The Night

Many years ago I was returning home one night when I realized that I had misplaced the key. Forcing my way in would mean the wrath of the landlord so I wondered how I could get in. The only way was to get the duplicate key from the landlord who lived five miles away, but I could not go there. For civil disturbances in the night had led to the imposition of a sudden curfew, which meant nobody could be on the road after 9:00 PM, and it was 8:58 PM. Could there be a locksmith nearby thought I, but before I could walk to the gate the watch beeped 9:00.

The night was infinitely dark and strange, it seemed that everyone had gone to bed, and switched off all the lights. The road was deserted except for a lone cow and the yellowish light of the distant lamp post in the junction showed that the cow was half asleep, but even that was not clear for cows always look like that. A blue green firefly, very rare for this part of the country flew and disappeared behind a leaf, which made me aware of the garden. Flowers that bloom at night are usually white, and most have a fragrance. Overhead there were more stars than I had ever seen, and there was a particularly bright reddish star that didn’t twinkle. Could it be the Planet Mars, the one they called the red planet, did someone say or did I read somewhere that stars twinkle while planets don’t, or did I just imagine that now. Or could it be Venus, but did I read somewhere that Venus is called the morning star and could be seen only in the early morning. My knowledge of astronomy, like so much else was incomplete, but still I did know more than most people. And didn’t Newton himself once say something like “Knowledge is an endless beach and all I do is pick a pebble here and a sea shell there”. Or was it Michael Faraday, and was he also British. All these thoughts made me tired that I sat down in the garden and couldn’t remember anything after that except the ground felt hard on my head, an annoying cricket made an annoying noise, the smell of grass and marigold flowers and once I imagined that the cow was in the garden.

The hoot of an alarm made me jump, and for a moment I was horrified to find that I was not in bed but outside at night. I went to the gate to see what made that noise, and found that it was the siren for the midnight shift. Although all factories are closed during the curfew, some crucial industries get special permission to operate. And nearby a food boutique was open to serve the factory workers. I felt hungry and a cup of hot tea would be good in this cold night, I had to walk about one Kilometer, during the curfew, will the stray dogs and the watch dogs bark and give me away, my nerves failed and I decided against going and suddenly I realized that this was the story of my life, a man who didn’t take any risks and so didn’t reap any rewards, and led a sad, meaningless life.

Back in the garden I didn't feel sleepy but looked up to see whether I could identify any stars. The Great Bear looks more like a Saucepan than a Bear, and Orion is not even aligned, but the Milky Way could be seen clearly, a spectacular whitish path of countless stars just one of which is the Sun. Up ahead what looked like a dim star moved steadily. It moved too slowly for it to be shooting star, which is fast but fleeting. For a moment I thought it could be an Aero-plane flying high up and listened but there was no sound, and I felt certain that it was a communications satellite for even the smallest satellite could be seen from earth when the sun reflects upon it.

I sometimes carry with me a bag which is filled with painting material, so I decided to paint the landscape at night. Very few people paint at night for the colors are dull and it is difficult to tell them apart, but since I was not sleepy I could do nothing else. They are more or less black and white paintings but they still look quite good. Eventually I was so exhausted that I fell asleep. The next day I found the key, it had fallen near the gate so there was no incident with the landlord who would have been really annoyed if he found out that I had lost the key. It was a troublesome night without proper sleep, but it had taught me an important lesson: If you take an interest in anything, even something as inconsequential as the night you learn many things, soon you become an expert in it, and this curiosity is the secret of happiness………..

Written By: RJX