Its a beautiful world - if only we pause to see the beauty around us!

This was sometime back, but finally I found the time and will to shake off the laziness clinging to me like a dhoti during a thundershower, and finally get on with updating this blog! This was in the good old days when I was leading an 8 to 8 life due to project work.

On one of those glorious full moon nights, as I was commuting back from the project work in my favorite (yes, had travelled so much by bus that I even had favorites!) bus, the local power authorities found it worth their while to suddenly cut off the power with no prior warning. Or there might have been one in the day's newspaper which I had failed to read!

Anywayz, it seemed like half the city was blacked out, as the second half of my journey was spent with the lighting provided by the vehicles and mostly the moon. On a nice long straight stretch, I got a chance to view the full moon in all its glory in a clear sky. All my suppressed awe of nature came roaring back with that sight!

What a beautiful spectacle! And how I envy the folks residing in villages and suburban areas for they get this lovely spectacle on a daily basis, while poor me in the heart of the city needs a blackout to enjoy the same!

Memories of star-gazing during my sojourn to Mumbai & Pune for the Astronomy Olympiad came rushing back. Those all-night vigils in perfect conditions - dust-free and cloudless skies and free from light pollution.... Helping and being helped by friends to locate stars/constellations/galaxies -- yes, some galaxies are visible to the naked eye -- and the exhiliration of having got the chance to see nature in its virgin glory without the handiwork of humankind coming in the picture anywhere!

Those brief moments were when I reconnected with nature at its best, and was swept off my feet with the simple, yet so amazing beauty! As I was soaking up that grand view, abruptly it was cut off by a turn the bus took, and within a few minutes, I was back home.... Back to the harsh reality of flourescent lights. Ah, what a contrast - the soothing moonlight and the glaring man-made lighting..... Sometimes I wonder if humankind has really "progressed" from the centuries of old.....

And a pic from a couple of days back --- though the sky is little cloudy, its any day so beautiful!