The Memories of Small Things

Reading Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things didn't make me distinguish between the Big God and the Little God. Rahel and Estha didn't touch me as much as Amir and Hasan in the Kite Runner did. Bt it all sure brought the memories of small things that they discuss as kids.

One particularly vivid memory is of the moon. The shinning full moon. On those long bus rides to Goa and back...that yearly trip to my native place...when every1 slept at night it kept me company. It travelled with me wherever the bus went and was always there large and luminous in the sky like a huge lamp. In later years of life I grew up to connect it with every aspect of my life.

Like the fact that it walks with u wherever u go and always at ur speed. My head tells me science has an explanation...my heart says its there to listen to u and be with u whenever u want. A friend for the friendless. Like the fact that you can reach higher and higher and try to touch it...it just seems a little farther each time. One such clear night I remember climbing on the water tank of the building terrace to try and touch the moon and failed...thats wat most of us do with life and careers...we climb higher and higher to touch the moon...not knowing its best admired and liked if u sit on the ground and stare peacefully at it.

Then theres tht deer on it...that granny said jumped so high it reached the moon...sometimes its covered by the earth's shadow, sometimes by your hand. Thats how i played hide-and-seek with the deer during the bus rides, covering it with my hand then peeking at it between fingers..Peek a Boo!

Oh and the moon's everywhere...its on the way to Neverland, my fav vacation spot for thats where dreams come true and u stay young forever. Its what Lord Ram wanted as bribe to hav supper one evening and what his dad got him. Ofcourse what even the Lord got was a reflection in a mirror! Its that pebble in the sky where R. Daneel Olivaw stayed. Its what Lupin fears and Dumbledore's put-outer orbs resemble! Forget myth...its in current affairs too, as being symbolic of that first step that advanced civilization and mankind.

For me it represents a person...a person with a mysterious personality that changes everyday. Sometimes it is round happy and full like Moonface in the Faraway Tree and sometimes its sullen and sunken in crescent. At times its a moody and irate and refuses to show itself and at other times its winking between clouds and spilling with moonbeamish laughter. On some days called the lunar eclipse it slowly recedes in dignified exit and then returns in skipping light!

Yes its a person that taught me to hold my head high, to aim further and higher..."citius altius fortius" they call it. A person that makes me smile when unhappy and soothes me when nervous or excited. A person that lends light literally and otherwise to dark nights and makes them silvery and romantic. A person who continues its endless voyage around the Earth...a voyage that involves only giving...giving light, a field for science and a platform for hopes and dreams... a voyage that tells u to do your work and not expect anything back.

A pebble in the sky they call it...an insignificant speck in the Universe...barren and useless. To me its Luna...the lady with oodles of savoir faire...the Shiny One!