Last December, 3 Heavenly bodies (not hinting at Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman folks, you know me. :p) came together to form this. Venus is on the right, Jupiter on the left, with the crescent Moon forming the 'smiling' mouth.
A week ago I saw another rare event. On a cold night echoing the emptiness in my house, a moonbow formed up above me, unleashing a rainbow of colours with multiple hues over my piece of sky. After some research it turned out that it was actually a double moon halo, an extremely rare occurrence. They occur when moonlight is reflected through water droplets or ice crystals present in the cirrus group of clouds 20-50 km up in the atmosphere. The moon has to be full or near full, brightly lit and illuminated in the night sky. A good example of a moon halo is here, but it doesnt even begin to describe what I saw. The major difference with the one in that picture and the one that I saw was, that there were 2 of those concentric halos up above me, with the moon in the centre. Sadly, by the time I got the camera out, the clouds had drifted away from the moon.
But my lucky streak did not end with it. Here’s what happened yesterday.
It has been raining a lot here in the past 3 weeks. When the rain gods finally relented yesterday, I filled up the tank and went out for a ride. There was a slight drizzle in the afternoon but lazy clouds scurried away and the sky turned pretty blue by the time I reached Old City to try out some Kurbani ka Meetha, Chicken Shorma and Seekh Kebabs (with naan bread, chutney and spinach).
On my way back in the evening, the fat, grey clouds were back - promising more rainfall into the night. Sometimes when I try to imagine the weight and mass of water that these clouds carry around and the raindrops that fall out eventually, I can’t help but wonder how it would be if I were a raindrop. I think that if I were one of those raindrops, I could feel the plummet from that heavenly height, and experience the thrill in my vulnerable heart. Throughout the last few weeks, the said rain gods have volleyed down thick raindrops the size of a marble, as they hit ground. Oftentimes, bolts of lightning would streak across the horizon, originating from a central branch in the sky. It’s been happening all so frequently that I wonder about the possibility that there is a giant machine in the sky sending out sentinels on some mission of search and destroy over our planet.
But I digress.
A non-discriminating hush descended over the land as I sped back through Taramati Baradari and Qutub Shahi Tombs on my way back home. Non-discriminating, because, the first one is a place of dance and music and culture, and the other one a place of resting for the Qutub Shahi Sultans. My transience through the empty streets felt like I was being ushered, in that moment in time, to ride my dreams bareback. To lift my soul and float through the skies. I turned a vagabond corner to see a clean black patch of sky in the east sky.
A week ago I saw another rare event. On a cold night echoing the emptiness in my house, a moonbow formed up above me, unleashing a rainbow of colours with multiple hues over my piece of sky. After some research it turned out that it was actually a double moon halo, an extremely rare occurrence. They occur when moonlight is reflected through water droplets or ice crystals present in the cirrus group of clouds 20-50 km up in the atmosphere. The moon has to be full or near full, brightly lit and illuminated in the night sky. A good example of a moon halo is here, but it doesnt even begin to describe what I saw. The major difference with the one in that picture and the one that I saw was, that there were 2 of those concentric halos up above me, with the moon in the centre. Sadly, by the time I got the camera out, the clouds had drifted away from the moon.
But my lucky streak did not end with it. Here’s what happened yesterday.
It has been raining a lot here in the past 3 weeks. When the rain gods finally relented yesterday, I filled up the tank and went out for a ride. There was a slight drizzle in the afternoon but lazy clouds scurried away and the sky turned pretty blue by the time I reached Old City to try out some Kurbani ka Meetha, Chicken Shorma and Seekh Kebabs (with naan bread, chutney and spinach).
On my way back in the evening, the fat, grey clouds were back - promising more rainfall into the night. Sometimes when I try to imagine the weight and mass of water that these clouds carry around and the raindrops that fall out eventually, I can’t help but wonder how it would be if I were a raindrop. I think that if I were one of those raindrops, I could feel the plummet from that heavenly height, and experience the thrill in my vulnerable heart. Throughout the last few weeks, the said rain gods have volleyed down thick raindrops the size of a marble, as they hit ground. Oftentimes, bolts of lightning would streak across the horizon, originating from a central branch in the sky. It’s been happening all so frequently that I wonder about the possibility that there is a giant machine in the sky sending out sentinels on some mission of search and destroy over our planet.
But I digress.
A non-discriminating hush descended over the land as I sped back through Taramati Baradari and Qutub Shahi Tombs on my way back home. Non-discriminating, because, the first one is a place of dance and music and culture, and the other one a place of resting for the Qutub Shahi Sultans. My transience through the empty streets felt like I was being ushered, in that moment in time, to ride my dreams bareback. To lift my soul and float through the skies. I turned a vagabond corner to see a clean black patch of sky in the east sky.
In it, a quarter Moon. Red Moon. Behind the illuminated green Minaret of a Mosque.
And, voila. The third lucky streak.
BUT. Argh! I did not have a camera this time either.
Oh, the beauty of it! I will reminiscence about it for a long while.
I stopped under an archway of branches near the Mosque to feel the tranquillity. There was a chill in the wind. In a little while, shades of grey began to melt away and a darker darkness descended beside me. The moon disappeared. Howling wind threatened me with an unknown, powerful force. Currents of wind soared over the nearby rooftops and under the trees. Dry leaves, dirt and polythene which were until now lying in random fashion everywhere began to float around with the wind, sometimes in the fascinating shape of a twister. Just a moment ago, things were so ordinary, so in their place. And a minute later there was awe. And then, all of the littered consciousness being swept away.
I wondered if I could look inside and bring out the 6 year old me to look all around. I wanted to take his hand and ask him if he still saw what he used to back then in the childhood of early 90’s. Did he still see a silhouette, a shadow - hovering, lurking everywhere? I searched for him in the background and found that that ME was safely tucked away long ago. The air all around seemed to tell me – that 6 year old me could never have imagined all that there is to this world that I would discover. It was too big for me to understand, all of it, back then.
And it still is.
Over the last few years, I have found out that I can accept and love all that I see, and wait to discover all that is unseen - with fervent anticipation. My consciousness dances around a million thoughts like these over a giant grey cloud inside my brain. I started to make my way back to the deserted house. Just a few months ago it was full of people - and their stories from Dehra Dun, Noida, Delhi, Mumbai, Dharwad, Hubli, Goa, Trivandrum, Chennai, and Bangalore. Just a few months ago I would wake up and go to the school to pick up Doc’s daughter, little baby Sahiti, and skip with her all the way back to our place. She in her pretty green frock, yellow shoes and white hair band -- going ‘enduku?’ everytime I failed to match her step.
Now, as I reach home, there is just me looking forward to listen to bands like A Perfect Circle/ P.O.D/ Radiohead into the night. To take my mind away from and to take it towards things.
Things that I have been chasing all my life.
Yes. It is time to dream, once again. Dreaming about a field of yellow sunflowers and purple brinjals by the white ocean that I will be back to - on a Yamaha, in a very short while.
In Mumbai.
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