“If people sat and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live
a lot differently.” – Bill Watterson, author of Calvin and Hobbes
There was once a little boy, Aneesh, who loved reading
books. He read adventures, comics, novels, mysteries and particularly loved
books about outer space and aliens. He had read all about constellations and
shooting stars, comets and meteorites and about planets and the intelligent
life that was believed to exist on planets other than earth. But when he looked
up at the night sky from the terrace of his home in Delhi, all he saw was a few
fuzzy stars and on a good day, the moon. Aneesh didn’t realize that this
was due to the Light Pollution in the city.
So he had lost interest in looking up at the sky and instead spent
time indoors watching movies and playing video games that let him experience
outer space vicariously.
His uncle, Bhupen, was an avid outdoor camper. He loved the
outdoors and would often go for camping
trips. He would often ask Aneesh to join him, but Aneesh would never be
too interested. He found it hard to understand why anyone would want to live
without electricity, a proper toilet facility and a comfortable bed to sleep on. This
summer, Uncle Bhupen had planned a trip to Mount Saraswati in south-eastern Ladhak. It was a very remote place and particularly interested Aneesh
because he had recently read of a UFO (Unidentified Flying object) siting around that area. Aneesh therefore, decided
to let go of his comfortable room and bed for once and go there with Uncle Bhupen. They went part of the way by flight and then
decided to drive up.
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| Ladhak |
The way en-route was breathtaking, but it had become night
by the time they reached Mt. Saraswati and Aneesh had fallen asleep leaning
against the car window.
As they reached the mountain top, Uncle Bhupen got out of
the car and immediately called out to Aneesh to come outside. Seeing the
foggy, frozen car window, Aneesh was reluctant, and got out complaining of the
cold. “Why did we have to come so far uncle? It’s freezing out here!” His uncle
smiled and pointed upwards with his finger – “Just look up for a minute.” As
Aneesh turned his head upwards, he couldn’t control a gasp. He could not
believe what he stood under- as though under a million, billion stars!
He stood
there silent, almost breathless! He couldn’t even imagine that the sky could be
filled with so many stars.
That night his uncle put up a tent which had a transparent
cover top so Aneesh could lie down and see the sky the entire night. Aneesh lay
awake half the night spotting all the constellations (click here for a game to learn about constellations) he had read about, watching
shooting stars run across the sky and was even witness to a
meteorite shower. No video game, no book he had read could ever
have prepared him for this very real experience! Lost in this very real outer
space, Aneesh’s eyes shut down after a few hours as he slept peacefully under
the star studded sky.
Seeing Aneesh’s keen love for outer space, Uncle Bhupen took
Aneesh to the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, a few
kms from where they were camping the next day. It was a centre that had been recently set up by the Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore.
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| Indian Astronomical Observatory, Hanle |
Aneesh got to see a real
telescope there and learn more about what was done in an astronomical
observatory. He even learnt to make a home-made telescope from his uncle!
As Aneesh was on his way back to Delhi a few days later, he was a changed boy. He had discovered a world he had never known really existed. He now wanted to observe, learn and know more about it by coming away from the city where there were darker skies and less light pollution. His make believe world of video games and books
was fun, but now that he had seen the real thing, there was no turning
back!
Something for you -
Have you spent some time watching the night sky lately? If you haven’t, we recommend you take a drive to a place where city lights are less and spend some time star gazing. You never know what insights the universe may offer you! We'd love you to share your experience with us.....
