Moonday

Not quite, but close. It was a day when a couple of my friends noticed the magnificence rising up over the Eastern horizon in the evening.

Yesterday was full moon. I noticed it when I walked out to meet Jay and his friends for dinner. The air was clear and the moon looked spectacular. Yet, it is today that I’m thinking about how it looked and why it matters how it looks.

Looking out into the night sky and being at awe, even in the most polluted cities around the world, must be one of the last consistent worldwide sources of grounding and inspiration at the same time.

To me, it usually sparks to joy of photography, which in my case is pretty amateur. Twice or thrice every year, I set up my astronomy binoculars and try to take an image of the magnified moon using my smart camera.

It has move up from there, hasn’t it? A proper telescope and a DSLR. I can dream at least.

In other forms of creativity, no drawing/sketching today. Maybe I’ll work on a song after I finish this.

Meanwhile, I am caught in the middle of three literary narratives. Peter Watt’s Blindsight is the most gripping one, followed by Hanya Yanigahara’s To Paradise and James S. A. Corey’s Tiamat’s Wrath. And I already have my eyes on a bunch of others, including Midnight’s Children and Victory City by Salman Rushdie.

The Relative Insignficance Of Everything

Go to a relatively non-urbanized location. If you are in India and you are reading this, you are likely to be in a city, which would approximately be about 50 km from the ideal location for this. Between 9 pm and 4 am, go to an clearing -- a huge lawn, a playground, a football ground, etc. Go to it's center. Lie down on your back. Stare up. At the sky. Look at the stars, planets, and other celestial objects. Now, imagine this. You are lying on the surface of a miniscule lump of rock, with approximately 30% of the universe in your field of vision.

The sheer vastness of the universe vs. the relative insignicance of the planet, the continent, the country, the state, the region, the locality, and you.

The easiest way to recalibrate your brain. Ever.