Moony musings

None can forget those evergreen childhood days when our mothers would point at the moon in a night sky and recite 'chandakki mama, chakkuli maama' to us. During the lunar eclipse, we would be sad imagining the agony of our favourite 'chanda mama' whenever we were told that our dear mama was in the process of being swallowed by the demons Rahu and Ketu.

I wonder why such weird versions, with no prejudice to the age-old traditional belief, were given, especially to children, when it was known that lunar eclipse was nothing but the passing shadow of the earth on the moon.

I fondly recollect our days in 'shishu vihara', when the teacher would ask us why we liked the moon more than the sun, and our artless reply would be that while the sun gave light in the day, which was brightly lit already, poor dear moon gave us the much-needed light at night.

During Ganesha Chaturthi, we were warned by our elders against seeing the moon to avoid incurring the wrath of the lord, whom the poor innocent moon had inadvertently antagonised. But true to the saying that the forbidden fruit is always tastier, we could not resist the temptation of sneaking furtive glances at our silvery white 'maama'. Fortunately, none of us suffered in any manner as feared. Maybe Lord Vinayaka was indulgent towards us children.

There are only a few things in this universe which can be compared to the celestial charm of the serene moonlit night, which reminds us of peace, tranquillity and romance.

It is believed that every element of creation has a definite purpose and this magic of moonlight is perhaps the message Mother Nature is conveying to humanity to inspire us to defeat the evils of hatred, violence and cruelty which are darkening the otherwise radiant face of our planet.

It is rather intriguing why the moon, the only natural satellite of our planet, is referred to as “he” in our country, while it is “she” in several other countries. The moon may have different significance to people of different religions, but for the moon-struck lover, who swears to bring the moon down and offer it to his beloved, though it doesn’t actually belong to him, the concept of this precious gift remains the same all over the world.

Likewise, the term "honeymoon" signifies the most cherished and memorable phase of human life ever since mankind found honey on earth.

Poets vie with one another to describe beautiful women as ‘chandramukhi’ and the like, but now that man has landed on the moon and explored its surface replete with craters, it is difficult to guess how many charming ones would happily accept this compliment.