Builder-astrologer predicts weather, disasters

June 23, 2009

Builder-astrologer predicts weather, disasters23 Jun 2009, 0305 hrs IST, Jayaraj Sivan, TNNhttp://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chennai/Builder-astrologer-predicts-weather-d\isasters/articleshow/4689897.cms CHENNAI: Destiny made him a builder. However, even while working in the citywith brick and mortar, S Ramachandran finds time to pursue his hobby, astronomy.Indeed, it was his pursuit of astrology that eventually led him to studyastronomy. Ramachandran is an amateur who has worked out his own formula to forecastweather and natural calamities, based on a study of the past 100 years' weatherdata pertaining to India, having collected them from the Indian meteorologicaldepartment office in Chennai. He found a pattern in the planetary positions andtheir influence on earth. "For example, if Mercury and Venus are on either sideof the sun (Bhanumadhyamam) as well as with respect to the position of theearth, rain will be scarce. On such occasions, there could be a cloud burst or athunderstorm in some isolated locations," he says. For about 15 years, Ramachandran has analysed planetary behaviour and is nowable to predict normal rain, heavy rain, cyclones, typhoons, hurricanes anddrought. In an article published in January this year in a local journal, he hadforecast that 2009 would be hotter than 2008. According to him, the southwestmonsoon will become weak and scanty after second week of July 2009. "Squalls andthunderstorms will be experienced at isolated locations between the third weekof July 2009 and the third week of September. Monsoon will become active onceagain between the third week of September and first week of November. Overall,the distribution of rainfall throughout India will be far below normal in 2009,"he says. Ramachandran also foresees a major calamity an earthquake or a typhoon strikingTaiwan, Philippines and the East China region between July 17 and 28. Predictingis all fine, but unless it reaches people, it is of no use, he feels. Equallyimportant is that the scientific community listens to him, he adds. When AbdulKalam was president, he wrote several e-mails to him. "But to my surprise, Inever got a reply. Officials at the IMD are not receptive either. When I spoketo a VIP once, he asked me, You claim you have studied weather data for 100years. Are you a 100-year-old man?' I felt helpless," laments Ramachandran. In the past few years, astronomers and meteorologists worldwide have beenworking hard to gain an insight into what nature has in store for humanity."Despite the availability of a treasure house of information on astronomical andgeo-physical phenomena, scientists are wasting time. Our forefathers havestudied and documented information in books like Brihathsamhitha, Brihathjathakaand Kalavithanam. Anybody with an understanding of astronomy and knowledge ofSanskrit can decipher easily. I am neither an astronomer nor do I understandSanskrit. If any scientist is willing to listen to me and take my study forward,I am sure, it will revolutionise our understanding of planetary behaviour aswell as weather forecasting. In this age of computers, we can forecast weatherfor any number of years," noted Ramachandran.

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