My mother and I consider ourselves to be amateur stargazers. Whenever mum sees something weird or unexpected in the night sky, she always reports it to me. I try to explain to her what it is with my extremely limited astro-knowledge. Neither of us actually claim to know or understand much of it. I read, so I’m aware. I would never dare claim erudition.
However, we are both fascinated with what happens in the great beyond. The mysteries of the cosmos that surround us have over time become a sort of bonding experience with my mother. With work, studies, research and a (thankfully continuing) long-term relationship, it would be fair to say that my relationship with my mother had become a distant one. As an Indian man, my relationship with the familial patriarch can be defined by a variety of adjectives, ‘close’ is not one of them. Therefore, it is important to me that my relationship with my mother does not become of a similar nature.
This brings me to the nub of this article – stargazing. The last year has seen a number of cosmic events that had stargazers struggling to keep. From Comet NEOWISE in the summer to the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in the winter, the skies have been dazzling while darkness reigned below. But for me, I found great sanity in going up to the terrace and looking up at the sky until my neck began to hurt. There is a certain peace in the realisation that we really are infinitely small in the face of the enormity that is the universe.
The sad thing is stargazing isn’t much of a thing in India and is very much declining in popularity in the rest of the world as well. With so much for us to do in the safety and comfort of our bedrooms, we don’t really need, nor want, to venture outside. And now that we are imprisoned inside our rooms on pain of death, and now that the Earth is healing and resetting, we still don’t feel excited by the mysterious goings-on in the sky. We will never understand them. These things will always go over our heads – literally. But, I feel there are few things more exciting than seeing the light from the past beam down on us in twinkle dust and the occasional shooting star... I am not sure I can explain to you how much joy it brings to me – I am desperately trying to.
The lockdown has certainly made it easier to see these phenomena with the naked eye. The skies are clearer. The stars are brighter. Everything seems to be alight in the darkness above us even as we drown in the gloom of earthly existence. It’s important to try to keep it this way and not relapse into the smoggy brown skies of pre-lockdown. For then, even if we are going through terrible times, we can always look up and find hope, inspiration – joy.
I’m not suggesting an infinite lockdown. Some extensive measures to curb pollution will be enough to satisfy me. I don’t ask much: fewer cars on the road, better public transport, greener production processes – I’m sure there are people better qualified than me who could suggest more changes.
These are probably selfish demands. But if we can make this happen, maybe Mother Nature will take pity on us. I have no desire to live longer than I’m supposed to. So it’s not really a health thing that makes me say all this. I just hope that when my children come along they will also experience the joy and the wonder of struggling to understand what goes on in the vacuum of space. And that I’ll be able to share it with them... like my mum does with me.
[This article was first published in The Times of Corona. It has been updated and the title has been changed. Read the original article here.]
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