S.P.Ramalingan saw the marvels of the sky secretly through his grandfather's telescope and built a world of his own to which he never allowed anybody in,not even his favourite friend,the old cook's 7 year old daughter..

Ramalingan was tormented his secret pursuit would be detected and that would mean the end to his dreams of visiting the objects of his awe up in the sky..

The first time he witnessed a meteor shower,he thought the gods his grandmother prayed to,guruvayoorappan and ayyappa,were showering diamonds on the earth below...he wanted to run outside to collect them...prizes from the gods themselves!

Another time,the shower looked like a million sparklers going off...

 He once woke up before dawn to view the marvellous sight..but he never repeated this act for the old cook saw him go up the stairs and immediately started a low moaning which reached a crescendo which lasted till the whole household and the neighbours had woken up...S.P.R. lay crouched in a corner of the wall on the terrace which was a good half an hour till it was made sure that there were no spirits or ghosts visiting the old maid.

Particularly fascinating was a yellow-orange giant in the high eastern sky which he later learnt was Arcturus or the 'Spring Star' which astronomers elegantly describe as being 'champagne coloured'.

He observed the miracle of the old waning crescent moon and the new waxing crescent on consecutive days and wanted to be able to touch and feel its hard solid silver surface and speak with it and ask of it what made it change its shape and who or what gave it its unique beauty...for even as a child,Ramalingan was moved by beauty to the point of speechlessness....

Two objects of flawless unattainable beauty haunted him during his growing up years...one was the moon that bewitchingly changed its shape and enticed him like a lover near the water's bank....the other was his young aunt who like a haunting melody stayed with him forever and visited him in his troubled dreams...she of the tinkling laughter and soft dancing feet, she with her full figure and lotus-petalled eyes in an oval face.

She of course took no notice of him,preferring to flirt with the neighbour's older boys but he did not mind as long as he could look at her from behind his dull boring books..Once she caught him staring at her while pretending to do his sums...from then on he became her object of laughter and mockery...

He lost all peace of mind,his books became a burden..for escape he went to the stars...even that did not give him comfort...

One such evening after being subjected to a prolonged spell of jeering and teasing,both verbal and non-verbal,brought about because he had spoken to the cook's seven year old daughter,he felt a kindly hand on his shoulder while secretly peering through the telescope.....

PS: This chapter is the latest one in the series addressing the space journey.

to be continued...