The Missing Stars

“Twinkle, twinkle little stars,

How I wonder where they are?”

These were the lines that ran through Rinku’s mind when adults talked about stars. OK, the stars were lovely, even beautiful. But they were not many. Just ten. Maybe twelve. One night, there were as many as twenty. That was the maximum she had counted. And she could count up to seventy. So, why did adults call them countless, she wondered. Could these old people not count till twenty? That couldn’t be true. Her mom was one of them. And Mom could count till thousands, and a lot more. After all, she was the one, who taught Rinku to count.

She decided that this must be one of the many strange fantasies that adults have. Whenever, anyone talked about infinite stars, she nodded her head as if it was some wonderful mystery. But that was about to change. This time, Mom had gone too far. She had enrolled them for stargazing. Stargazing! A whole night! How long can one look at a dozen stars? Rinku gave a firm negative answer. No way was she wasting a whole night on stars. That too on a weekend. She had better plans. She would invite Soni, her best friend for a sleepover. They could watch Finding Nemo, or The Jungle Book. She could watch Finding Nemo ten times instead of counting the same stars a dozen times in a night.

When Rinku called her friend to invite her for the sleepover, she got a shock. Mom was many steps ahead of her. She had already invited Soni, and Soni had accepted it.

“But, why would we want to waste a Saturday night on stars?” Rinku protested.

Soni appeared not to have heard her. “Oh, a whole night outside. No night curfew. Can you believe it?” she was gushing on as if Rinku’s mom had given her a magic marker.

Rinku gave up, but she was not going to forgive her mom. She was going to be miserable, and let Mom see her misery. Mom needed to know that she had ruined her daughter’s weekend.

Stargazing was at a far off remote area. Some place called Saguna Baug. They had to travel via a train first, and then take a bus. Mom was of the opinion they would reach sooner this way. The train journey wasn’t that bad. Soni was awestruck by the huge crowd, though they were informed the train was supposedly empty that day. Rinku sulked all through the journey. She didn’t laugh at the baby across from her. She could not afford to do that. She had to prove a point. However, she did give the baby a smile.

Moreover, she had decided, she wasn’t going to look at the sky at all. Not even one glance. That way Mom would feel bad for dragging her to that God forsaken place. She intently stared at her feet throughout the next bus journey, and the pebbled path after she got down. After the registrations were done, she settled on the mattress, Mom had laid down for them, and proceeded to stare at her lap. Specifically, at the design of her handkerchief. Mom refused to give her a mobile. It was supposed to be their electronic free time or some such thing. She wasn’t even interested in the welcome drink or cookies. She ignored her friend and her happy chatter as well. Rinku was lost in her thoughts about how she hoped a tiger came at the place, and scared everyone away. She had seen enough trees on the road to merit such a wild possibility. After some attempts to cajole her, Mom gave up, and chatted with Soni.

Soon, darkness set in. Rinku was brought out of her reverie by her friend’s squeals. “Look stars. Look Rinku, so many stars,” Soni yelled, and at the same time pulled Rinku’s hand. Rinku pushed her friend away, but Soni persisted.” Rinku, look up,” she said. She tried pushing Rinku’s forehead down, so that her friend would see up. Rinku shut her eyes tight.

Rinku’s mom interrupted. “Soni, let Rinku be. She can’t count them anyway. You know how bad she is at numbers,” she said. This was not true. Rinku was good at numbers. Soni knew it too. Rinku would have ignored the deliberate provocation had neighbouring lady not interfered saying ” my son is the same.” Rinku could not have her mom telling strangers lies about her. She was going to count all the stars. And it wouldn’t take her above a minute.

Rinku opened her eyes, and was mesmerised. The sky was completely filled with twinkling dots. They were so many unlike the meagre few outside her house. She was bewildered.

“Are there always so many stars in the sky?” she asked her mom.

“Of course, sweetheart. Don’t you just love them?” Mom answered.

Rinku did love them, but she was confused. “Then, why do we see only a few from our terrace?” she asked.

Mom held her close, and said, “because of light pollution. Stars can be seen only in the dark. When there’s too much light, they aren’t visible. Cities have too much light, so you can’t see them in the city sky.”

Rinku looked around at the trees glowing in the night sky full of twinkling stars, and wished she didn’t have to live in a city.

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© K.A. Acharya 2021