Chaudhvi ka Chand

Yesterday evening as I got down from my office bus, I had plans to take a short detour on my way back home, to take my daily dose of bhutta*. As I waited at a signal for the traffic to abate, my head automatically turned towards the sky. I knew that it was Sharad Poornima* (also known as Kojagari Poornima), Aai (my mom.) had been telling me that since morning, ‘Aaj chand dekh lena’. (See the moon today.) But even as I had expected the moon to be beautiful, nothing had prepared me for this, the moon was beautiful beyond my imagination; a lone inhabitant of the sky, traversing the firmament, flooding it with doodhiya roshni .(a wheatish glow)

I rushed back home totally forgetting about the bhutta (given my love for the corn, that’s something.) I couldn’t miss this. I reached for my camera, hoping and praying in my heart that the batteries would last long enough. As I reached the terrace, the moon had advanced a little in its journey and now had some stars for company, which made it glow even more brightly. (I later came to know that the moon yesterday was the brightest it would get in this whole century.) I pointed my camera to the moon, zoomed fully and went click click click.

I had hardly taken some five pictures when my camera started signaling that the batteries were low, disappointed a little, but still satisfied that at least I was able to take a few pics, I stopped clicking and started gazing at the moon.


According to the Hindu beliefs the rays of the moon on Sharad Poornima shower nectar (amrith) on earth, and as I stood on the terrace I could actually feel the cool rays washing over me. Back home Aai told me that she would keep Kheer (A sweet dish made of milk and rice.) in the open for sometime and then have it as prasad. The moon is very close to the earth on Sharad Poornima, and it is believed that the curative properties of the rays permeate the food kept in open. (Some people will find the idea silly, what about the city pollution, they would ask, but then we have street food don’t we?) I, being away from home could not afford such luxuries as kheer so I had some lays chips while gazing at the moon.

Come to think of it there is nothing about Sharad Poornima to get so excited about, the moon comes out everyday, and maybe its even more beautiful on other days, but its only on days like Sharad Poornima, that you especially take out time to appreciate the beauty which on normal days might have went unnoticed, and maybe this is the whole point of having all these rituals and festivals, to appreciate beauty which we usually fail to notice.

P.S. – Thanks Tanay for suggesting the title and the post. Though it was poornima yesterday, I felt that the moon was just a bit incomplete and so the title is apt too, the title means 'The moon on the fourteenth day that just needs one more day to become complete'.It is also how Gurudutt addresses Waheeda Rehman(one of my favorite actors) in one of the most romantic songs in Indian cinema in the movie by the same name.

*Sharad : Winter
*Poornima : Full-moon day, or night, should I say?
*Bhutta : Corn