Disappointment descends on large crowd at Lalbagh

But not on the eclipse day, when a huge crowd had collected at Lalbagh to catch a glimpse of the rare phenomenon.

Courtesy Bharath Vignana Kendra, a ‘Surya Grahana Darshan’ had been arranged atop the rocky hillock inside Lalbagh, complete with running commentary. The Kendra had even arranged morning breakfast with a view to not only offer refreshment but also to break the age-old myth that eating during eclipse is dangerous for health.

The sky watchers had started assembling at Lalbagh from 5.30 am. Since the eclipse in Bangalore was between 6.15 am to 7.20 am, a huge crowd including a big posse of mediamen gathered on the hillock by 6 am. People from far-off areas of the city too reached to have a clear view of the eclipse. The OB vans of the television channels too lined up just below the hillock to give a live coverage of the eclipse to their viewers. But the clouds decided to play spoilsport.

People using the solar filters and X-Ray films kept their gaze glued towards the east to even have a glimpse of the eclipse but all the efforts proved futile due to the cloudy weather. Sun tried to peep through the clouds only for a fraction of seconds at about 7.15 am but that wasn’t enough to have clear view of the eclipse. The sun came out of the clouds not before 9 am, almost one-and-half hours after the duration of eclipse was over.

“I am disappointed. I learnt that such phenomenon of total solar eclipse in India is happening after a century, so I came here to get a clear picture of it but the cloudy weather spoilt the show,” said K K Swamy of J P Nagar. He recalled his childhood days when he saw the total solar eclipse.

Inchara (10) from Banashankari was anxiously waiting to see the rare celestial event and had bought a solar filter also, but her wish was not fulfiled thanks to the clouds.