"If the moon smiled, she would resemble you. You leave the same impression. Of something beautiful, but annihilating. Both of you are great light borrowers." —Sylvia Plath
Chand and I have spent many nights together. Of these many nights, some were very happy and some were a little sad. But what I always remember is the face of the moon after sunset. In India, the moon is called ‘Mama’… ‘Mama’ means “mother’s brother”. So for me, Chand is really my uncle who has taken care of me almost everywhere.
The list of my meetings with Chand is very long, so long that I don't even remember many of them. When I was little, I would always look at the sky in the dark of night and wonder why the moon is so round and sometimes why it becomes so thin. Earlier I also used to think that the moon becomes pregnant once every month and then one day she gives birth to a new moon. I believed this for a long time.
Well, let me tell you about the meeting between me and Chand. I had no understanding in my childhood and now that I have grown up, I understand that the moon is always available to me even though I am missing somewhere. He tells me that I have to take care of myself and also be aware of the environment around me. Wherever I go, I keep in mind which direction it is, which side the sunrise and sunset will be on and where the moon will come from and in which direction it will go.
All the particles prevalent in nature tell me that one should not walk around wearing any kind of mask on the face. Look as you are. I mostly stay to myself, I do this so that I remain aware towards nature. The beauty that is present in my breath is because of nature. I would like to name some natural elements and particles which play an important role in my creation.
Flower, butterfly, sky, sun, moon, mountain, snow, pine, rainbow, rain, squirrel, light and firefly. I believe that I am made up of all these and the one who illuminates me is the moon who supported me even when I was alone on a 3500 km long cycle journey. And the moon was also present that evening when the horizon was colored pink in the shadow of sunset. That is a different matter, we did not talk that day because there was a rainbow between us.
If I talk a little about photography, capturing the moon is not a difficult task. It moves so slowly that you can even hold its leg. This gives you full time to take out your mobile or camera and click my photo... whether you want to post it in your blog or post it on social media and get applause. I could never cover the moon with my mobile because my phone is not capable of clicking a photo of the moon. That's why I use my camera. I buy myself the smile of the moon by mounting the 55-250mm lens on a Canon d77.
My habits feel like this. Like it comes anytime, sometimes it comes in the morning, sometimes it is visible in the afternoon, sometimes in the evening and sometimes it even shines next to the sun. I think I am like that too. And I may not be like that...I just think I'm like the moon. But in the end I would like to say that I feel very good by equating myself with the members of nature, so I will keep doing the same with myself. I hope this post has not bored you. Do you also like to see the moon every day?
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon D77 and edited in Lightroom.