Tanishka Sanghvi, Class 10, Neepa Shah’s Language Academy, Mumbai

The Moon

I sat by the windowsill observing the large milky sphere that had perched in the sky. She occasionally hid behind the thin fluffy clouds but could never escape completely from my sight. She was constant amidst a plethora of stars who could never subdue her presence and significance in my eyes. Yet, she still acknowledged these galaxies and constellations no matter how abundantly her mesmerising beauty remained in the eyes of a beholder. The dark side of the celestial figure itself could not have been left undiscovered. Yet the craters highlighted the beauty in imperfection.

The moon lit the vacancy that lay in front of me, the emptiness in my room had become nothing but daunting apart from the light that poured in highlighting the damask festoons and ebony table and brocade upholstery shine. Mother, the one I wished to see one day, once again, was the one I wanted to connect to while I talked to the moon for the time being. Once again, just like every day, I helplessly desired a response but the silence killed every piece of patience, perseverance, passion and hope that had previously composed me in her presence. What a fool of me to think that she sat gazing at me from the throne of the circular snowball in the inky black sky.

But even after such a traumatic battle of practicality against inclinations, my mind succumbed against the pseudo hospitality of the sharp rays. Was it happening once again? Was my mind hallucinating a divine portrait of a resilient female, whose smile reflected her fortitude and her eyes displayed her mettle? Certainly. The clock advanced to 1am and I was still staring at the black space where my avid imagination had placed itself. Just like how the moon had to dutifully walk away on its axis unable to stay with me for a lifetime, I also knew that what I was seeing was merely ephemeral, but it gave me the obsessively, compulsive pleasure of having mother close to me once again.

Dawn had struck the night and so did the realisation that my dear moon was fading away once again; I was losing her to the blinding brightness once again. The moon-lit figure was now mitigated by the first rays of the dawn. The day broke and so did my heart. The moon was dissolving itself into the blue sky.

Before I could watch it abscond from the burning heat of the sun, my head fell on my arched knees and my eyes closed droopily.

Again in the dark void of my dreams, I saw the enlightening moon and its supremacy. Its cool and chaste light soothed the scars that were left on my soul and purified the greasy grievances. I could never be stranded as long as I found that curve in the sky. Although its gravitational pull created hectic tides in my unstable peace of mind, it always kept my inner self intact. It seemed that I wished to live in its ecstasy eternally.