THE MOONRISE

The worst part of staying in big cities like Bangalore is that you always stand to miss the sweet and simple beauties of nature. For most of us it has been really long since we last saw the sunset .. the western sky all ablaze with the last golden rays of the sun….yes, it has been long since we watched the night sky ornate with thousands of stars. Mostly we do not have the time or the mood to watch these all and even if we do have both…..there is this pollution and the skyscrapers blocking our vision. But that Sunday evening for me was indeed very special….I was lucky enough to see the full moon rise.
My nephew has rented an apartment in BTM just opposite to the madiwala lake and the view from the balcony is very very beautiful. It was more so that day with the full moon rising against the backdrop of the evening sky and the lake waters sparkling beneath.
People since ages have enjoyed the beauty of the sunrise…….even I, when at Silchar, have seen and enjoyed many sunrises……the riot of colours in the east , brilliant tinges of orange scattered all across the sky….the red sun rising slowly above the horizon..it is all so very gorgeous. But that evening as I saw the moon, I felt that the moonrise has a divine beauty of its own which the much hyped and lauded sunrise can never match. The moon , closer to the horizon, was looking bigger than its usual size…much like a glowing disc..it was not white but more towards a very light shade of orange. The evening sky..not yet completely dark looked very calm…very serene and the young moon added to its beauty. Now I realized why all the poets across ages have so much been in love with the moon…why so much has been written and said on the moon……..why moon has always been linked to romanticism. I kept gazing at the moon which was crawling up slowly and steadily…..at the same time I wondered how man could manage to set his foot on the moon..I pictured that the Chandrayaan recently launched by India…made by our very own scientists is orbiting there somewhere very close to this beautiful moon. I stood there for a while gazing at the moon and much like Wordsworth’s “Daffodils” the pictures of the moonrise I carry in my heart is a lifetime treasure and indeed a “bliss of solitude”.