Winter is here in North India. It seems to have scared not only us but also the sun, which didn’t turn up for nearly a week, at least in my hometown Amritsar. Maybe it also needs some days to overcome its fear. But what will happen to us, who desperately need it in these days of severe chill? With its absence growing, everyone missed it and the gloom showed on their faces. “When will the sun return?” My ears have heard this from almost every person I came across recently.
Many lively streets too became deserted as did many terraces that usually remain favourite hotspots of all for joyful sunbaths. But one morning, as I roused and pulled the window’s curtain aside, praying for the sun, its absence once again irked me. I was instantly in my quilt again and continued gazing towards the window, which was offering me a sad glimpse of another foggy day. I suddenly realised that this is how we realise the value of something in our life that we take for granted—in its very absence. The same is true in the case of water. And we go about polluting water, without which life can’t go on. Do we want to wake up to realise its value when it’s too late? The same goes for many other aspects of our lives—be it our relationships, health, home, time and so on.
After all, we take so much in our life for guaranteed, don’t we? Coming back to the sun, did you know every year in early March, inhabitants of Norway’s Longyearbyen, the most northerly town on the planet that lies in the Svalbard archipelago, see direct sunlight for the first time since late October? Its appearance results in a week of celebrations— called Solfestuka or turn of the sun—for winter here is brutally cold and long with residents enduring four months without direct sunlight.
The celebrations include concerts, theatre productions, and most interestingly folk songs that are sung to welcome the sun. Often the celebrations go longer even beyond the week, considering the sun has arrived after four months of polar night. Of course, the sun’s absence made the Norwegians realise its golden value because it’s the absence that does the trick. And who knows, maybe this time, my hometown too will erupt in celebrations the day the sun returns.
RAMESHINDER S SANDHU
Email: rameshinder.sandhu@gmail.com