Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Roof with a View: July 22 Solar Eclipse

The longest solar eclipse of this century – more than 6 minutes. Once in a life time not be missed event. Next one will occur on June 13, 2132.

I looked up the path, duration, timings et al of the July 22nd eclipse. Tried (half heartedly) to look up science clubs, astronomy clubs and planetarium’s in Kolkata. And while the count down built up worldwide, with suitable frenzy, my plans fizzled out.

Aggotta, plan B: Rooftop.

Ma and I went upstairs at 5.30am and although the skies were cloudy…it was very nicely striated – clouds grey and ash, blue sky in between and a bright sun too dazzling to behold. And then from nowhere a wisp of cloud looking very much like a grey chiffon duppata blew in and obliterated the sunlight and there it was…the solar eclipse. And then the cloud moved away and we couldn’t see anything and had to wait for the next wisp of cloud. And so on went this hide and seek. Partial or not…it was beautiful.

In between, we checked out neighbouring roof tops. Not a soul in sight. Were is everyone? Ma kept asking. Sleeping or catching the eclipse from Surat to China and beyond on TV. Every channel had an expert – from ISRO, astrologers and what not. But the thrill was seeing it first hand.

Look, people are blowing conch shell…to ward off evil. Ma, please. That’s a bus honking.

We went downstairs at 7am and then watched the telecast on TV from different places. Photos of the eclipse by the Taj was rather poetically beautiful. Didn’t make it to any of the places which would see total eclipse – Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Gaya, Dinajpur, Siliguri, Tawang or Targana in Bihar which was supposed to be the BEST place to view the event. [The clouds played spoil sport at Targana and I believe they couldn’t see anything at all. Poor Bihar CM who was himself present, mike, dais et al]. Didn’t even make it to the Birla planetarium.

However, our rooftop more than made up for it. Just Ma, me, assorted crows (the ones ma feeds every evening) and our sunglasses. Ma looking rather hip in my antiquated Ray Bans.

Almost made up for my regret in missing another once in a lifetime event in 1986– Halley Comet.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

By your leave

As usual, I was the last to leave. Today, for a change, I managed to tick off most things on my todo list and was putting the finishing touches on a report before leaving for the night. Today was my first day at work after a bout of flu. I could have finished the report tomorrow...but just wanted all items checked on atleast one day in this financial year!

N was there too. It was normal for one of us to finish slightly earlier than the other and wait.
-- How much longer? she asked.
-- 10 minutes.
-- You said 10 minutes, 10 minutes ago.
-- Just finishing...

The 10 minutes became 40. At 7, she said she was leaving and went downstairs while I took a back up of the report on my USB (for finishing at home), switched off my PC, modem, invertor, the lights and fans, locked the door and walk downstairs. No sign of her. As I rounded each corner (6 of them in the short 5 minute walk to the bus stop), thought I'd catch up with her (longer strides) but she wasn't there. She must be waiting inside an auto at the stand - waiting for it to fill up. Nope. All empty autos. No N and atleast 15 minutes of waiting (if lucky) for the auto to fill up and leave the stand.

I called her: Where are you?
-- Where are you?
-- At the bus stand. I just arrived...took only the time to shut down and you are not there....
-- I just left...Eamaa**.

Never mind, I said coolly and hung up all the while seething. "I will finish my work and leave alone. And leave without waiting for anyone. I should have finished my report instead of taking work home. I did leave on Saturday without waiting for her and not even informing her when she was taking the training session. What's the big deal anyhow? Maybe she was in a rush. And not that there was anything earth shattering except gossip to catch up on", I fumed silently.

The stretch seemed longer...the halts more innumerable (if possible and not just grammatically), the buses spewing more poisonous exhaust...and the pen-ultimate bad thing .... fat co-passengers - who squash you without any qualms. (Ultimate would be a lechy co-passenger). I got out at Taratolla, worse for wear and bang into N.

