A tiny red star circles around the moon in the sky of a polluted Delhi. I am far away from it and the sight captivates me. I try pointing this marvel to other people, but no one else can see it. I cannot believe it but right at this moment, the red star leaves the moonside and starts travelling towards me.

/

Under the bright, hard sunlight of the tropics, I am examining a beautiful piece of blue topaz. I turn it around, and look at it from many different angles. I know it is a topaz and nothing else. It’s beautiful but I want a sapphire. So, I go to a jewellery shop and ask for the brilliant blue gem. That’s when I hear a voice from somewhere above telling me to not buy a sapphire, but to wait for it

The sapphire will come to you.

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 I am on my way back home. It’s very late at night, and the road seems long and rather tiresome: there are flyovers to be crossed, traffic to be avoided, madmen to be ignored. I have no way to do this except by walking, somehow I don’t have a car, or a taxi. Not even a bicycle to make this slightly easier. Tired in the middle of a sprawling, well-lit road, I decide to ask for help, but no one trusts me, no one stops for me. I am absolutely, utterly alone on this road punctuated with small shops, and scary faces. After the crossing, I turn towards the final patch of road, but it is without lights, and nothing is visible.

The final dark road towards home is about to begin.

…

Saudamini Deo is a writer and photographer from India.