The Loss of the Night Sky

As a child I spent a lot of time looking at the stars.

I grew up in a small town in east India in the 90s. This was before the boom of cable TV or internet or social media. Often after doing my homework, I’d go out in my front-yard and look at the stars. I was a bit of astronomy geek back then, obsessed with the night sky. We didn’t have telescopes or cameras or any other equipment, but we had plenty of free time.

We used to have frequent electricity cuts (or blackouts as people call them these days) in the hot summers. When the ceiling fans stopped working, we had no choice but to go out in the yard and sit under the dark sky. Living in a small town meant low light and air pollution, so the sky was clear and dark. I spent hours sitting or laying, looking up to the stars.

I got interested in stars very early in my life, probably because it all felt so mysterious. I suppose humans have felt like this for millions of years. What are these shining points of lights above that sometime make strange patterns that move around with seasons? I learned to recognize many different constellations and was always eager to show off my knowledge to my family.

“Hey, that’s the big dipper, and that’s the small one. Also that’s not their actual names.”

“That one looks like a man and that one looks like a dog if you tilt your head.”

I eagerly waited for the Orion to show up when the months of winter started.

Even when I grew into my teenage, I maintained my fascination with the night sky. In my college campus, I’d sometime take long night walks and just stare at the sky.

Somehow, I lost these feelings over time. Actually, I know exactly how. I moved to Bengaluru, a big city in Southern India. The nights have never been the same again. I suppose there is no need to explain the reasons to anyone who’s been to a city. The city lights and the smoke of the vehicles make it entirely impossible to appreciate the stars here. On most days I can count the number of stars I see on my fingers.

It saddens me a lot when I go out for a night walk with my 3yo, and I am unable to point at the night and mention the names of the stars. It sadden me that children growing up in big cities will probably never see the Milky Way, or notice the Orion.

There is nothing I can do about it for now, but to get a sky atlas and show my child the star maps. Maybe one day we’ll be in a place again where we can gaze at stars.

I wrote this post for a prompt given during our local Indieweb club meeting.

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