Tahiti Eclipse

Benares, July 22, 2009. Sunrise is at 5.09.

It’s Morning mist. Nothing dangerous, no big cumulus clouds accumulating in the atmosphere, after the heavy rains of last night, that was feared…

We swift of hotel and terrace to have a better view on the east bank of the Ganges. At 5:45 am everybody is there with the television’s reporter with whom we have been since yesterday afternoon, waiting for the sun getting out the clouds. We just missed the first contact of the moon with the sun, but it does not matter … we can see the beginning now and the moon comes over and is slowly eating the sun for nearly an hour.

At 5:30 am the streets are already crowded. All newspapers, television, had advertised the event. As medias made their duty to educate, people didn’t hide in their homes for fearing for disaster of a mishap, they are more curious instead of superstitious. No ritual bath on this part of the Ganges, no prayers, no flowers or hands close together. There are only the glance and the expectation. Hardly distinguish the circle of light on the other side of the Ganges that climbs gently into the blue sky, marbled with small light clouds. Murmurs softly rise from the river banks.

As clouds hide the beginning of the moon biting the sun, they finally vanish and the festival begins. With our eyes secured beneath our solar eclipses sunglasses, we observe the almost vertically descent of the moon on the solar disk. The physical sensation is very different from the one we felt in China, where the moon came from the right and slid softly to the left as a gentle kiss.

Here, it becomes more interior and glutton, almost cannibalistic. Alongside the terrace are Indian photographers claiming with excitement: six minutes left… two minutes… and then there it is! Everything is plunged into dark, the moon completely covers the sun, and it’s fantastic! Everyone has goose-flesh… I take full advantage of this miracle of nature and it is really exciting! We are now waiting for the diamond effect: when the moon begins its descent, a flash of extraordinary light escapes, big like a diamond. This year it is particularly sparkling! We made it!
The crowd deeply hums. People take a bath in the Ganges to purify themselves. On the main ghats on the farther north, the crowd is huge and an old woman will fall overboard and lose her life, wrapped in her sari. During an hour cohort of beggars will receive handfuls of rice, the customary gift for the poor population in this special occasion. They will leave with their bags full of second-hand clothes donated by richer women. A few hours later, the soil will be strewn with grains of rice licked by the cows and goats, and filthy rags left behind.
The filmmaker is carried away,  he has to activate to send the report for the 01:00 pm news… and we celebrate that with a glass of mineral water, no alcohol allowed in a holy city… but we feel like drinking champagne!

Copyright: Madeleine Lacour

Photos : Joël Robic.