If only we take the time to lift our gaze up into the sky, the bewitching splendour of nature can lift us out of mundane lives. I am hoping to join a group that’s going to camp overnight to experience the ‘planetary parade’. This term earned me a gentle reprimand from my friend the distinguished astrophysicist Siraj Hasan.
To be precise, there’s ‘a large evening alignment of six planets Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Saturn’ coming up on January 21. We can see them just after sunset, without a telescope or high-powered binoculars. These are needed only to see Neptune and Uranus. And there’s a bigger treat next month when seven planets align on February 28, 2025. We can see Saturn, Mercury, Neptune, Venus, Uranus, Jupiter, and Mars just after sunset, seven planets. Check out the Starwalk 2 app for more information. The excitement being whipped up by various media and as usual the WhatsApp forwards has got everyone seeking a piece of the action in the sky.
This celestial gift is coming our way, notwithstanding all the troubles we heap upon the world. I wanted to add – until we go forth and mess up other planets. But l don’t want to start the year on a pessimistic note. I broke my most important resolution on Day 2, and I want to invite all the good vibes that I can to stay resolute going forward.
See, that’s the thing about resolutions. You can’t just make a list – mental, physical, or digital – and say that’s it. Announcing them to family and friends in the hope that they’ll hold you accountable isn’t going to work. They have their own challenges with their resolutions to deal with and secondly, why should they be tasked with policing you?
Each morning when you awaken you have got to think of what you have resolved to do or not to do and summon your intention to stick with it. And at bedtime, when you review your day and find that you have stayed strong, you would have earned yourself a good night’s sleep. And if you have faltered, be kind to yourself – tomorrow’s another day and you can try again.
Talking about good vibes, the title of today’s column is inspired by a sign at a party. It was to celebrate the birthday of a dear friend, Chitra. It set the tone for the evening – infusing warmth into the coolness of the open-air venue, laughter trilling out even before anyone visited the bar. Most of the guests are from a service organisation; I was a member too for a half a dozen years. The occasion brought me face to face with several people I haven’t seen for a while. And I am one hundred per cent sure there were only good vibes when we met. Even with a couple of people with whom I had briefly sparred, there was sincerity in the greetings and appreciation of the latest looks we sported.
I was thinking of it on the cab ride home and wondered at the human need for good. And I remembered what a colleague-friend from my first job told me when I mentioned that a very uncooperative colleague was very nice when we met after I changed jobs. Ramesh, whom we jocularly called ‘swami’ because of his sage pronouncements, told me, ‘People forget the daily irritants and petty rivalry when they don’t meet often.’
That’s true, isn’t it? I have at times unexpectedly met people who have behaved badly over something and with whom I am no longer on speaking terms. When I bumped into them, I didn’t remember the hurt they caused me, and I instinctively reached out for a hug. After that brief instantaneous connection, there were no apologies, explanations, or reconnections. We moved on and that’s a good thing too. We have lived long enough now to understand and accept that there’s a time limit for most things. And that’s also why people prefer to hold on to the good memories of people who have passed on. Bad memories carry forth bad vibes. We need the essence of positivity to go through life.
Sandhya Mendonca, author, biographer, and publisher, casts a female gaze at the world in this column.