All three times were the charm - watching total solar eclipse
1995, October 24 th was the first time I watched a total solar eclipse. I was in 11 th grade and didn’t manage to get any company on my trip to South 24-pargana of West Bengal to view the eclipse. So, I didn’t look around for any help. Based on the information I gathered from the newspapers I charted down the time (around 8:50 in the morning) and the exact location of the totality (which was probably a 50 km wide band). The night before was Diwali/Kali Puja in India, a new moon day. Solar eclipses always happen on a new moon day. I crossed the Ganga river on a ferry and went to Khardah to my Pishi’s (aunt) house to stay the night. This considerably reduced my commute time the next morning. For whatever reason my cousin-brother wasn’t convinced as well to join me in the eclipse trip. But I was totally determined to make it to the totality no matter what. Scientific information in those days used to come either through popular science articles in the newspapers or throu...