-- Hey! What are you doing?
-- I felt so bad ...
-- That you waited? Are you nuts (pretending to be genuinely concerned-surprised and not yahoo-elated-surprised).
-- No...I just waited for 5 minutes.
-- What if I'd taken a bus - I wouldn't have stopped to change at Taratolla.
-- I would have waited for only 5 minutes more.

We got into an auto....I elated, she relieved (both not showing it) while I calculated that she must have waited for more than 5 minutes. Much more. We talked of mundane things...and then I got off as usual earlier at Deshopriya Park... Walked with a spring in my steps...in the fine drizzle (hilsay guri) homewards.

That's what friends are for....

** Eema is actually much more common a word and higher in the stakes of the most popular bengali word among bongs than "eesh" of the Aishwariya-Paro of Devdas fame.

Monday, July 06, 2009

An Alpine in Kolkata

The auto I was in, took a sharp turn onto the flyover and it tilted on its rear wheel and just as I thought we'd topple over...a car rushed past and out of the rear window, popped out an ENORMOUS FURRY head: A full grown (given the size of its head), furry Saint Bernard, enjoying the breeze, a enormous tongue (like a babies bib) lolling. I kid you not.

All of us including the driver oohed and aahed and had something to say about it.

But don't these enormous, furry, cuddly dogs ...with small beer casks tied on their collars ... revive people stranded / buried deep in snow...somewhere in the alps? Aren't they alpine? Meaning from a cold clime. Lots of snow and sub zero temperature is normal for them.

Why bring them to Kolkata of all places, snugly tucked in the eastern armpit of India (no wonder its - Kolkata and not the St. Bernard - so sweaty and odourous)...which itself is located in the Torrid Zone. Sheer cruelty.

Perhaps, it was brought as a pup to Kolkata and has only known hot and humid weather and is quite at home and was enjoying the gentle breeze...

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Nipped in the Bud

Long work week, longer commute to and fro, work load, horrible weather and really nice colleagues – result: no gossip to liven up things. And then it happened...like in a soap opera, episode by episode. No saas-bahu kissa though. Just a pretty overseas volunteer, a local romeo, the local "dada", a shoe shop and us spoil sports.

She - the volunteer - had settled in pretty quickly, found her way about - the tailor, the cyber cafe, the sabzi walla, the boutique and the shoe shop. Whenever we'd meet she'd give us an update on her life so far and her explorations. Then one day she asked if it was the custom here (in Kolkata) for young men to tell women "I want to make frend-ceep"! What??!!! Not one of those again. Most of us have had at least one proposal for frend-ceep, if not more!

"No, of course not. Don't even bother to reply", we told her. She nodded. Then she said, well this guy keeps calling her Madam and begs her for one minute (of her time) in between asking her for frend ceep, telling her how nice she looks and how fair her skin is. Where did you meet him? At the shoe shop. He is the owner's son. Ignore him and go to another shop, was our advice.

We kept asking her, ribbing her about her "frend" and her "fren-ceep" shoes. He had progressed to asking for her cell number, where she worked, where she stayed etc.

"But why do you still go to his shop?" “I don't. He follows me on my way to the cyber cafe".

And then one day, she came running looking rather panicked. "He followed me all the way here. And kept asking me for one minute please".

Gone were our smiles. She would frequently go to the cybercafe at night ... her only way to keep in touch with friends and family far away. What if....

We rushed to our Director and told her. And she found the solution too. And fast. In came the strapping young realtor who is the local dada cum Good Samaritan. He was informed about the little problem. And within 15 minutes, the frend was called and for an informal chat with our Director. Just her, him and the dada. In polite icy tones, he was asked to desist. And all the while, the dada had his friendly hand clamped on the frend's shoulder. The frend who had swaggered in, baseball cap on, crept downstairs all thoughts of frend-ceep gone!

While we, gossipy old biddies, that we are....lurked and grinned from the sidelines!

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