Diamonds In The Sky

10 years ago. We were nearing the end of Class V.  Our school always had the practice of calling us to school for a final ten days after our exams, and letting us enjoy the whole day, every day with our class friends. We used to watch movies in the class monitor, or sometimes play games. My friends and I played one game repeatedly- a mission to space! 

The moment we were allowed to play, we'd go to the back end of the classroom, upturn three chairs and use it's legs as controllers of the space mission. We, out of which two of us believed we were Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams, played tirelessly and conquered space in our imaginative heads. While most of us just played a game, one of my friends seriously did love physics and the big, wide world of space science. 

Becoming an astronaut was such a common fancy for so many of us. The Universe, and it's stars and planets rightfully demanded our attention, but as we grew up we started forgetting to look up once in a while. Every time we forget to be humble, maybe we should look up, as realization of the speck that we are in the cosmos, even with what we can see and perceive!

I have always been interested in learning to spot constellations in the sky. When I went to college, I learnt how to spot the saucepan shape of Orion in the sky, after a couple of times when a friend who knew taught me how to spot it. It feels happy and nice to be able to see the sky and find the formation, especially considering how polluted the skies are today!

I may be a stargazer in the sense of being absentminded, but I am not really a stargazer in any other sense. The Little Prince beautifully captures the natural awe and inquisitveness that every child has about he Universe. And, it also captures how we lose it as we grow up. Staring at the sky, laying back, and getting lost in a maze of interesting thoughts, is a comfort that we may not have all the time. We better make the best of it when we can!

I wonder why. I wonder why.

I wonder why I wonder.

I wonder why I wonder why

I wonder why I wonder!

- Richard P. Feynman