January 15th was a day when the immense light from the sun failed to reach us as the moon shadowed it. It was the annular solar eclipse and for the first time ever I was happy that I live in Bangalore as the city was to witness 85% of the eclipse. I hate the city otherwise!
The conversation :
Me : Wow, I would see the eclipse today. It would be fantastic. M so keen to see it. Yay Yay!
Dharma : Have you never seen one ever?
Me : No
Dharma laughs and with a smile he then says, no problem, you see it today and I’ll come back by lunch so that we can see the peak together from the balcony.
As he left, I sat there remembering the days when I was small. I vaguely remember there were a lot of eclipses in those years. Some were seen in Ajmer and the others were not. I never got a chance to see one because as children, we were advised not to see one as it would damage the eyes and there was a danger of losing our vision. I obeyed my mother when she said that and stayed inside. The only memories that I have of an eclipse is seeing the diamond ring in the newspaper the next day.
This time, I did not care if all of this was true. A day before the eclipse, I had bought the protective glasses so that I could see the ring of fire. Woke up in the morning and the first thing I had on my mind was to find out the exact timing of the eclipse. Googled and found out that it starts at 11:15 and ends at 15:10 with the peak being at 13:20 hrs. The maid had not turned up and I was busy doing the chores. Just then, Dharma called up to find out if I was seeing the eclipse or not. I kept the phone and the next moment I was out in the balcony looking at the sun. Awestruck! What I saw was just the orange sun, chopped off a little as if someone took a bite from the very round Pizza! I came back and updated my FB status 
and was now waiting for 13:20 to see the peak and take pictures.
Dharma had taken one pair of glasses with him so that he could see from the office terrace. I called up my best buddies at work and asked them to contact him for the glasses and see the eclipse 
and invited them home to see the peak of the eclipse and have lunch. Its almost time now and I take out the camera to charge the battery.
Its 13:00 hrs now and I go out to take pictures. Without wearing the glasses, I look through the camera. The light is just blinding. I still take the photo only to see that its pathetic. After taking 5-6 shots without the gear on, I finally got a decent picture only after wearing the glasses. I came in and realized that there was very little sunlight around and it was dark. Only the sun was bright. Rubbed my eyes a little so that they come back to normal.
The door bell rings. Dharma and friends are here. They love the clean and cosy house and then move towards the balcony with the glasses on. All of us are waiting for 13:20 and in the meantime, munching on cookies. I ask Subbu to take some pictures and he goes out for the same. I then narrate my story of taking pictures and here they start. All 3 of them start telling me stories and facts of the retinal damage and I am shit scared. They ask me to wait for a few hours to see what happens.
With all these thoughts in mind, I go to the kitchen to make some pasta and coffee for all of us. Drao, pal and subbu keep going in and out to see the eclipse peak and the TV is also switched ON now. I am shit scared and asking them all sorts of questions and they just continue to laugh and scare me even more. We eat, drink, watch tv, discuss and then its time for them to go back to work.
As soon as they leave, I start googling again about the Do’s and Don’ts of the eclipse only to find out that whatever I did was wrong. All the websites say, you should not take the pictures without the gear on. Also, the damage to the retina starts and it is only known after 5-6 hrs. I am all the more scared now and bugging all three of them again. Kept praying continuously…..
In this process, I found out an article which had tips on how to shoot the eclipse and I was sitting there wishing if only I had read this earlier, I would’ve got better shots. Uploaded the pictures on the laptop. Cropped and processed and uploaded on flickr and facebook. An hour passed and I was just looking at the time and thanking God that I could see
NDTV’s website is the one I keep visiting for the national news. Come across a link that says : “Eclipse through your eyes, Submit your pictures here” I click on the link only to find out my picture there and I am thrilled and overjoyed. A moment later I realize, I did not submit it so how is it here. I keep thinking and some minutes later a facebook friend tells me about the submission. I could not thank that friend enough The next moment, the link is on my FB status and GTalk! A lot of friends liked it and some others did not. I was happy anyways.
Its 17:00 hrs now and I feel there is some blur when I am working n the laptop. I keep waiting to see what happens. Thankfully nothing happens till 6 and I am relieved I was happy that whatever I did, however good or bad the photo was, it reached somewhere. It did some good. I could see and my photo was on NDTV. What more could I have asked for Yipeeeeeeeeeeeee!
The photo here :
- The Annular Eclipse
Here is the link to the NDTV album.
The effort was totally worth it. As they say, you should always attempt rather than just thinking later, I wish I would have attempted.
Read more about the solar eclipse here.
