Mohammad Arbaz Arya was a very big name for a very little boy. I remember him as Arya which was what everybody called him. He lived in a small village near the foot of a mountain. His home was a mud but with a thatched roof. He had helped his family built it. Arya wore a cotton dhoti and a simple vest. He herded and milked his father's cows and collected firewood. He was a playful boy who loved to climb trees and play in the expansive green fields. He relished the hot gruel his mother cooked for him on a simmering coal fire.
One day, Arya's father sent him on an errand. He was to go to the next village to bring some medicines from the doctor for his sick granny and get back as soon as he could. Remember, Arya,'' his father said, you must return home right after the job is done, no dilly-dallying! There is a solar eclipse today and you must not be outside under any circumstances. Go fast.
Arya interrupted his father with a child's curiosity, Why is it dangerous, father?
During an eclipse, the rays reaching the Earth are harmful. As the sun is not so strong, one is tempted to look at it directly which can result in losing the eyesight. So, I want you indoors well before noon when the eclipse can be sighted. Run as fast as your legs can carry you. I must finish my work in the field by then, too. said Arya's father, patting him on his shoulder.
Filled with a sense of importance and urgency, Arya walked fast to the nearby village and reached there in less then an hour. There, he went straight to the vaidya (an Ayurvedic physician) and described his granny' condition. The wizened old man nodded as if he had not heard it all before. He prepared the special medicine he always made for frail granny's constent and awful toothache. The problem was, he went off to search for the herbs in the jungle nearby and did not return for an hour and a half! Poor Arya was getting very, very tense indeed. When finally, the old man returned, he spent another fifteen minutes pounding and grinding a variety of little green herbs and dried nuts. When he had finished, Arya gave him the bag of grains which his father had sent as payment and shot off as fast as his legs could carry him.
No matter how fast he ran, he could not keep up with time, which was now close to noon. Suddenly, he realised he was being followed. This particular stretch of the mud path was lonely and the he knew there were robbers roaming in search of passers-by. Would they take away the silver anklet I am wearing? he thought. Menacing footsteps echoed from the bend behind him and poor Arya was petrified. He hurriedly crouched behind a thick bush and hoped his heart was not beating too loud. Then, he looked up at me (Aakash) and prayed hard for a miracle. Well, though he had not realised it, the eclipse was almost total by then and the whole world was growing dark at noon. Arya had the miracle he wanted. I watched with pride the replay of the beautiful drama that had happened many times before. The moon, which rotates round the Earth and the Earth, that rotates round the Sun fell in line with the Sun. The shadow of the Moon covered the Sun and the Earth turned dark because the Sun's rays were cut off.
Arya was too scared to even look up at the sky. He heard the robbers right next to him as he peered from the corner of his eye. Oh,dear! he thought, The Sky has become dark. This must be the eclipse.
He shut his eyes tight as he heard the robbers stumble away, mumbling blindly in the dark, sounding confused and nervous.
Now, Arya's heart beat with joy. The robbers were gone and the eclipse was over as well. Arya felt amazed. After what looked like a slice of the night, it was back to daylight again! How could this be? he wondered.
With his head full of questions, Arya raced back home to his worried parents. If only he could have seen the pale Moon moving away from the Sun, he would have known the eclipse was ending and it would not be seen again for a ling time.
That night, Arya lay on a charpoy in his open Courtyard. He gazed at the countless starts that sparkled in the inky-black Sky and then he talked to me. It was a one-sided conversation because I could not reply. Anyhow, this is what he said, I wonder what is up there...so far away...so many stars, the Moon, the Sun and the Sky... How would they look from a close distance? Someday, I want to go up and find out...
It is little children like Arya and their very big dreams that are so special about mother Earth. Many, many years later, man actually walked on the Moon. Now gadgets which the humans call 'satellite' whizz by me. They have telescopes, camera, computers and sometimes even humans on them. They try very hard to understand everything about me. They know that I am infinite. I have no beginning and no end. I know humans will keep discovering more and more about me. I am waiting and watching for every such discovery. That too, will make another nice story!
One day, Arya's father sent him on an errand. He was to go to the next village to bring some medicines from the doctor for his sick granny and get back as soon as he could. Remember, Arya,'' his father said, you must return home right after the job is done, no dilly-dallying! There is a solar eclipse today and you must not be outside under any circumstances. Go fast.
Arya interrupted his father with a child's curiosity, Why is it dangerous, father?
During an eclipse, the rays reaching the Earth are harmful. As the sun is not so strong, one is tempted to look at it directly which can result in losing the eyesight. So, I want you indoors well before noon when the eclipse can be sighted. Run as fast as your legs can carry you. I must finish my work in the field by then, too. said Arya's father, patting him on his shoulder.
Filled with a sense of importance and urgency, Arya walked fast to the nearby village and reached there in less then an hour. There, he went straight to the vaidya (an Ayurvedic physician) and described his granny' condition. The wizened old man nodded as if he had not heard it all before. He prepared the special medicine he always made for frail granny's constent and awful toothache. The problem was, he went off to search for the herbs in the jungle nearby and did not return for an hour and a half! Poor Arya was getting very, very tense indeed. When finally, the old man returned, he spent another fifteen minutes pounding and grinding a variety of little green herbs and dried nuts. When he had finished, Arya gave him the bag of grains which his father had sent as payment and shot off as fast as his legs could carry him.
No matter how fast he ran, he could not keep up with time, which was now close to noon. Suddenly, he realised he was being followed. This particular stretch of the mud path was lonely and the he knew there were robbers roaming in search of passers-by. Would they take away the silver anklet I am wearing? he thought. Menacing footsteps echoed from the bend behind him and poor Arya was petrified. He hurriedly crouched behind a thick bush and hoped his heart was not beating too loud. Then, he looked up at me (Aakash) and prayed hard for a miracle. Well, though he had not realised it, the eclipse was almost total by then and the whole world was growing dark at noon. Arya had the miracle he wanted. I watched with pride the replay of the beautiful drama that had happened many times before. The moon, which rotates round the Earth and the Earth, that rotates round the Sun fell in line with the Sun. The shadow of the Moon covered the Sun and the Earth turned dark because the Sun's rays were cut off.
Arya was too scared to even look up at the sky. He heard the robbers right next to him as he peered from the corner of his eye. Oh,dear! he thought, The Sky has become dark. This must be the eclipse.
He shut his eyes tight as he heard the robbers stumble away, mumbling blindly in the dark, sounding confused and nervous.
Now, Arya's heart beat with joy. The robbers were gone and the eclipse was over as well. Arya felt amazed. After what looked like a slice of the night, it was back to daylight again! How could this be? he wondered.
With his head full of questions, Arya raced back home to his worried parents. If only he could have seen the pale Moon moving away from the Sun, he would have known the eclipse was ending and it would not be seen again for a ling time.
That night, Arya lay on a charpoy in his open Courtyard. He gazed at the countless starts that sparkled in the inky-black Sky and then he talked to me. It was a one-sided conversation because I could not reply. Anyhow, this is what he said, I wonder what is up there...so far away...so many stars, the Moon, the Sun and the Sky... How would they look from a close distance? Someday, I want to go up and find out...
It is little children like Arya and their very big dreams that are so special about mother Earth. Many, many years later, man actually walked on the Moon. Now gadgets which the humans call 'satellite' whizz by me. They have telescopes, camera, computers and sometimes even humans on them. They try very hard to understand everything about me. They know that I am infinite. I have no beginning and no end. I know humans will keep discovering more and more about me. I am waiting and watching for every such discovery. That too, will make another nice story!
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