Ode to the Moon

We tried touching the moon!

It is this ethereal feeling that makes India’s giant leap even more brilliant! We as a nation have the most number of couplets(sher), poems, songs, stories and dreams involving this celestial body, and our attempt at kissing its surface and levelling all our romantic and fantastic visions and notions, has been exemplary. It was a heartbreaking moment though when the moon lander stopped responding… just a hair’s breadth away from the moon… but are we complaining!?!

Its just 72 years as a free nation for my country India, which continued to be steeped in poverty, debt and regressive treatment by the world community, yet it could take on the risky task of de-mystifying and de-mythifying our dear Chanda Maama( Mr Moon my maternal uncle, of the whole country’s in fact 😍)

So many customs, rituals, and above all, lovely songs come to mind when you think of the moon… lovers’ comparisons, beau’s complaints, the divine glow, wanton personification and longings!Our life is replete with Moon in some form or the other…Just a mention:

• Chaand( moon)
• Chaandni( moonlight),
• Chanda(the feminine form of the moon),
• Chaandbali( moon shaped earrings),
• Chaandraat( the auspicious new moon on the eve of Eid ul fitr)
• Karwachauth( an austere abstinence from food and water by devoted wives for the long life of their husbands which culminates with the sighting of the moon on the fourth day of its waning ),
• Dooj ka Chaand– the second day new moon- a slender crescent, hence rarely seen
• Chaudvi ka Chaand– the fourteenth day moon, hence near perfect!
• Chandragrahan– lunar eclipse, and the rituals associated with it.

And now, for some amazing ones in English😁:

• Mooning– behave aimlessly
• Moonshine– illicitly distilled liquor
• Moonstruck– abnormal behaviour due to being in love
• Moonwalk– a stylized Dance move invented by the late Michael Jackson
• Moon around– moving around without clear purpose
• Lunatic– affected with periodic insanity,dependent on the cycle of the moon.
• Moonstone– A luminous gemstone believed to strengthen the soul, when worn on prescription.

What else comes to your mind?

Wish my grandmother was alive! How can I ever forget the beautiful bedtime stories of my summer vacations, lying beneath the stars on moonlit nights, all her stories revolving around her fascination with the celestial bodies!

NB: ( hum along these Hindi numbers as the thought of the moon lingers)

• Chaand fir nikla, magar tum na aaye
• Ye chaand khila ye taare hasey
• Chaand ko kya maloom chahta hai usey koi chakor
• Chaudvi ka chaand ho ya aaftaab ho
• Chaand sifarish jo karta humari
• Chaand mera dil, chaandni ho tum
• Chandini,tu meri Chandini
• Chanda re chanda re kabhi tho zameen pe aa
• Tum aaye tho aaya mujhe yaad,gali mey aaj chaand nikla…