Tag Archives: earth

Quarantine Musings #14

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2 am in a city, during lockdown, feels completely out of place. Except for the sound of crickets and frogs, I can now hear absolutely nothing.

Mumbai – fondly called as the city which never sleeps; is now sleeping. It feels that not just the people residing here, but the city in itself is suffering from the disease. I hope she heals well and wakes up sooner from her nap. People are waiting for her to heal, the railways are waiting, the airplanes, the local businesses, the big multinational companies; everyone is counting on her.

On another occasion, it would have felt way better- to experience the silence within a city, the calmness and the fresh air to breath. But under the current crisis, it just doesn’t feel good.

Get well soon, Aamchi Mumbai (literally, ‘Our Mumbai’). And also, get well soon, Mother Earth.

— Suri

What are Quarantine Musings? Just some random, trivial, light-hearted (or maybe even deep?) thoughts that pass through my mind during these lockdown days.

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Let’s Talk Astronomy Tonight!- Part 1

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I’ve always enjoyed looking up and gazing at the sky, be it the day or the night sky. During my childhood days, I lived in the suburbs of Mumbai, where there was less light pollution than in the cities. And that meant clearer skies.

We lived in a bungalow, so I had the entire terrace to myself. I used to lie down and gaze into the night sky with my pet dog for company (Remember Sweety? I’ll link up the posts related to her here, if you want to know more about her: https://twinklespark.wordpress.com/category/dog-days/ ). I remember one day my mom told me about a meteor shower that was about to occur the next night. She read about it in a newspaper. I was so excited and couldn’t wait! When the time had come, I went up to the terrace, spread the mattress in its usual spot, lied down and waited. Nothing. My mom joined me after a while. After sometime she pointed at a shooting star, I missed it. She pointed at another one in a few minutes, this time I saw something pass by from the corner of my eye, but only a glimpse. There was nothing for a long time after that. Just as we were about to get up, I spotted a shooting star! Ah, I was so happy! That was the first time I had clearly noticed a shooting star. I was about 7 or 8. I remember how I was glad to have seen a shooting star, but dejected to (apparently) not having seen a meteor shower after waiting for so long! Maybe we were looking in the wrong direction? Or maybe I had imagined so much more- I used to think meteor showers were more like a visible, horrific attack of meteors and asteroids on the Earth!

When I was a little older, say 10 or so, there was news about how a crescent moon, Jupiter and one other planet I don’t remember which now (possibly Mars?), would be so close to each other and in such a pattern that these three together would be resembling a ‘smiling face’. I did observe it and grew so fascinated by this marvel of universe that I asked my mom to call up my cousin so that he could watch it too, from some other part of the city.

When I was 12, my parents got me an Encyclopaedia and I remember jumping directly to the Astronomy section first, reading and gulping down everything I could and then moving onto the other sections.

These were some of the earlier days about how I got interested in the study of astronomy. I’m planning to post my experiences related to this field in a form of a series. Would you like that, or do you prefer some other way? Do let me know.

Do you like gazing into the sky? Does the workings of the universe fascinate you as well?

-Suri

P.S.: I crossed 1k followers on this blog last month, yayy!! Thank you so much for the love, you guys! I know I had been really inactive past couple of months, but I’ll try and make up for it!

Strange Strangers

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[Image source: Google]

Strangers are so strange. Each day, we meet a new one. And each day, we forget an older one. Some of these stay in our lives for a very short duration, like a few days, or maybe a few hours or just a quick glance of an eye. While there are others, who ought to be in our lives a little longer. Maybe a year or two?

Be they with us for a short time or long; for just a glance or a stare; for the Earth’s rotation around itself or it’s revolution around the Sun; you ought to believe that, Strangers-teach-us-useful-Life-Lessons!!

Accept it or not, strangers give us their most honest opinion on almost every other thing. “They have nothing to lose”, you might say. True. You’re absolutely right. But once you’ve been slapped on your face (not literally!), won’t you rethink upon what went wrong and then improve yourself? Or would you rather prefer the fake encouragements of your so-called friends (no offense) and be satisfied? Left without any scope for improvement..?

Anyways, what I want to say here is that, yes, strangers can be rude or they could be kind; but we should all be glad for they exist. They have been sent into our lives by God to teach us a lesson. An important one.

Doesn’t it make your day, when, after a long, hectic day at work, you receive a sweet, kind smile from an eight year old  – a stranger – on your way back home?

     A smile is a very powerful tool. It speaks a thousand words. This gesture, as small as a smile, is capable of lifting off the burden of the entire world – which we carry around, on our shoulders – within seconds. Suddenly, the words, Humanity, Kindness, Honesty cross your mind. You may think it was just another stranger… but wasn’t that feeling great? At that very instant, you start reconsidering your life. You start thinking about the actual purpose of your life (which maybe you haven’t thought about so deeply, for like the past so many busy years) , your needs, your luxuries and so on and on….. until…….

“HELLOOOOO…!!! ARE-YOU-THERE..??” …Until you hear these words. At first, you think you went unconscious for a while, but by then you feel everything is shaking!! Wait. What? Oh nooo!!! YOU-ARE-ABOUT-TO-FALL-DOWN AND LO! “AM I TALKING TO A WALL??!” Suddenly your eyes fall upon the confused face of your friend and you realize SHE was the source of those loud words and the shaking. You realize that you had been so engrossed with the strangers’ thoughts that you couldn’t hear even a single word of your friend’s constant blabbering!

Sometimes, a stranger makes you think even more deeply, than a friend does…

A few strangers enter your life to become friends. Others, come in as a stranger, become acquainted, become friends.. but eventually leave as a stranger. It’s life. You can’t stop anyone from leaving. But, make sure, you cherish the good, old memories you’ve had with them. *wink*

To all the strangers in my life- I’m glad that you all exist. I hope you are too… 🙂

– Suri