Sun gets eclipsed, but clouds emerge

ALLAHABAD: "Arey papa Chanda mama to ulta ho gaya,'' exclaimed 6-year-old Gappu as the shadow of moon gradually began drifting away from the sun after a near total eclipse here on Wednesday morning. Even as the tiny tot was one of the several lakh witnesses in the district to the rare celestial event of solar eclipse, clouds played spoilsport for a vast majority as they could not witness the phenomenon during its peak.
With nobody wanting to miss the once in a lifetime opportunity, masses had come on to the streets, roof-tops while still others opted to venture into open places so that there were no obstructions in the sighting.
Things were pretty cool around dawn and the sky was clear with patches of cloud here and there. The citizens were happy that the sighting of the phenomenon would be worth the trouble of waking up in the wee hours and gaze at the sky.
The fact that television channels were bringing in live telecast from places like Siliguri, Surat, Taregana (Bihar), Kurukshetra, Varanasi, Lucknow besides China and Japan and places like Siliguri, Taregana reporting a thick cover of clouds thereby preventing a comfortable sighting brought smiles on the faces of Allahabadis. They were pretty confident that they would be the lucky ones to have viewed the event without making extra efforts.
However, this was not to be. As the time of eclipse to be viewed in the city drew near, a gush of winds around 6 am saw clouds coming in from the east direction. The citizens still did not lose hope and thought that the clouds would be blown away during the peak time of the eclipse. Around 6:10 am, the clouds had engulfed the entire sky, much to the chagrin of eager onlookers.
The situation remained by and large the same in the city north area during the peak duration of eclipse. In sharp contrast, those residing in city south and west remained lucky. For them the clouds could not interfere in the angle of viewing. Rajiv, a resident of Preetamnagar, informed that there was a very thin layer of clouds which in no way obstructed the sight and instead acted as a protective shield. "The view was simply magnificent,'' he observed. Residents of tran-Yamuna and Shankargarh areas too claimed to have sighted the eclipse comfortably.
Nevertheless, as darkness engulfed the district for a few minutes, the ilk who considered the natural phenomenon to be some kind of an omen started chanting mantras and praying that the Sun God be relieved of his agony of being tormented at the hands of Rahu and Ketu. In a bid to propitiate the spirits, bells were sounded and aartis were performed amidst chanting of mantras drawn from epics particularly meant from the period of `grahan' (eclipse).
Birds began their journey back to their nests chirping along their flight, as if confused and bewildered while the cattle at the grazing fields beginning to moo and wander around, ostensibly uncomfortable with the entire scenario.
As if the clock had stopped ticking -- albeit for a few seconds. Throwing all words of exercise caution during viewing the eclipse to the winds, the young and old alike stared endlessly at the sky with naked eyes while there was an eerie feeling about the whole thing. Still, it was something special. It was that once in a lifetime moment for which perhaps one could perhaps afford to overlook the extra cautions prescribed by the pundits and be one with nature.
And once again the sun emerged out of the light obstructing path of the moon and shone brightly upon earth -- signifying the victory of good over evil, going by the perception of the pundits.