AUM

The McNaught Comet: Different cities, same object – Life and times of January 2007.

Ball of inferno, fiery trajectory, longish white tail, and a sky ripping spectacle – something any ordinary comet or a heavenly body would appear to be.

It sometimes amazes me how many times we just sit and ponder the vastness of cultures and traditions in the world. The Italians grow up this way, the Indians grow up that way, bla and bla and all the allegations of dissimilarity and cultural arbitrariness. Million generalizations, a hundred apologetic repulsions, a thousand feelings of sheer bewilderment are felt around the globe about just different we all are.

Then there are real and reel life examples that reconfirm our notions. For example, while watching the movie, Blood Diamond, I wondered why so much blood was being spilt in this land that forgiveness for some people is simply deemed impossible. I felt alien to when DeCaprio sighs about Sierra Leone, "I used to wonder if God could ever forgive us for what we do to each other. But then I realized God left this place a long time ago.” People are just wildly fighting their own kind and tearing everything in their path, much like a comet. What is the deal with ethno-conflict?

On Big Brother, a Third Grade Reality show when Shilpa Shetty, an Indian actress gets insulted by being called a “Dog”, my cultural reflections take a more repulsive turn. We are so dissimilar that we just have been reduced to racism – people are fighting other people just for fame or then worse still cultural ignorance. What is the deal with this xenophobia then?

And then I come across such manifestations of such majestic sights - of such comets of beauty and consistency. Such strikingly ethereal photographs of this comet taken in Australia, Americas and Africa on 20^th January may serve as a reminder that we still share what mother Earth has provided us and that we are not all that different. We share everything - our Green, our food, our anatomically similar bodies, and …our skies and the sights of its many celestial bodies. If we can just stop, stare and learn to admire the magnificence of McNaught Comet of January 2007 witnessed across different parts of the world, may be we can treat a lot of barriers in a similar manner – as if our own. Just May be