The Best Eclipse of the Century...

After getting about 2hrs of sleep it was time to rise and shine...or shade our eyes from the sun's rays as we ventured out to watch the eclipse from the 9th floor roof at our office.  4:30am we were up and moving, ready to begin the adventure of taking in the longest solar eclipse of the century...only problem...getting out of our house at night is like trying to escape a fortified castle!  Once everyone is home for the night, the front door is locked and bolted from the inside- funny thing about that is that we don't have a key with which to unlock the door (yes, it is needed to unlock it from the inside).  So we went out via the balcony, down the side stairs and finally made it to the gate.  The gate which was padlocked shut...oops, minor detail.  So, of course the only logical answer is to jump the gate, to freedom.  Only problem with jumping a 6' wall when you are a 5'1", white girl with no hops, is how do you scale something that tall!?  Solution: your tallest friend lifts you up.  Safely perched atop the gate, I next pondered how in the world I would now get down.  Thankfully, flip flops provide fabulous cushioning and support for your feet when jumping from 6' high metal gates onto cement.  Finally, the Three Musketeers, all outside of the fortress, we began our search for a ricky which is tricky at that hour.  We found one, accepted his outrageous price of Rs.100 to take us to the office (we usually pay Rs 80 lol) and were on our way, until one Shatabdi head realized, he forgot his camera...oops!  So, detour back to the fortress, and some gate hopping and stair running later, the camera was safely secured in the ricky and we were really off.  

When we got to the office, the security guards were all hanging out playing cards and greeted us with mixed looks of surprise and the customary cheery "good morning!" and we trudged on, sun beginning to rise.  The elevator guard gave us a look as we hit 9 and were on our way.  Once we got to the roof, we were told that in a few minutes, the elevator would no longer have access to the 9th floor and we would have to take the stairs down... 

After sleepily stumbling out onto the 9th floor/roof we look out the side windows (think a giant room, with walls and all of that, just without a roof) while the security guards stared at us wondering what in God's green earth would bring us to the roof at 5am.  Puttering around we discovered some stairs that lead to a roof where the lightening rods reside.  We climbed the stairs and then a rickety bamboo ladder, squeezed through the metal bars that roofing should cover and perched ourselves on the highest point of the building.  Taking it all in, we sat and watched as the sun tried to peek through the clouds.  Alas, the clouds proved too powerful and started dumping their contents on us.  Of course if FINALLY rains, while were sitting on the metal stuff that connects to the lightening rods- genius!  So, tired and defeated, we scurried back down the ladder (after Sadie, unhooked me from the rusty nail i got my pants hooked on while teetering over the ladder), squeezed through the metal and under the cover of the building.  

It was nice watching the sunrise from such a great view point buuut not quite the view we had hopped for.  We walked to the mall and kept going and finally found the ricky drivers to take us home.  Once we got home, the rain had stopped and the clouds began to part.  From the very patio that we snuck out onto hours earlier, we were able to catch a quick glimpse of the eclipse.  After partially blinding ourselves, staring at the sun like all smart people do, we headed inside.  We were just going to lay down for a little bit and then go check it out again when it was more eclipsed...2hours later we are awoken for breakfast...oops!  4 more hours later we decided to actually get up and go to work.  So, after all of that, the most that I really saw of the best eclipse of the century, I saw on the India Times website...oh well, it was a pretty good nap :)  And so far all of the doomsday predictions today have been hogwash and it is business as unusual here.