Sky Watching : a de' ja` vu

There was a time when my lil one would chime in "twinkle twinkle little star" with her sweet  voice and hand in hand we would walk around the room  , our tune  trying to be in harmony with each other , often   we would perch around the  window ledge and   look at the dark,  night sky shimmering with splendour. The glimmering stars were the objects of wonder to my "lil one " and objects of love to my motherly soul as these were trying to establish a bond between the mother and child in the pretext of sky watching .

Yesterday was one such day ...Time has opened up different experiences just as the different colours of the rainbow. My lil one, took me for a  stride along  space...huh , nothing like this happened but truly it was a different experience . The date was  27th Feb , 2017 . My "lil one " , who seemingly is no longer so little , took me to an open ground overlooking our balcony at 9 pm at  night to see the constellation , Orion.








                                  Orion is said to be the brightest star in the sky and now I understand that because of the proximity of our location to the equator , it was visible to us as this constellation lies on the celestial equator .
                Many mythical stories surround  the origin and history of this constellation . One such famous myth entails the fact that Orion has been known since ancient times . The constellation is also known as the Hunter , as per  Greek mythology . It represents the mythical hunter Orion , who is often depicted in star maps as either facing the charge of Taurus , the bull , pursuing the Pleiades sisters or seen near the constellations Canis Major and Canis Minor . This a popular belief , though there are other stories also .

In real sense ,  I had a feeling of deja vu .

What is de'ja` vu ?

 Derived from French , this word means " already seen " .

 According to Cambridge Dictionary : it is the strange feeling that in some way you have already experienced what  is happening now .


An exhaustive explanation of " Deja Vu" is provided by Judith Orloff  MD 's book Second Sight  .

 Carl Jung (1875 - 1961 ), the famous psychiatrist  considered  de'ja` vu  to be the product of "collective consciousness " . During a trip to Africa , Carl Jung described a feeling of de'ja` vu when he viewed a slim , black man leaning on a spear looking at his train as it made a turn around a steep cliff on the way to Nairobi .  He writes , " I had the feeling that I had already  experienced  this moment and had always known this world ."  Although this world and this man were something alien to him , he saw the whole thing as perfectly natural . According to him ,this  recognition  was " immemorially known ."

                Sky watching which created an impact of de' ja`vu was a new experience for me . So was it for my " lil one " , for  whom seeing a constellation in the night sky was an experience that happened first time in her life , the curious mind with thousands questions also sparkled with  the starry shimmer .