THE LONGEST DAY

The longest day (northern hemisphere) is upon us. June 21st is when the Sun's rays are perpendicular to the tropic of cancer. The Earth's rotation axis is titled at an angle of 23.37°, which makes the seasons possible. The axis remains tilted in the same direction throughout a year; however, as the Earth orbits the Sun, the hemisphere (half part of earth) tilted away from the Sun will gradually become tilted towards the Sun, and vice versa. This effect is the main cause of the seasons.

The axis of tilt makes the light from the Sun to get unevenly distributed across the planet. From the above picture, sunsets at various points across the Earth can be seen. The red line roughly indicates the zero degree prime meridian (Greenwich Mean Time). It can be seen that darkness has fallen across most of Europe and Africa. It is a known fact that the Sun sets in the East first and then in the West. In places like Liberia in West Africa (10° West of the prime meridian), the Sunset has already begun; however the Sun has not yet set in parts of northern Norway (15° East of the prime meridian). This contradiction is explained by the tilt in the earth's axis and the subsequent length of day.

In accordance with this concept, it has been observed that June 21 is the date for summer solstice in the northern hemisphere. The picture on the left shows this phenomenon, where we find that in areas north of the Arctic circle (66.5° N), there is no sunset. Likewise, around the Antarctic circle (66.5° S), there is no sunrise on this date. All along the north-south direction, the amount of sunlight and length of the day increase as we go from south to north. Around the equator, the length of the day and night are equal throughout the year. So in a year's time, the amount of sunlight around the equator is more or less the same everyday. Which is why places close to the equator have no seasons. Whichever hemisphere is currently tilted toward the Sun experiences more hours of sunlight each day- currently it is the northern hemisphere. Since the equatorial regions receive sun's light at a vertical angle all year around, tropical regions are hotter than other regions.

Today is also officially the first day of summer for many countries in the northern hemisphere. Bangladesh has implemented its daylight saving time from today where it pushes the clocks ahead. "The longest day" is also the name of a book and a movie, which is about the D-Day landings of the Allied forces in Normandy, France, on June 6 1944. On another note, as I write this, the Sun has shone on Pakistan's T20 cricket team- they emerge the T20 champions, defeating Sri Lanka in the finals!

Picture copyright:
Federation of American Scientists (www.fas.org)
San Francisco State University (www.sfsu.edu)

BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP

Beauty in the feminine form has fluttered the hearts of many a poet, artist, ruler, despot, and countless males who have transgressed through a slew of emotions. Throughout the course of history we have witnessed several beautiful women who just by their dazzling appearances, have made the world dance to their tunes.

Cleopatra is put forward as a great beauty and her successive conquests of the world's most powerful men is taken to be proof of her aesthetic and sexual appeal. Julius Caesar and Mark Antony were at her feet- with her unprecedented beauty she ruled Egypt with a stature equal to that of Julius Caesar himself. It is said of Cleopatra's nose, had it been shorter, the whole face of the world would have been changed! Often quoted as the most beautiful woman in the world, queen Nefertiti's charms enabled her to have a status equal to that of the Pharaoh- in a male dominated society, such status was unheard of in 1400 BC. Helen of Troy had the face which "launched a thousand ships" and was the cause for the Trojan war.

Indian history and mythology is rife with stories involving beauty. Ravana pounced upon Sita devi allured by her beauty, and we have a great mythological tale in Ramayana. The ever famous Mahabharata war, was also a result of the alluring beauty of Draupadi. Born of fire, Draupadi became the flame of passion which engulfed the minds of men like Dushyasana, Keechaka and many others leading to the final conflict. In the nectar churning episode in the Kurma avatar, Lord himself came down as the dazzling Mohini to bewilder the asuras to deny their share of the divine nectar of immortality. Great kings like Nala and Dushyanta were literally brought down to their knees when they became enamoured with the enticing beauties of Damayanti and Shakunthala; and their stories replete with so many love tales. I can go on and on...

Beauty is a potent weapon, a major force which drives human thought and behaviour everyday. Beauty is attributed to the feminine gender as an unsettling force over the male ego as societies traditionally have been patriarchal all over the world. Flowers, full moon, rivers... nature itself has been linked to a woman's beauty since time immemorial. Poets have waxed eloquent in praise of beauty throughout history, and it continues in movies today. Ancient Arabic literature melds beauty with 7 levels of attraction- Hub (Attraction), Uns (Infatuation), Ishq (Love), Aquidat (Reverence), Ibaadat (Worship), Junoon (Obsession), and Maut (Death). This by the way is very brilliantly captured and delivered in the song "satrangi re" from the movie Dil Se.

Man's attraction to a woman have made many a ruler into doing strange things. The Taj Mahal stands testament to man's slavery to woman's charms- it was built by Shah Jahan to fulfill this wish of his beloved wife Mumtaz. King Vishnuvardhana of the Hoysala was drowned in his queen Shantala's beauty. Inspired by her beauty, king Vishnuvardhana built numerous divine dance forms of celestial female figures called "Madanikas" in the temple of Chennakeshava at Belur in Karnataka. Sri Shanta-leswara shrine at Shivaganga Bhetta was also constructed to commemorate her beauty. Tulsidas, who wrote the Ramcharitamanas (Ramayana in Hindi) is believed to be a very spiritual person who had several divine visions and the personal touch of God a few times. Even he was madly bewitched by his wife Ratnavali's beauty that he braved torrential rains, and swam across the mighty Ganga river in spate using a corpse as a float to visit her. Eventually he reached his wife's home in the dead of the night using a snake as a rope to climb to her room! Rumour has it that Pakistan was willing to exchange the whole of Kashmir for the bollywood beauty, Madhuri Dixit!

Though feminine beauty is widely recognized as a mesmerizing charm, opinions are hugely divided among men to identify different facets of beauty. So what is in women that completely blinds men into the realm of illusion and delusion? Perhaps the most succinct definition of beauty is put forward by John Keats, who observed:

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty," -that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.

It is said that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder- but is that all only good for classical quotations, or is there any definitive aspect of beauty that is objective?

Picture copyright:
"Nefertiti", by Arkadiy Etumyan (License: GFDL)
"Aishwarya Rai at Taj", by www.graphicshunt.com