Adventures of Raghu - the trek with Uncle Seher (Part 2)

Uncle Seher put his sleeping bag next to Raghu and lay down to join him in gazing at the stars. Just as he lay down, Raghu jumped up pointing towards the sky – “Uncle look, a shooting star!! Did you see it??” Uncle Seher smiled – “Yes I did Raghu. It was absolutely fantastic! The wonders of nature!” Raghu lay back down. “We never get to see all these stars in the city uncle Seher. I guess we’re higher up in the mountains now, so maybe that’s why they’re more visible here” said Raghu thoughtfully. Uncle Seher laughed, “No Raghu that’s not the reason. It has to do with the Light pollution and smog in the city.

Here the air is clear and there are no street lights. That’s the reason we’re being able to view the fantastic spectrum of the night sky.” Raghu kept looking up.

“I had read about so many constellations before I came here uncle. But I find it hard to find them in the midst of these millions of stars” said Raghu. “Okay, let’s start with the big dipper,” started Uncle Seher. “Look for seven major stars: four in the bowl and three in the handle. The two stars on the outside of the bowl are called the pointer stars. They point to Polaris, a bright star that is also called the North Star because with it you can figure out which way is north.” Raghu looked hard, as his fingers started to outline the big dipper in the sky. “I found it Uncle! I found the big dipper and the north star” cried out Raghu in excitement. “Great, now you can use this to also find Ursa Minor or the little dipper.

You know Raghu, these star patterns called constellations helped people navigate on land and by sea as well as tell time, since they appear in different parts of the sky depending on the day and year.  You see this is because the stars don't move only the earth moves.”

Uncle quickly got up. “Raghu let’s have our meal now, it’s getting late.”  Raghu sat near the campfire chopping vegetables, while Uncle Seher took out the pots he had brought along with him and started boiling some rice. Within a little over half an hour, rice and vegetable dal soup was ready.

Uncle poured some in a bowl for Leela to eat and sat down with Raghu to enjoy the meal they all so well deserved.

After the meal, once all the food items had been cleaned away, Uncle, Raghu and Leela sat near the campfire as Uncle Seher started narrating a story. “Raghu do you know the legend of the Sarolsar lake?” “No uncle” said Raghu, his eyes lighting up with both fear and excitement. “So Raghu, this lake is many thousands of years old. It was actually much bigger then, and had many types of fish and plant life in it at that time. It was a thriving place back then…” Uncle Seher started narrating the story of how a being from deep in the forests had found its way here and had slowly taken over the entire lake.

He had shrunk the size of the lake, killed most of the animals and plants in the lake and had buried itself deep in the waters where it could not be seen. “That is why no one dare ventures into the lake.”

“And even today he comes out some nights and his wild call can be heard.” Raghu looked around rather cautiously, fear lurking in his eyes. He loved spooky stories, but this was a little too close to home to laugh about. He moved closer to Leela, at which point he didn’t realize Uncle Seher jump on him from the back. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA” screamed Raghu as he ran as far as he could without looking back, Leela running and barking right behind him. Uncle Seher started laughing and screamed out -  “Boy you’re so gullible! Come back here! It’s time we get to bed….a long day of rock climbing awaits us tomorrow. I hope you’ve done your homework for it!”