Moon

The moon has always intrigued me especially when it is a full moon; it is as though there is some magnetic power which pulls me to it. Whenever there is a full moon I would be found lurking in the terrace for hours just gazing at the moon. During my childhood days in Kerala on days of full moon I used to slip out to the terrace during midnight just to gaze at the moon. There is a mystic power attached to the moon which just mesmerizes those who gaze at it and you never get tired of gazing at the moon. The time just flies when you admire the beauty of it.
The most wonderful spectacle is to see the light of the moon getting dispersed in the thin veil of cloud that passes it. It is magical and heavenly and a treat to the eyes, something which you would never forget. I was lucky enough to see this on Christmas Eve I was at my Dads ancestral home which is on top of a mountain and the moon looks bigger from this altitude. And I guess there was a thin veil of cloud because the sky above suddenly had four or five big rings around the moon and it was supernatural. A spectacle which cannot be explained in words and cannot be replicated by man thus reaffirming the fact there is a greater power up there who knows to make all things beautiful for his people.
Moon has been something on which writer and poet have written lots about and it is like a mystery which we all want to know about. All around the world people have different stories attached to the moon. In the Chinese mythology it said that there is a white hare living on the moon according to the Hindu mythology the moon is a store house of elixir from which the Gods drink thereby leading to the phasing of the moon. Many more myths are attached to the moon from the different cultures across the world showing that moon has been intriguing mankind from ancient times.

Circus...Play of Poverty

On the insistence of my friends I agreed to watch the circus which was running in the grounds near to where we stay. I have been to the circus when I was a kid and I have not enjoyed the act then as well.

Because of the ban imposed by Maneka Gandhi on the use animals in circus the whole of the acts for two and a half hour is put up by humans since there is no activist who speaks for this species yet. The only animals that were used in the act were dogs, horses canary and elephants. What I felt most depressing is the fact that almost 90 to 95% of the acts are done by young girls who are barely 18. And many of the daring stunts which usually get our hearts thumping hard into our chest are done with little or no precautionary measures. And what do these girls get in return for the work that they do very minimal I should guess and I am sure they do get lots of harsh words and severe beating if nothing else.

This act made me wonder in India there is a law against child labor. Would these innocent girls be covered under this law?

The lives of these girls are really pathetic these girls go on touring with the circus and hence not getting the opportunity to study. Even if they want to do something else in life they won’t be able to do anything decent as they know nothing more that these acts that they learned in here. The life of the people who work in circus is a virtual circle as I see it those who are part of the circus troupe more or less marry within the troupe and their children in turn become part of the act put up by the troupe and this circle goes on and on. What is most depressing is the poverty that can be seen and felt when we go to the circus the condition of the humans and animals are pitiable the props they use are old, the dresses that they have to wear is dismal all in all there is very sad feel to the whole act and atmosphere.

A very depressed me was what got out from the circus feeling sad and useless of not being able to do anything to better the condition of these girls and these people in whole.

Mother Nature

The marvels of Mother Nature show the handiwork of God the Almighty. When the last rays of the setting sun peeps in through the cloud cover it is a spectacle which shows the great hands of God at work. When these rays fall onto the still water there is twilight like mystical effect that is seen. Everything in nature is original, innovative, breath taking and a treat to the eye. Mother Nature is the original innovator in the universe and what man can do is to only replicate what we see in nature.

The best thing about nature is that it is a treat to the senses that is the eyes, ears, nose so on. If we are atop a cloud touching mountain peak the feel that we have when we are there is unique as we are enveloped by the mist on all sides and we won’t be able to see the person right next to us. I was fortunate enough to have experienced this when we went atop Rajamalai which is home to the Nilgiri Tahr near Munnar in Kerala. Just after climbing atop mist started descending on us and what we could do was to wait for the mist to lift and go. Truly speaking it is an experience of a life time a feel which is never going to be forgotten till I die.

Another spectacle of Mother Nature was seen when I visited Yercaud which is a hill station near to Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. Here what I saw was play of sunlight through the clouds on the Coimbatore town that is spread down as a valley below the peaks of Yercaud. The day we visited there were bits of rain cloud and the scene of the sunlight streaming through the small gaps in these rain clouds cannot be explained in words.

I have always felt that beautiful spectacles like these can never be captured by any camera or video and can never be replicated. Also if we don’t see these at those specific moments of time we wont be able to see it again because changes in nature happen very fast what we see one moment might not be there the next moment as the effect of light and the wind changes within minutes or rather seconds.

But today we are too busy to enjoy and see this marvels we have to take a vacation to some hill station to see these spectacles. For this I envy my grandparents who are lucky enough to see this every day of their life. My Dads ancestral home where my grandparents live is atop a mountain and the front view we have is the neighboring mountains. It is a vision to see the mountains to be hidden by mist which looks as though the cloud has come down and enveloped the mountain when there is heavy rain and how that lifts up after the rain is over. On the other hand my Moms ancestral home has another kind of natural beauty to it. They have paddy fields and streams in the backyard and the number of various birds and small animals that you can spot here is countless. There is calmness which is experienced by me when I go to both my grandparent’s place which just soothes the mind and relieve me of all the stress that I have. The greenery that is seen here is more than enough to relieve us of any stress that we have