Remembering those nights of star gazing

My grandson, a student of Class 12, went for a school trip to Jim Corbett Park. He is a person who likes his own company though he seems to enjoy his outings with friends, too. When he announced his decision to go for the trip, we were pleasantly surprised. He had earlier declined to go, maybe he realised that this was the last trip which he could enjoy with his school friends.

When he came back, we all asked the same questions, “How was it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most?” His reply with wonder in his tone and awe in his eyes was, “I saw stars, so many of them!” Apparently, in the evening when his friends were dancing and partying and doing all things that children on the brink of adulthood do, he went and sat outside, away from the din, under the sky. When he looked up, he was bewildered to see the whole sky carpeted with stars, something people in urban areas amid bright lights and the haze have not noticed.

Months later, he still talks about the stars with the same emotion. I guess that night he came very close to nature and the universe and all that is profound, probably in embryonic measure realised the truth in the saying, “In every walk with nature, one receives much more than one seeks.”

I was then reminded of the summer nights when we used to sleep on the roof now two generations ago. To describe that time as fun would be a gross understatement. In fact, it evades description or elucidation. The time before everyone dozed off was of happy banter, as we swapped notes about the day’s events and how we dealt with them and how we felt about them. We would look above at the awning of stars and weave tales around the constellations and the Milky Way, observed how the stars shifted position at different times of the night, while the gentle breeze caressed us to sleep.

With the advent of technology, the world is much advanced now and moving at a fast pace, add to that the growth in the population resulting in a burst of concrete structures, vehicles, noise, air pollution and of course mosquitoes, it is impossible to envisage sleeping anywhere but indoors, at least for urban dwellers. If and when

I try talking to the younger generation about our way of life then and how much richer those good times made life for us, I can see the disinterest in their stance, evidently they cannot relate to it at all.

Change, like the two sides of the coin, comes with pleasant and not so pleasant aspects and I am sure the present generation will also have similar tales to narrate to their progeny and will be experiencing the same blasé reactions. Thus move the wheels of time, bringing within its ambit memories which might bring a smile or a frown.

HE WAS BEWILDERED TO SEE THE WHOLE SKY CARPETED WITH STARS, SOMETHING WE IN URBAN AREAS AMID BRIGHT LIGHTS AND HAZE HAVEN’T NOTICED