we came to know the partial solar eclipse has taken place!!

A chance shot with a blue rock pigeon flying by, Photo by Mr Ramanan

"In one of the frames, I saw that I had captured a flying blue rock pigeon against the sun! There were many of them in the sky that morning.

After that, we waited for another fifteen minutes, but then the sun became too bright for us to watch without protection. A lady advised my daughter and me not to try to take pictures, as I may overload the sensor and spoil the camera, and not look at the sun either.

We packed up and returned home, and my daughter grumbled to my wife, that I am more bothered about my camera than her eyes!!"