The Starry Night

Antariksh's stare moved towards the sky. Bestowed with millions of shining stars, the sky seemed pretty, as if emitting small shining balls of light, in between the darkness. The darkness, which would have had otherwise engulfed the whole sky into a permanent state of nothingness, into some eerie sense of blankness, as if nothing else exists, ever. He noticed a star, twinkling. What was it, he wondered. Why did it twinkle? His six-year-old brain could not decipher the reason behind that. He kept staring into the vastness of the sky, as a gentle layer of breeze caressed his face, making the sweat beads that had formed on his foreheads disappear momentarily.

As the winds started gaining momentum, Alizeh's hairs started ruffling across her face, as a result of which, blinding her from staring in the sky. She didn't make any effort to caress them back behind her ears, she kept laying down in the grass, waiting for the wind to subside. One part of her brain was lost in a song that entered her through an earphone connected to one of her ears, whilst the other part of her brain listened to the winds and tried to decipher what it tried to say.

Antariksh's eyes kept track of that twinkling star. It seemed to glow brighter every passing minute. What is wrong with it? Or is it his mistake? Is that star really his grandma? As Mom had explained? That Grandma is now a star! Is she trying to contact him by shining brightly? Should he wave at her now? He suddenly got excited and stood up. The winds had picked up speed, and the sky, all of a sudden started turning black. The stars seemed to vanish, as some layers of black clouds came, layering the skyline with blackness. Antariksh knew he had little time before the shining star would permanently disappear behind the clouds. He ran a bit towards the star, but then realized it is too far. He has to wave from here, hoping Grandma sees his wave.

Alizeh switched off her song and wondered. She wondered about Vaayu. What she needed now was a calm, composed wind in the form of Vaayu, which would neutralize her tension-laden mind. But that was not possible. There is no Vaayu, with her, now or ever. When she was young, mom had explained, in the end, all of us turn into stars in the sky. And there is this strikingly bright star today, shedding so much more light than the others. She smiled to herself for thinking it to be Vaayu, waving at her. Some say, when looking at stars, we are actually looking into the past. Many of the stars we see at night have actually died. Who knows.

Antariksh could no longer wait. He stood up and waved, with both of his hands up, in the sky, frantically trying to make the shining star who could be his grandma, understand that it was him, Antariksh, waving at her from down below. Would she know it is him? He, again, fell into a labyrinth of thoughts, as the rain-laden clouds covered up the sky completely. The winds had increased further, as thunderclaps could be heard in the distance.

Antariksh kept waving until that particular star got covered fully. He now noticed Mom, too, waving at the star, was she waving at the same star as he did? Or was it some other ones? He knew she must be waving to Dad.

They smiled at each other and got up. Antariksh buried his head in his mother's lap as they rode back home, he did not like the thunderclaps. Alizeh kept caressing his head, he knew his mom has his back. He hoped to return back tomorrow, again, to wave back at grandma. He looked up at his Mom, she smiled and kissed his forehead, and he smiled back and landed a kiss on her cheeks.

With the cab meandering through the evening streets, bustling with people around, and Antariksh's head on her lap, she opened the book that was gifted by Vaayu. It still had his scribblings and that discoloured and dry piece of marigold. It was supposed to be kept inside books after the ceremony of a hindu goddess, Saraswati, who's also the goddess of knowledge. She never removed it.

Maybe the pages, the words still managed to keep that touch of his. Maybe when she touches it now and then, she could feel his presence through that marigold flower. Maybe some days, when she takes her nose near to the flower, she could still feel the smell emanating from the flower. Like today. Her eyeballs moved through the row of houses passing them by. The cab was filled with the smell of marigolds. She smiled.

***