Sunday, May 20, 2012

Stars

Stars have fascinated humans since the dawn of our evolution. Stars have been used by sailors to navigate their way around the mighty oceans, by the Mayan Civilization to map out a calender for the next few millenia, by numerous astrologers to predict the unforeseen and also by astronomers who have studied them and sent satellites to capture breathtaking glimpses of galaxies many light years away. They have stirred imaginations to pen stories about them, had the roots of mythologies circle around their constellations and made ordinary people gawk in wonder at their extraordinary beauty.



I am one of the people who have always been enchanted by their surreal beauty and luminescent magnificence. As a little child I would run to the roof terrace of our house and just stare in awe at the stars. I used to feel that stars were glimpses of heaven and hence God. I was quite a bookworm when I was young, so read the different stories of Greek and Roman mythology as early as fourth grade. I learned all the constellations of the stars and even figured out how to identify different stars in the night sky under the blind eye.

I was so fascinated with stars in my childhood that I even asked my dad to get me a telescope for my birthday. However I think I was probably too young and telescopes must be expensive and technical so my dad practically got me something else as a nice present. I still want to get a telescope one day, though considering I live in the middle of the city, it won't be of much use unless I travel to relatively more remote areas where the street lights don't brighten the night like the day. One day inshAllah (God willing).

My favorite memories of stars have to be from a trip I took with LUMS Adventure Society (my university's adventure society) to Hunza in Pakistan. Hunza lies in the majestic himalayan mountains of Pakistan. Due to the high altitude and lack of lighting there, during the night time the stars appear as if they are huge bulbs hanging from the sky. I was so 'star struck', pun intended, that the first night there whilst we were walking over a hilly area, I just kept looking up in awe, with friends nudging me to concentrate on the rough walk instead. I have never seen stars like that, it was as if God had lifted us up to the heavens.

Mortal as I am, I know that I am born for a day. But when I follow at my pleasure the serried multitude of the stars in their circular course, my feet no longer touch the earth.Ptolemy.

I still believe stars are one of the wonders of life, God's master strokes in his universal painting. I am sharing below a beautiful timelapse which has captured the night sky with its star embellishments in full glory.




Night time has always been my favorite part of the day. Since as Stephenie Meyer puts it so beautifully: “I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars.” 



Roller Coaster

Life is a roller coaster ride, not just in a one dimensional sort of way but from every perspective, ranging from the emotional to the physical. Although its always suggested to focus on the positive, and appreciate the wonderfully weird ride which is a 'gift', sometimes the journey through the lower realms of darkness can play havoc to the senses, lulling them into a pseudo calmness which is actually apathy. The pseudo calmness results from the mirage that time stands still whilst in reality life goes on and as your roller coaster drags on, you just feel as if you are falling, further and further down into an endless abyss yet it doesn't frighten you because you have already succumbed to apathy.




Though I desperately grabbed onto the ropes of hope to maintain my sanity during the difficult episodes of last year including my mother's demise, I am human after all and sometimes one gets so tired of holding those ropes, yielding instead to the pain from the blisters in ones hands from the friction between gravity and salvation. Yielding, and letting go, falling in to oblivion or so you hope though the memories fall with you.

God is kind making happiness a relative concept so this too shall pass. Till the mean time, one can just continue with the roller coaster ride and continue doing things they love such as writing and blogging. InshAllah (God willing) I shall make a deliberate effort to be more regular in my posts from now on. Everyone is on their own wild roller coaster ride which are all different but eventually at the end of darkness there is light (or so we hope) if we take care to hold on during the bumpy parts.

Music is a medium that portrays emotions very well. This is an old song by DJ Tiesto called 'Close to you' that explains the apathy feeling and is a really good listen too.




'I wouldn't call it time well spent,
Repeating to myself again,
Find comfort in an endless stream of moments.
I don't even care, about the way I feel today,
Because it changes anyway,
Something will make me cry or smile,
Another picture on my pile...'