and then i missed it...

it all started on the 24th of October 1995... days when i did not know anything about superstitions or omens... at 11 years, all that i cared for... was the hand held video game that my ajji's neighbor's daughter had lent me.. i was happily spending time at my "Ajji Mane" in Padmanabhanagar.

The Precedence:
the day before., the 23rd of Oct 1995 is etched into my memory for ever... it was this day that i asked my first question in science. Prof Ramachandra Rao was giving a 2 day seminar on Vedic Chemistry at Aksharam. little did i understand that Chemistry and Physics were different... after that day's session, i walked up to him, and this was the conversation...

"ಅಂಕಲ್, ನಮ್ಮಪ್ಪ ಹೇಳಿದ್ರು light speed 3 lakh kilometers ಅಂತೆ... ಹೌದಾ?
"ಹೌದಪ್ಪ, ಅದು ಒಂದು secondಗೆ ಅಷ್ಟು ದೂರ ಹೋಗತ್ತೆ."
"ಹಾಗಿದ್ದರೆ ಅದನ್ನ correct ಅಂತ ಹೆಂಗೆ ಹೇಳ್ತೀರಾ? ಅದನ್ನ ಹೆಂಗೆ check ಮಾದಿದ್ದ್ರು? ಭೂಮಿ ಅಷ್ಟು ದೊಡ್ದದಿಲ್ಲ್ವಲ್ಲ..."
he said he'd let me know about it the next day. (i don't know if he did not know the answer at that point, or did not want a 11 year old to be confused with such "Weird" stuff...) but i was not there the next day i.e. on the 24th... my dad told me he mentioned me more than once on that day...he'd just got back from the seminar at Aksharam.

The First:
My dad came back and woke me out of my reverie... and took me out to watch the sun with a shard of brown glass...
it was the first time i was looking into him. i could see him slowly being engulfed by something that was not visible through the filter. when i removed it, i saw the moon eating up the sun. it was my first solar eclipse. i could not contain my excitement, and saw the partial eclipse that was in Bangalore all through from the begin till the end.
a celestial love was kindled within me... ever since, i have been a faithful follower of every eclipse that could be seen from wherever I've been... unfortunate though, that I've never been in the path of a total solar eclipse...

This July 22nd, when i heard it would be a 60-70% eclipse for Bangalore, i was excited. for it would be the maximum eclipse i'd have seen. after having seen clear skies around 5:15 AM, i pulled out my T-scope and prepared myself to follow the sun. less than 5 minutes later, nothing but gray could be seen... the clouds had already pulled down curtains on a spectacle before it had begun... :(
thought it was just another of the lost opportunities.,(the fourth so far...) and went ahead with the day... that night had something really big for me. the news channels were all busy showing the "Diamond Rings"... mighty, beautiful, and sparkilng rings before the sun was completely eaten up...After having known so much over the years about eclipses, i felt so miserable for not having been able to take a glimpse of all this... miserable to such an extent, that a morsel would not go down my throat... still convincing myself that all that happens, happens for a reason...
doesn't it hurt when you lose the most romantic of rings...???
here's a glimpse of it...

Varanasi, 22ndJul 09
Image courtesy:ToI.

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