An Illusion called Sunrise

So when was the last time you saw a sunrise? Can’t remember, chuck it… probably you belong to the group of nocturnal creature who appreciate the beauty of moon more than the intensity of sun.

But for those who still believe in virtue that search for quintessence wisdom begins at sunrise, a glimpse of rising sun makes a lot of difference. I share the same belief, though I know that I belong to one of the rapidly dwindling species which fear extinction if things are not brought into order.

This blog is aimed at generating the awareness about the plight of early risers who wish to see the eternal source of energy in its purest form. I also aim to create a global movement for growth and promotion of sunrise community (people who rise before sunrise).

After living in a busy city like Bangalore for more than 5 years, sunrise has attained a new connotation for me – it’s the hour of the day when you see natural lights along with artificial street light at the same time. The traffic jam shifts from the main road to by-lanes. The  vehicular movement is replaced by morning walkers and their pet dogs (somehow morning walk with a dog has always bewildered me, but then its an individual choice). Instead of birds chirruping in the skyline, I hear the shouts and cry of football enthusiasts who starts their games at dawn in the playground in front of my house.

This is totally contrary to my image of sunrise which was always been inspired from the following lines of a Hindi poem penned by “Nachiketa”

रोशनी के नए झरने, लगे धरती पर उतरने
क्षितिज के तट पर धरा है, ज्योति का जीवित घड़ा है
लगा घर-घर में नए, उल्लास का सागर उमड़ने
घना कोहरा दूर भागे, गाँव जागे, खेत जागे

पक्षियों का यूथ निकला, ज़िंदगी की खोज करने
धूप निकली, कली चटकी, चल पड़ी हर साँस अटकी
लगीं घर-दीवार पर फिर, चाह की छवियाँ उभरने

Add to this the following lines from Jayashankar Prasad

बीती विभावरी जाग री!

अम्बर पनघट में डुबो रही

तारा घट ऊषा नागरी।

खग कुल-कुल सा बोल रहा

किसलय का अंचल डोल रहा

लो यह लतिका भी भर ला‌ई
मधु मुकुल नवल रस गागरी।
अधरों में राग अमंद पिये
अलकों में मलयज बंद किये
तू अब तक सो‌ई है आली

आँखों में भरे विहाग री।

And I always wished to see this sunrise, but the only thing I could ever manage in my city life was the view of a ball of fire rising from behind one or the other concrete high rise in the vicinity.

The first time (and probably the only time) I got the opportunity to admire the beauty of a rising sun was on my trip to Allepey. I and Kunal (a friend of mine) were awake for a whole night to capture the moment.

We were lucky.

We saw the sun god coming on his seven horse chariot – slowly spreading his presence – making the world brighter with every passing moment. The moment was breath taking and we decided to experience many more such moments. Probably that was a big mistake, as I realized later (and you will realize this when you reach the end) that to see a sunrise in today’s world is more painful and frustrating than a visit to the dentist.

Anyhow, we were over excited after sighting sun in Allepey and so we decided to have more such experience. We planned the next trip to Nandi hills – a famous destination for Bangalore’s IT crowd. The plan was to reach Nandi hill top and get the view of rising sun from there – a very nice idea and we got many buyers for this. Full of expectation and enthusiasm, we started off on bike and reached Nandi hill top by 5.15 AM. But the entry to the hill top was closed; the timings were from 6.30 AM (As if sun will wait till 6.30 AM for the doors to open).

I don’t know who makes such ridiculous rules?

We couldn’t manage to see the sunrise, but were compensated with a dance by a group of damsels who preferred to enjoy the moment than to curse the system. Later when we went to the hill top the monkeys came to add salt to our wounds.

We were not deterred by this failure and decided to go for a bigger adventure. This time the target was Skandagiri, again a hill – much higher than Nandi hills. The plan was to trek to the top and see what probably Edmund Hillary would have seen from Mt. Everest. It was a difficult task, so we started our trek at about 3:00 AM. It was dark and we could hardly see from one hand to another, still the imaginary sunrise of Nachiketa and Jayashankar Prasad was pulling me to the summit (and probably others too). We had to put our life at stake to reach the top (believe me one of our team member was puffing to the extent that we felt he will soon have a heart attack – sorry I cant spell out his name, else his wife will get nervous breakdown).

It was about 6.00 AM and we were about 1400 mtrs above the sea level to see the glimpse of rising sun. This time too the lady luck laughed at us – there was fog and mist all around and forget the sun, we couldn’t even see anything beyond 10 ft. More than the happiness of reaching the top, the concern was how we will get back to the ground. I also thought why on this earth I agreed for this misadventure. Now, if I happen to meet Sir Edmund Hillary, the first thing I will ask him – what exactly he saw when he reached the top – I am sure he too would have thought the same way as I was thinking at that time.

With two consecutive failures, we dropped the idea of running after sunrise and settled at the image of a setting sun. And during last many trips I was able to capture the best shots of sunset with my camera and the image of sunrise was slowly fading from my memory.

Then suddenly one day there was a plan to go to Ooty – A hill station known for its beautiful valleys. An urge to see that illuding sunrise pulled me into the game. We reached Ooty – it was a wonderful sunny day. I was confident that this is the place where finally my dream will come true. The next day I woke up at 5:00 AM in the morning and dragged two of my (over-enthusiastic) friends – Kunal and Vaibhav – to come along for the glimpse of sunrise from the valleys. It was at the time when others were enjoying their early morning sleep, we went for about an hour around the city but couldn’t manage the view.

There were buildings and buildings all around.

Later in the day we went and asked for a sunrise point (something which is common for all hill stations), but the nearest known point was a hillock about 18 kms from the city. We were at a loss. The sunrise was still a dream – my purpose of coming to Ooty was being defied.

I couldn’t come to the terms that I can’t see sunrise in Ooty, so the next day I woke up still earlier and again dragged Kunal and Vaibhav out of their bed to go to the top of the nearest hill. We saw a small circuitous road going almost to the top of a nearby hill, and this was the best bet to realize our dream. I remembered the trek on Skandagiri and started walking, others followed. After about 45 mins of brisk walking we came to the point from where to go further we had to trespass into someone’s house – I should say a mansion. It was too late to try going to some other point, coz till the time we will reach there, the sun will be shining at the top of our head.

So the only option was to try our luck here. I went ahead and tried to enter the big Iron Gate. A watchman came running towards me – he was in his mid sixties and fortunately understood broken Hindi. I narrated our plight and tried to beg him to allow us a 5 min walk to the top through the mansion. To this the watchman told us, the only point from where you can see the sunrise is from the balcony of his boss’s bedroom.

That rich fellow has built his house at a place where he gets the first view of rising sun. Now watching a sunrise is also a privilege of the rich. Poor fellow like us don’t deserve to see the sunrise, we walked back to our hotel.

Mentally we decided not to go after the mirage called sunrise. No point in wasting the beautiful dream of early morning for the sake of Nachiket and Jayashankar Prasad’s imagination. At least in my dreams I can be a millionaire and own a complete hill with a mansion at the hill top and can watch the rising sun in all its glory.