Zero Shadow Day

Two days back some of my friends put some photos and comments about "Zero Shadow day" on Facebook.
It was interesting to know about it.
Zero shadow means the moment when the Sun is exactly overhead. The shadow falls directly under you and there is not even slightest of angle to the shadow.
In pune this happened two days back on May 13. Depending on your cities latitude and longitude positions it occurs in different cities on different days.
Moreover this event is not rare, but actually take place twice in a year.
Once between December to June and the other one in the later part of the year.
First occurance is normally visible to most of the Indians but second occurance normally go unnoticed since its mostly rainy season during the time of this occurance.
A little attempt to know more about it put me to different query.
I started wondering if it happens only in India.
If you try to google "Zero Shadow Day" or "No shadow day" on google, all the links that would appear in the list comes from India only.I have been through 4-5 pages of google links and absolutely each one of these links are connected to India.
So, many questions come up.
1. Is my search biased?I understand that google produces results based on our previous search criteria keeping in its memory what kind of things we like to appear as the top most search. So, unknowingly if my Google search is biased then may be someone else need to crosscheck. But it is highly improbable. Even not a single hit for any other country based link is difficult to understand.
2. Is "Zero Shadow Day" not the real scieitific name for this event. Is it called by some other name? This needs to be verified. But if that would have been the case, some mention of the real scientific name would surely have appeared.
3. Does this happen only in India? I guess not. It can not be a regional phenomena.
4. Is it not an interesting event for the world that nobody cares to pen down some information about it accessible to everyone or Are only Indian too much enthusiastic about such planetary events.
5. Even Wikipedia has not page dedicated to "Zero Shadow Day" or "No Shadow Day".

For those who want to know more about "Zero Shadow day", I would like to direct you to this link:

http://skytonight.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/zero-shadow-day/

which very nicely present information related to ZSD with photographs and a video or shadow vanishing.

Satyamev Jayate

Its kind of obligatory for a blogger at the moment to write a post about "Satyamev Jayate" a TV series broadcast on Star Plus. I can not be an exception to that.

I believe there is only one reason why this series is creating ripples among the people. The name associated with it. "Aamir Khan".
Aamir Khan is known as a "Perfectionist". Whatever project he takes, he tries to make the best out of it. Many of his recent movies have also tried to deliver a social message which did reached the audience. May then it be Tare Zameen Par, Rang de Basanti or 3 idiots. I think "Satyamev Jayate" will be added to this list.

Till date 2 out of 13 proposed episodes of the series have been broadcasted. Aamir with his team has tried to highlight some major but hidden problems like female foeticide, child abuse. In coming episodes some more similar issues will be handled.

Its not that these problems have not been discussed earlier on TV or no discussion, talk show have been arranged before. I believe those attempts could not garner enough support or could creat awareness among people. There could be many reasons why this attempt is turning successful. First and foremost as mentioned earlier is the name associated with it, "Aamir Khan".
With Aamir Khan many things got automatically attached to this series.
The episodes show that a good level of research has been undertaken as a foundation of this series.
Aamir Khan is has taken care that it is promoted well across the country.
The presentation is quite methodical. A lot of thought has been put into arranging the segments of each episode. In one episode you are made well aware of the problem taking real life examples. A statistical study to make people realize the gravity of the issue. A slight touch of humor and subtle way that strucks the chord that will fill even a very strong man's eyes full of tears. The issues based song presented at the end of the episode make it sure that you spend atleast few minutes pondering over the problem and its severity.
One good thing I found about this program is it has a ability to make people vocal about issues. Everybody knows these problems but we hardly discuss them with our fellow friends and family except the case when it is your problem or it is a topic of discussion for a round of Group Discussion. I found many of my friends appreciating it and putting links to this series for their fellow friends on Facebook.
One thing I most liked about it, is it is immediately available to watch on Youtube. I don't know if this is a part of Broadcasting strategy by Star or Satyamev Jayate team,but it is welcoming approach. Because of this many people get an easy access to watch it and get connected to the series/problems. In today's time Internet is an integral part of reaching out to peeple and it will only add up in the success of the series and its cause.
One more good thing about this series is it not only points out the problem but also tries to suggest solutions with the help of example. The way Aamir Khan takes the responsibility to initiate the procedure to get the solution is worth mentioning. By going on record that he will write a letter to Rajasthan Chief Minister about Female Foeticide and later on following his word by personally going and meeting the CM has attracted lot of attention. Now it will insensitive on Rajasthan government's part  if they do not respond to his approach.

This series may not be able to fully tackle the problems it is discussing but even if it succeeds in curbing even one problem and creating better awareness among people about different problems around them, I would consider it as a big success.