Brightest are mine...

Recently I visited my relatives in Brahampur with family. It is a tiny hamlet in Bihar’s Buxar District. This area is known for its Shiva temple and people used to make a visit during festivals and make offerings. Residents are normally calm and hugely dependent on agriculture.  Life in Brahampur starts early morning and ends in general around 7-8 PM. Though there are nothing much to do there for me, I normally spent my days chatting with my four years old little daughter and answering her childlike queries. Sometimes kids throw you such difficult question that you hardly have any answer to please them.

Nights in Brahampur were pleasant so we usually go to the roof and look at the sky. Except for cloudy days, sky was always full of stars. It looked so complete and fascinating. My daughter excited as usual asked same question every night ‘why sky in Brahampur has so many stars’ and why there are no stars in Noida (Delhi NCR). She started counting as many as she could. After forty stars she gives up. Oh papa, I am tired now, they are so many and they are so bright. I will have that one which is the brightest and then she goes for sleep.

After couple of days I came back Noida with my family. Yes, there were no stars, hardly found one. Is this is pollution which is the main reason? It seems stars are gone, no gazing up in the sky and no enchanting moments. I am still able to differentiate between Saptarshi and leo there but here they are all gone, many other stars which we used to see from our naked eyes are gone. City has become brighter and stars are dimmer. It is the lack of growing visibility and experts feel that the reason behind is light pollution. You go in any corner of the city, there are so many bright lights which are dispersed in every direction and thus obstructing the view. And to add the woes is growing air pollution which has created a haze in the atmosphere. This haze bounces back the light and obstructs the great view.

With the pace of time and development our cities are getting bigger and accommodating many and chances are less that our kids would ever be able to see those stars, milky way and enchanting view with their naked eyes. Oh grandma’ I am coming, I wanna see the stars, and I wanna have one, brightest are mine…