The plus point of watching a late night movie show is the fact that by the time one gets back, all is silent, still, enigmatic, mysterious, anonymous, magical and private. Before I sound like I wrote some book like ‘7 adjectives in 7 seconds’, let me elaborate. Rarely is it that the street lights happen to be mysteriously off even though there is no power cut. Seldom is it that apart from the artificial lighting (including nearby construction sites) being out, it also happens to be a moonless night due to the thin waning crescent moon. The sky right now, seems to be completely devoid of pollution. The occasional clouds floating by seem more like a bluish grey canopy near the horizon, resembling a distant mountain range. They in fact cover some of the inky darkness of the night and give it an even more surreal look. I can see all the twinkly constellations scintillate clearly. The big dipper, usually distinctly visible to the eye, has a starry blanket in the background tonight with zillions of stars peeping down at me. Star clusters can be made out without any effort. Some of the planets like Venus and Saturn are even more clearer than ever. Then there are the stars which look like they are winking at me. The whole creation of the cosmos looks so fragile that I am scared to even breathe, lest I blow the gossamer-like ethereal charm away.

Everywhere I look at the sky, it seems to be impregnated with stars and stars and more stars. Did I realise earlier that the sky is so full of those tiny little diamonds up above the world, so high? May be yes. But only as a subconscious memory of a nursery rhyme. No planetariums or artificial attempts can ever capture or recreate the mesmerising beauty of the sky tonight. So captivating did the sky appear, that I lost all sense of time, place or motion. I may have stood awestruck and gaping for several minutes before I realised that the earth does move. And when it does, it plucks ever so slightly at the corners of the sky and makes the sparkling veil that she wears, slither just a teeny weeny unobtrusive bit.

The star spangled night sky has put on a great show right now and I can only give it a standing ovation. With a spellbinding performance like this, I sure hope for an encore soon.