"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star How I Wonder What You Are"
The five-year old me lay on a country-made cot on the terrace
looking at the stars above
Singing the new poem I had just learnt
Wondering how I could go and talk to them and touch them
Play with them. They looked so nice and friendly
smiling at me always
Mummy says they are far away. But how can that be?
They are my friends!
I like the seven stars which papa says are the Sapta-Rishis
He tells me the story of the seven rishis but I don't see them
Papa says that when Bhagwan ji is happy with me
then he will show me the rishis
But Bhagwan ji is happy with me!
He is always smiling at me in the puja room
Maybe the rishis don't want others to see them.
I am sure they like me
I am sure they will come out when everybody is sleeping
I am hiding under the blanket pretending to sleep
waiting to hear my mummy start snoring
I come out of the blanket and look up but I still don't see them
I start sobbing. I want the sapta-rishis
I fall asleep complaining to Bhagwan ji about the rishis
Now I am grown up calculating distance of these stars from earth
Stars are complex cosmic entities
that are living and dying every second
Everything can be explained now with physics and mathematics
And then one night in my sleep I am that 5-year old again
I feel the beauty and wonder of the stars again
I get up suddenly from my sleep to find
a smiling white bearded person next to me
He says - I heard you as a little boy
What took you so long, I complain
With a twinkling smile he says, I was far you know
I am now so happy to find my own star to touch and play with
I am a kid again!
But people call him Guruji and respect him and wash his feet
They pray to him and offer him food and drink
He is my guru too now. I love him so much.
But then one day I start missing my star again
But Guruji is that star, I say
And then I look at the sky again. The words come back to me
"Up Above the World So High Like a Diamond in the Sky"
I don't want a diamond
I don't want a star who is high above the world
I want my own star whom I can talk to, touch and play with
I want that star now
I am a five year old again, crying and complaining to Bhagwan ji
The star is so far away
Mumbling and sobbing I fall asleep
Then the white-bearded star comes to me and says
I am not far from you. Look!
Saying this he comes straight at me and explodes right into me
I feel his tingle and smile all over me
He is playing with me and I can't stop giggling
People think I am crazy
But I am just that five year old playing with my star
As I walk beneath the open sky I am lost in my poem, singing
Oye Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
I now know what you are
You are very near never so far
You are my friend you are my yaar
You are my love you are my pyar
Ab aur kya boloon yahi hai saar
Yahi hai dhun yahi hai tar
Oye Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
