Dear Hypothetical Kids, For once Moon was your Mother's Muse!

I spent the entire day reading about the once-in-a-lifetime lunar eclipse. 

Super Blue Blood moon. 

‘Can the name not be short?’,

I thought just like I had thought about my cancer -

Pre B Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, ten years ago.

I saw people sharing the time of eclipse’s visibility in different places. 

‘Ahh, not in India.’

Cool things never happen in India, 

sighed the multiple-times-disappointed-kid in me. 

But, then.

I saw someone share the time of visibility in the metro cities of India. 

I googled immediately, ‘Lunar eclipse visibility in Hyderabad.’

I saw many articles describing the reasons behind this particular eclipse being unique.

I gave it a thought, not much.

I am not one of those moon-watchers, you see.

The idea of moon’s beauty brought the idea of longing lovers. 

I tried, I tried really hard, to bring together love, longing, and moon.

It never happened.

But, for a little while, somewhere in my teens, I associated moon with imperfection.

I often wondered, if people can find this distant object beautiful with its blemishes,

then why was I tormented socially for my dark skin.

I never adored the moon, only its imperfection.

So, all I am saying is that I am not a moon-person.

The image that my Aunt sent on Whatsapp.

In the evening,

my Whatsapp buzzed with pictures of an orange moon sent by my aunt,

and a text from a dear friend said, "look at the moon."

I left my dinner halfway and rushed to the tiny balcony of my flat. 

I couldn't see the moon.

‘Why could I not see the moon!’

I panicked.

All I could think was, someday I am going to tell my kids

how their mother missed once in a lifetime eclipse

because she was lazy, and didn't bother.

The thought of disappointing my hypothetical kids,

as funny as it might seem, 

drove me to call one of my friends in the city

who could run to an open ground near his house.

I told him, "I can't watch the Super Blue Blood Moon,

please watch it, for me, just do it. Don't miss it."

He could not find the moon either.

I was not willing to accept that the eclipse isn’t visible in Hyderabad.

I told myself, ‘I haven't done everything yet.’

In that moment, I wore my pyjama and ran downstairs as soon as possible.

As I reached the gate of my apartment, I looked up.

There it was.

What a beauty!

The moon that I saw was shining bright on one side,

the other side had an orange perimeter that looked like a forest fire in the sky.

And in between was the beauty - the white, the black, and the colour.

I was ecstatic.

I called my flat mate, and she was surprised.

‘We can see it in India!’

‘Yes, and right from our apartment.’

She came running.

Excited, we ran together out on the road

to get an even better view.

I tried to click, click, and click again.

But I failed to capture an image, similar to the one I could see from my eyes.

I gave up after a few minutes.

I kept staring at it, waiting for the moon to be white again

with all it's dark spots. 

I felt so much, so many thoughts were echoing in my mind.

So, I began to write.

And here I am,

fifteen minutes after the eclipse ended,

fifteen minutes after moon being back to its normal self; 

Here I am,
writing, and staring up again and again.

Another image sent by my Aunt on Whatsapp.

My dear hypothetical kids, just so you know,

Your mother won't disappoint you.

Because, on an uneventful lazy January evening of 2018,

as she was juggling her many choices in life,

she chose to step out of her solitary room.

That night she looked at the moon,

for the beauty that it was,

without any stories of love and loss affecting her vision.

Here is the story of the night,
when moon finally became her muse,

for you and only you.