Emerald Nights

10 Oct 2020

Starry nights were a special treat growing up.

The Southern Cross was a wonderful sight as I pedaled my bicycle from home to the early morning practices for The Republic Day Parade at Kailasapuram Township. The cold air, made colder by the passing air, heightened the senses.

The naked rooftop of Emerald had a special attraction. A wonderful and rare star atlas was on permanent loan to me from the REC Library. Still in my dhoti, I often packed a little torchlight and the star atlas and climbed the ladder on the side of the building with easy access from our wing to reach the top.

Lying down comfortably, the summer zephyr caressed the skin. The mind wandered contemplating the cosmos and my place in it. Semester exams seemed rather trivial. That was exactly my medicine.

The escapism had other pleasures. I always centered by attention on The Orion, then Sirius and moved right to Auriga etc. They were my friends.

The Southern Cross is never visible in California. Or Europe for that matter. Backpacking in Senegal I tried to catch a glimpse. I got to the top of the hostel where we statyed with my buddy Guru. The soothing incessant sounds of the waves was beautiful audio backdtop. But unbelievably I had to contend with light pollution at night. This all changed when I caught a gorgeous view of the Southern Cross with the Rajagopuram of Srirangam later. I even caught the silhouette of a coconut tree to make it interesting.

All these memories came rushing as I came across a wonderful reading of poetry on my twitter feed courtesy of Maria Popova of brainpickings. Rebecca Elson was an astronomer and poet who succumbed to Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, but not before she wrote the poem, “Antidotes to fear of death”. This video is a trailer of sorts to Universe in Verse by Jenna Levin. It is also an artistic remix of poetry, astronomy, and cello. I love Jenna’s brief discussion of the subjective and objective realities. I’ve had much occasion to ponder that. That’s for another day.

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Enjoy!

🙏🏾

Ranga