The Hindu
An expert of SPACE foundation educating the public on Summer Solstice at
Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Thursday. Photo: R. V. Moorthy
While the Californians dance, the Swedes light
bonfires and Britons go to Stonehenge to watch the sun rise on June 21,
the longest day of the year, India thanks the rain god for the onset of
the monsoon.
Though Delhi-based astrologer V. Kapoor dismisses Summer Solstice – the day when the earth is most tilted toward the sun – as a Western concept, he says that it marks the beginning of the rainy season in the country.
Others
see the few longer hours of daylight in Delhi as an added opportunity.
“I wish every day was extended by a couple of hours, I would earn a few
more hundred rupees by selling more,” says Rajinder, a fruit vendor.
For
Om Prakash, Assistant Information Officer at the New Delhi Municipal
Council, it was the longest day of being quizzed by his colleagues. “As
soon as we all gathered in the office they asked me why the phenomenon
occurs.” Recapping his morning conversation, he suggested that they
visit Jantar Mantar – the astronomical observatory on the other side of
the road – as it would explain it all.
“Among the
scientific instruments is one that can measure the length of the day and
only on this day a shadow is cast by the instrument,” Mr. Prakash said,
going into a barrage of the angles of sun’s inclinations.
At
Delhi University it was business as usual, but the extended sunshine
hours did not miss the intellectuals. Ramjas College Principal Prof.
Rajendra Prasad decided to call it a day at exactly 6.45 p.m. and was
struck by daylight, “I remember the exact timing because I got late
going home as I was preparing for a speech to deliver at the Work Bank
tomorrow. I knew it was supposed to be the longest day as I read it in
the morning papers but I forgot by the evening,” he said.
Bipin
Tiwary, who heads the university’s Equal Opportunities Cell, too
realised the phenomenon only on his way back home. “I was stuck in my
office, curtains drawn from noon and did not know it was the longest
day. I stepped out at 7-30 and noticed something really strange. What
was all the bright light doing so late,” he said
A
few blocks away at St. Stephen’s College the gruelling process of
sorting out application forms was under way as interview lists for
applications are due for Friday. “I knew that it was the longest day,
the science behind it and everything, but this time I really felt it,”
said Economics Professor Nanditha Narayan.
Long hours
of work were felt by others too, but it was Sachin Brahma of Science
Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) who
put it in perspective: “The yearly dance of the sun when it moves from
the Northern to the Southern hemisphere and back again saw its finale
for the northern hemisphere today on Summer Solstice day. The sun will
begin its journey to shower its light and life to the southern
hemisphere. For us who live in the north, today was the longest day,
while the south saw its shortest day.”
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