Romancing the stars

For the past 24 years, once a month, 300 pairs of eyes in the far-flung town of Vangani turn star-struck. It happens on Saturdays around new moon nights. As the sun sets, registration queues line up at counters set up in the grounds of a private bungalow. Mats are spread on the ground, and families settle down. Soon, two telescopes are set up, and amidst a sea of murmuring people lying on their backs to gaze at the sky, Khagol Mandal, one of Mumbai’s oldest amateur astronomers’ clubs, begins its programme.

Anand Ghaisas, a member, is understandably protective about the moon. “Try not to touch the eyepiece of the telescope,” he jokes, “I’ve seen extra craters on the surface of the moon every time I’ve done that.”

As the session progresses, speakers not only help the audience identify constellations and stars such as Orion and Sirius, but also narrate stories. Even after the session breaks for its midnight dose of tea, few continue tracing the constellations in the sky with their fingers...

Dilip Joshi, the club’s founder, says the stars haven’t ceased smiling on Khagol Mandal since 1986. He admits he was not an astronomy fan until he witnessed the total solar eclipse in 1980. In 1986, a month before Halley’s Comet arrived in the sky, he published a small news story announcing an informal gathering at Vangani. To his astonishment, over 600 people turned up to champion Joshi’s cause that night.

Today, Khagol Mandal boasts of more than 400 life members and 300 annual members.

Seated in a nearby bungalow, sipping tea, Khagol Mandal’s posse chatter on about their passion all night. “It isn’t just us who practice astronomy. You, in fact, just used it when you glanced at the time,” says Amey Gokhale, 27, a member since his school days. “The atom we are made of, the oxygen we breathe in, the gold we wear…it’s all from the skies,” he adds. Joshi puts their love for astronomy in perspective. “It is like researching your past, your ancestors. People build family trees, travel for years on end to trace their roots back to countries of their origin. We simply look up!” he winks.

An astronomy enthusiast can safely keep superstition and unfounded beliefs aside. For members of the Khagol Mandal, it isn’t a telescope or their club’s patronage that a star-lover must possess, but scientific attitude and an open mind. “And a clear, dark sky, of course,” jokes Ghaisas. Joshi speaks about the times when the members have struggled with the lack of scientific awareness. “I have patiently answered questions about whether the water will ever fall off from the surface of Australia “because it is located down there on the globe”. However, I can’t argue with someone who has decade-old superstitions about Rahu and Ketu devouring planets,” he says.

True to his word, as the interactive session begins at 2 am, Joshi announces. “Ask us anything except astrology, UFOs and the Bermuda Triangle, and we promise to answer to the best of our capacity.” The crowd guffaws and conversations range from the birth and death of stars, methods of calculating distances of stars, and theories explaining curvature of space.

Apart from the fact that memberships have never plummeted, the mandal’s weekly lectures at Sion, Dombivli and Andheri generate good turnouts. The fact that it’s activities and its two magazines (Khagol Varta in Marathi and Vaishwik in English) are financed from the money volunteers raise by holding lectures and programmes at educational institutions, says it all.

Pradeep Nayak oversees the education-related activities of the club, including training children for the annual astronomy Olympiad. Speaking of people’s interest in astronomy, Nayak speaks of the time in 1999 when there was a meteor shower predicted in Vangani. “More than 10, 000 people gathered to witness it,” he says.

People spilled over to the streets of the sleepy town and almost every Khagol Mandal member was asked to manage the crowds. At the stipulated time, however, there was no meteor shower. “It rained heavily,” Nayak and Joshi laugh out. However, instead of the expected chaos, the Mandal’s members were delighted at the decorum of the public. The word spread and the street leading to the grounds was renamed to ‘Khagol Mandal Tarangan Road.’

For most in the club, astronomy is a way of life. Then there are some like Hrishikesh Joglekar who combine their love for the stars with their professional goals. Joglekar, 30, studied Computer Science. Keen to build on his knowledge as an amateur astronomer, he is part of a team of researchers on their way to decipher the scripts of Indus Valley. He smiles and says he has come a long way from the times when he feared the moon. “I was 10 years old then. Had my father not pointed out the constellations and shown me how Venus, too, can cast a shadow, I wouldn’t have been here.”

Joglekar’s involvement has put him on the world map. Recently, he travelled to the US for research purposes and noticed that astronomers clubs work quite differently there. “People are more aware of astronomy as a science abroad, when compared to India. However, most clubs there had only 40-50 members,” he points out. Also, most club members abroad focus on their own personal observations and do not bother about popularising the science as we do here, he adds. The members there own sophisticated telescopes for personal use and study, while in India members share a few telescopes owned by the club.

Joshi overhears Joglekar and frowns. “What? Study astronomy behind closed doors, and miss meeting some wonderful people? I can never imagine holding the stars to myself and not letting the world know…”