Stars Shine...

It is a dark night. From the balcony of my room, i can see an approaching plane, its headlights grow bigger as it nears. There is a little gust of hot wind that rustles through the dust laden leaves of a few stunted mango trees. And some others that form the vicinity, also feel the heat.

A little toddler walks in the adjacent hospitals lawn. His shoes on the grey cemented paths that criss-cross the greens, let out their squeaking sounds. Squeak-Squak, squeak-squak. Sounds that otherwise have the potential to irk me, now feel funny. That the toddler holds the finger of his avuncular granddad, like a scene straight out of a picture book, adds to the beauty.

In the slight distance i can see the hotel top. The red lights on its roof, glower like the eyes of a fabled monster. Goliaths in the city, with umpteen Davids, who have chosen to melt in the dullness of their lives. The gray stone of the walls on the other side show a complete array of colors, from the yellow of the sodium lamp, to the dark of the night. A scraggy lizard flits around the lamp, its dinner time for her. In darkness, an insect fights.

Just over the lamp, to the left is a window. Through its bluish panes, i have been watching a frail woman waiting inside. Three days, and yet she is there tending; to someone who must have mattered for her, really mattered. Though generally covered by curtains, but sometimes they part, and she stares out. Weary eyes, meet the wearied night. And a silent exchange, a mute conversation occurs. She has to wait, she doesnt know how long. The night also has its life, till the sun choses to shine. Both find solace in each other, both melt into one.

And in all this darkness, the stars shine. Some bright with hope like the eyes of the toddler, who is discovering the joy of life. And some faded like the woman who waits, wearied by the tiring nights. But bright or faded, sparkling or jaded, like the silent spectators who have connived in this entire plot, the stars shine.