THE TIME THE MOON SNEAKED INTO MY BED ROOM

THE TIME THE MOON SNEAKED INTO MY BED ROOM

For no apparent reason I woke up from the deep slumber I was in.

With the summer creeping in and nights becoming warmer...the AC still not required and switched off, with just the fans enough, I had left the door to the balcony open to let the night breeze in and the screen door closed to keep the swarm of the mosquitoes out.

Slowly as I moved from the dream world to the real I could feel a change in the environment of the room: dark earlier when I had switched off the lights was now suffused with a strange glow bringing in relief the clutter invisible earlier. There was a shaft of bright light angling in through the door and focussing on my bed.

Intrigued about the strange phenomenon, the street lights three floors down below had been on blink for the last so many days, curious and to investigate the cause, I stepped down from the bed, opened the screen door, and walked to the balcony. And there it was...the full moon, large as it can be when full and so bright that it hurt my still sleepy eyes.

To me it appeared as if the Moon had move across the night sky and positioned itself bang in the centre of the small gap, between the terraces of the two seven floor blocks, opposite, across the road and had sneaked in my bed room for the sole purpose of waking me up to be a privileged witness to the magic it had created out-side: the concrete jungle, so mundane a sight during day, now bathed in the magic of the golden light was an ethereal sight; difficult to describe.

Waking up in the middle of night was worth it, the magical sight would have been lost to me had I continued to sleep.

A Journey Through Life With Two Wives

The reader joins the author in his ‘Journey through Life’ commencing sometime between 1935-36, and follows him through the simple life in villages of Western UP as perceived by a five year old then six, and then to Delhi of yore and other small towns of the province. He feels, just as the author, the cultural shock of the move to Lucknow in the 50’s and the freewheeling life in the university and is introduced to the new concept of 'Love at Far Site’. Moving on next to the Indian Military Academy located in the foothills of the Shiwaliks with its dreaded Drill Square and the Obstacle Course. After passing-out from IMA, the proud but shaky 2nd lieutenant faces the pains of growing up in the post independence Army, a blend of the British traditions and the Indian value system. The reader is soon introduced to the new 'Babbler' post facing the young officer’s 'Love at First Sight' and feels the pangs of separation in married life resulting from combat service and thereafter the dangers to life and limb on entering the 'Valley of Death' during the 1962 Sino Indian Conflict. As the author climbs up the career ladder, the reader has a chance to look at the intricacies of Command and Staff at Army HQ and the student – instructor relationship in a service environment that are so different from traditional institutions. One is saddened watching the author's trauma on being a helpless witness to his wife's tenacious fight with cancer with his, only partly successful, efforts to minimize her pain through the long struggle and culminating in her untimely demise. In the end one can only sympathize with his efforts to cope with the pain and guilt of living without her.