They need an occasion to celebrate and the wee hours of Wednesday provided them with one, no matter how bleary-eyed they were when they thought that everything that was appearing on the horizon were bits and pieces of the Tempel-Tuttle comet.

Their celebrations never know any bounds but rarely do they carry their enthusiasm to the rooftops except for `Channi Padvo' and `Makar Sankranti', when they are in high spirits. The recent flood did force them on the rooftops, but then, those are hardly memories they like to cherish.

There they were at the most unearthly hour on every platform that was above the ground level, waiting with bated breath for the skies to open up. As usual, the three bridges had to bear the brunt of overflowing emotions.

Armed with torches and firecrackers they wanted to make the most of the D-night. When someone exploded crackers after spotting what he thought was a shower burst, the rest took the sound for a celestial phenomenon. By the time they realised the sound had nothing to do with the skies they had spotted their own set of stars and burst crackers themselves. What most saw were the pyrotechnics displayed by some.

That went on and on. The still of the not-so-chilly night was punctuated by cheers of crowd who were dead sure that what they sighted could not be anything else but the stars whizzing towards the earth.

A few enterprising ones added earthly drama to the celestial spectacle by flying kites, both literally and figuratively. Suddenly, they were gripped by the sense of deja vu and most thought they had witnessed something; something that was so wondrous that they could not spell it out.

Gujarat Electricity Board and Surat Electricity Board added thrill to the night by cutting of power supply to streetlights. Their intention, for a change, was noble.

Not all were taken in by the divine beauty up there in the sky. When fatigue started telling on their exuberance, one by one they trooped down, wondering if they had been duped by the hype generated by the media.