Joy under the stars

I have always been in awe of the freedom one enjoys in an open-air theater, also known as an Amphitheater. A closed air-conditioned auditorium with all the facilities would undoubtedly look better at the first sight to the audience, but the exquisite image of watching an actor speaking at the top of his/her voice but without a tinge of shouting, sitting on the stairs without a care in the world, under the blanket of stars evokes emotions that just could not be replaced by the comfortable seats of an auditorium.

I remember a particular night during our dramatics workshop at the Tagore Open Air Theater, fondly known as TOAT, when after hours of exercises, we were made to experience the strangest joy (I had no encounter with meditation till then). I urge to all of you to try the following instructions while lying under the night sky to experience it yourselves.

So here it goes:

1. Lie down straight with your back against the ground.
2. Look at the sky for a couple of minutes and try to empty your mind, away from all the worries, and concentrate on a distant star.
3. Slowly close your eyes and try to recreate the image of the sky you just saw.
4. Now with your eyes still closed, imagine to fly towards the star you focused.
5. Observe each asteroid, meteorite, satellite, planet and all the other heavenly bodies that cross your way.
6. As you reach closer to your star, peek into the beautiful universe beyond.
7. Glide into a new galaxy, witness those unique constellations still undiscovered
8. Keep floating into the unknown for as much time as you like – unnoticed, untraceable and carefree.
9. Now you see funny things floating with you that could not be here. A chocolate, a guitar and you go further a colorful umbrella. Keep collecting as many weird things you see.
10. When all of them have been collected, make something unique, irrational and stupid by doing anything with those things.
11. Slowly come back to earth with your creation, and with your eyes still closed, start rubbing your palms.
12. When you feel they are warm enough, bring them to your eyes and softy transfer the warmth.
13. Slowly open your eyes and do share in the comments how was the journey and what you brought 🙂

The photograph was taken at Dilli Haat (Delhi) which brought this memory from my workshop days. This is for the Day 2 of the Five Photos, Five Stories challenge nominated by the talented Prajakta.

I now nominate an amazing observer, Maniparna who somehow makes everything so divine and serene by her beautiful Haiku, poetry and photography. Do check her blog if you haven’t done yet:)
The challenge is – “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge”