My Window To Infinity

We went out for a peaceful post-dinner walk the other day, my colleague Shreekant; Zara, a Scottish anthropologist; Sunit, a Krishnamurthi reader and I. It was one of those impromptu things that turn out to be great because they haven’t been previously planned. So we walked about randomly along the dimly lit mud roads of Rishi valley recounting mad stories from our childhoods. There was a slight nip in the air and I was grinning for no particular reason. Because of the tree cover we couldn’t make out if the sky was clear or cloudy, until we came upon the school grounds which had a few lights along its periphery. These lights illuminated almost the entire ground except for one tiny patch where the light could not penetrate the dark--my window to infinity. Although I could see but a small patch of the night sky, for me, that night, that patch stretched on forever and even though I was very much on the ground, I could touch the distant stars.