Well, it started as just another day but with a little more excitement as it was a Friday and yeah there was also some solar eclipse supposedly the ‘longest one’ of the millennium going to happen but that dint really make much of a difference to me. I was in my cubicle working when Shilpa (popularly known as Shil :P) came to my cubicle and said “Dee let’s go and watch the solar eclipse”, I don’t know why but this came as a big surprise to me. I stared at her in astonishment without uttering a word as if she had just asked me to go and see some extinct species like a dinosaur or a mammoth. Anyway I think I sort of ignored that and said “come let’s go” and by that I only meant let’s go out of my floor. Meanwhile we decided to meet Nisha (popularly known as Nish :P). We headed towards Nish’s cubicle and when she saw us she us a million dollar smile like we had just arrived at the right minute to rescue her from the prison (perhaps most of you have associated prison and office to be synonyms already! :P)
Anyway the three of us went out all happy for no other better reason than just going out. We went to our ‘adda’ and were chatting when Shil again mentioned about the solar eclipse and this time is was Nish’s turn to look shocked. I wonder what Shil thought of our reactions. After sometime, Nish and me gave Shil this “Are you serious?!!” look and she said she’s been watching the eclipses whenever it happened ever since she was a kid and here were we (Nish and me) blinking big time as we were caught by the hearsay that we shouldn’t see the solar eclipse at all, we thought we can only see it through some fundu telescope or something (Don’t laugh at our ignorance! ;):P) Then Shil enlightened us about the whole thing and asked us to join her watch the eclipse. Nish and I readily agreed. We were really really excited about witnessing our 1st solar eclipse not on TV but live in action looking straight into the sun.
The plan was to go and get food parceled and rush to Shil’s place to watch the complete action involving a star, a satellite and a planet which led to a beautiful phenomenon called the eclipse and we hurried to some hotels close by, only to find out they were all closed, thanks to Mr. Eclipse. We decided to chuck the food plan and left for Shil’s place. We found the roads free of traffic. It was an unusual sight in Bangalore, almost looked like there was a curfew. Roads free of traffic is something I really fancy (result of being trapped in traffic every other day. Totally envy people who stay close by!). We reached her place and each one of us grabbed the solar eclipse ka special glasses (sorry don’t know the exact term for it :P). Nish and me, being novices in this, wondered how we could see through an opaque thing like that (Did u laugh again??). Aunty (Shil’s mom) called me and showed me the sun through those glasses and I was so excited that I started jumping and shouting “I can see it”, “I can see it” over and over again. I hope I dint wake up her neighbours from their afternoon nap. Wonder what Aunty thought. I am sure she would have given me the “What’s wrong with you?” look but I dint happen to see that :P I was really elated after getting the 1st glimpse of the eclipse.
To get a better view the three of us ran up to the terrace. All of us stood there looking at the sun. It was spectacular. We were awestruck by the sight. The sun looked so sober not like it’s usual self yet so powerful. It almost looked like a crescent moon much brighter though. I gave a break to my stare at the sun to look around and found that the atmosphere had really changed. It dint look like it was 1:00 pm in the afternoon, it wasn’t sunny, it almost looked like it was evening or as if I was seeing through a tinted glass. It was lovely! We continued to stare at the sun. All the us were ecstatic and we exclaimed “WOW” all the time in quick succession one after the other and sometimes even together in chorus! :D We could actually figure out the changes occurring in the crescent shape and we would scream that out to each other. We sat there at the terrace for really long witnessing the longest eclipse to our heart’s content. It was an amazing experience, totally out of this world. I am really glad that we dint miss it out.
This may seem ordinary to some but for me it was really special. Hmmm… It was a day that I will always remember and a sight that I will never forget!! :D *smiling away to glory*
