FROM under the halogen cover of city, one can easily count
the stars in the sky. The scattering of light makes sure that much of the night
sky remains invisible. Away from urban lights the picture changes however. We
choose the Little Rann of Kutch – LRK. By early evening this wilderness reveals
the Milky Way in all its glory – star lit night sky that is so cold and clear
that one knows for sure there are billions of stars above and the world beyond.
The LRK sky makes even tiny man-made satellites crawling through their
trajectories visible dime a dozen. To the naked eye!
Rann is featureless. And consequently leaves one
directionless. It is perhaps this feature of Rann that might have turned stars
– and the night sky – into a source of directions – and time. For anyone
crossing the Rann, Polestar is north; Jupiter at the horizon is east; which
also means the evening is young; the rise of constellations a give away of how
mature the night is. If the Saturn is already visible, it must be past midnight.
If Mars is past the zenith, it is probably couple of hours before day break.
Long before it became science that Moon’s luminosity is
reflected sun-light, our ancestors had called Chandra the son-in-law of Surya!
As it turns out a philandering one, for Moon eloped with the wife of Brihaspati
– Jupiter. Is it that smoldering anger that gives the Jupiter the red stripes?
I wonder. But Moon would not be the same again. At 250x magnification it
unravels warts and all. Any lady who has seen the moon through a scope would
cringe at being a muse akin to the Earth’s satellite. Everyone agrees.
As the evening progresses post dinner, it is the turn of
chief priest of the gods to shine brightest in the sky. Jupiter – Brihaspati in
Hindu myth – little stocky, bulging in the middle, the harbinger of prosperity is
up above us. As Zeus from Greek fable, he has been the philandering one, raping
Europa, who twinkles by its side. Other three moons of Jupiter – Ganymede, Io,
Callisto – become visible with a little focus, though which one is which is not
possible to identify. Nevertheless, it makes for a great picture.
Saturn loves physical activity and discipline. Astrology
says it is the planet of hard work, renunciation, and the rhythms of life.
Again, much before science calculated that Saturn takes 30 years to make one
round of Sun, our seers had termed it the slow one – Shani means the slow
moving! But our Saturn does not look like angry – the Rudra – destructive Shani
deva it is made out to be. In fact it even manages to look cool, prancing with
its rings, for the kids to go up in excitement and give a second life to the
evening.
Women are from Venus became a cliché recently, but the planet was termed as having feminine energies ages ago. As we wait for Venus in the morning sky, men become excited to watch Mars. For the same cliche! Is it the misogyny of scientists that all of them are after Mars and not Venus? Again, long long ago and certainly much before science termed it as twin planet of Earth with possibility of life, Mangal was termed the son of Prithvi…Bhumiputra! The redness of Mars at its edges makes it look like a distinctly red ball in the sky.
The night sky by this time is choc-a-block with stories. Of
the ever changing pole star – Polaris now, it was Theban 10,000 years ago, and
would be Vega similar years hence. Orion, the hunter, stands with Sirius the
dog in position, being watched by Castor and Pollox – the sons of Jupiter and
two faces of Gemini constellation. Sage Vashishta along with wife Arundhati –
Mizar and Alcor from Greek legend – twinkle as part of the Big Dipper. Even up
to the medieval times, only those were trained as archers in armies who could
identify a twin-star like Vashishta-Arundhati.
Along the way we see galaxies and nebulas…millions of stars
that are being born…millions that have crossed middle age by the time their
first light touches us…stars that are dying…and of course stars that break and
fall on earth, making everyone wish for something before the streak of light
disappears. Is there are star for each one of us in this world? Makes me
recall Harivansh Rai Bachchan’s Jo Beet
Gayi, So Baat Gayi. But that’s for another day.
