Astronomy Is A Waste of Time

One evening, the instant the school bus arrived, a six-year-old kid named Bhagat Drishya jumped out of it and came running inside the house. With great excitement, he told his parents what happened in the class. This is not normal but today the kids were shown beautiful satellite images of planets, stars, and outer space. In addition to that, an astronaut educated them about how these faraway stars are alien worlds just like ours with a possibility of life just like us. This thought captured the imagination of many young kids. Especially this one.

Seeing the spark for astronomy in this kid’s eyes got his father all excited. He removed and cleaned a dusty old telescope from the attic, bought an astronomy book for his son, and planned a weekend trip to the nearby hill station for stargazing. At the campsite, while the mother got the food ready, the father showed his son distant celestial bodies through his mini telescope. As they simply lay there staring at the beautiful sky. The kid said,

“Father, I want to go there one day. To that blue star.”

His father laughed. “You cannot go there. There’s no air in space. You will not be able to breathe. Also, the star is 5 million light-years away and in a different galaxy. We don’t have the technology for that. Even if you do take a rocket that travels at a speed of light, you will die even before leaving our galaxy.”

He spoke casually not realizing that he was explaining all this to a six-year-old. The kid got scared. He started crying. He threw the Astronomy book at his father and said, “I will not study stars if I cannot go there.” He then ran to his mother. “Wait! You have to… Astronomy is not a waste of time.”

The father was pushing him so much because he himself was fascinated with space when he was little. When he shared his aspirations to become an astronaut with his father, the father said, “Astronomy is a waste of time. You’ll do something that is actually useful in life.” He agreed but seeing the spark in his son’s eyes, he said to himself, “I will not kill my son’s dreams.” Ironically he just did that.

When he went to his crying son, the mother was trying to put him to sleep. He kept his distance holding the astronomy book in hand. The kid kept saying, “I will not learn about stars, I will not go to school, I don’t want to die.” He kept on crying. His mother comforted him saying, “Remember what I told you…

We don’t live just once. Before you were born, you lived a life. After this one, you will be born again. Perhaps in some other world. Now, if you don’t study the stars, how will you know where you want to be born next.”

“So I can go to that blue star?”

“Of course, you can. You can do anything you want.”

This put a smile on his face. When he saw his father standing outside the tent, the kid called him. He asked for the Astronomy book. Then holding it close to his chest he went to sleep. After the kid was asleep, the mother got out of the tent and stood next to her husband. Look at her he spoke.

“Why did you lie to him?”

“About what?”

“About reincarnation. That’s not true.”

“That’s my faith.”

“Don’t force your faith on our child. I don’t want him to grow up believing in lies and mythical stories.”

“I did not lie.”

“Reincarnation is not a proven fact.”

“Yes. But it also hasn’t been disproven. Maybe you are wrong. I believe in what I said. Even if what I told him is a lie, I will lie to our son every time if the result of it is that he will be able to sleep peacefully.”

It’s basic human nature to find meaning in everything. We need it to stay sane, to stay positive. If you have to lie to yourself in order to stay optimistic then better be a liar than a pessimist.

Good night and sweet dreams.

END

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