They said in the news papers and TV channels again and again that ‘The next time this sort of a total solar eclipse passing the main land of India will happen in 2114 AD -- that is 105 years later’. Of course I did not want to miss such a once in a life time event, and I decided to go to Patna. Patna because, Patna was said to be the best place to witness solar eclipse. The total solar eclipse would last for only 4 min between 6.26-6.30 on 22nd July 2009.
The biggest concern was that monsoon clouds may get in the way. Just a day before the eclipse we came to know about the depression in Orissa which increased the possibility of a cloudy sky the next morning.
And that’s what happened. The next morning we went to the terrace to see the sky covered with thick clouds. More over it was raining. We missed the show!! Later around 7 o’clock the sky cleared out and we could catch a glimpse of the partial phase.
I was very much disappointed. Whenever I am sad and the question ‘why this happened’ annoys me I think of the probability theory (that’s weird I know). It helps me to think practically and rationally. To travel miles away from your house spending a lot of money and time to see an uncertain event like this was a gamble. We tried to play it smartly and reduced the probability of failure by choosing the location Patna. But failure remained a possible event. Every possible event is associated to a positive probability. That explains it all.
In case of Mumbai failure was a certain event with probability 1. Hence there was no point in staying in Mumbai. I had to be in Patna if I wanted to see the eclipse. And I was there. Hence I shall not feel bad about it.
Varanasi was the only place in India from where the total eclipse was witnessed. I envy all those people who went to Varanasi! They were really lucky!
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