"Long ago, before the Great Clock, time was measured by changes in heavenly bodies: the slow sweep of stars across the night sky, the arc of the sun and variation in light, the waxing and waning of the moon, tides, seasons. Then, in a small town in Italy, the first mechanical clock was built. People were spellbound. Later they were horrified. Here was a human invention that quantified the passage of time, that laid ruler and compass to the span of desire, that measured out exactly the moments of a life" - 1993 novel Einstein’s Dreams by physicist Alan Lightman
My time on Earth began in 1956. Although I'm old, I wasn't really born before the invention of clock. The clock was already governing society and dictating our lives when I was born in the city of Kolkata, in India. I never had to see anyone use the sun as their choice for timekeeping. Everybody had wall hanging clocks and for even greater convenience, a wristwatch to check time and go about their lives
I did see people pray to the sun, did suryanamaskar every morning, I saw its images in every child's drawing in a semi-circular form; peeking over the knobby mountains. I saw the rainbow, jubilant with all its colors; curved over from one end to the other like a magical path forged for gods or fairies
I read a lot of books, mostly from my father's study which had an enormous collection of literature; from every genre imaginable.
I had read a story by Issac Asimov called "Nightfall" which spoke about a planet with a 6 star system shining continuous light on a planet for 2000 years and one day of nightfall due to an eclipse. It was said that the society would crumble in fear of total darkness as they wouldn't have a reference on what to expect when their 2000 years of light suddenly ceased to shine.
On Earth, we have nightfall everyday, so the prospect of an eclipse didn't really scare me as I failed to comprehend it. Why would it be scary in the darkness? I asked myself, we can just turn on the streetlights!
This omnipresent glowing orb in the sky shone brightly every morning and went away every night; giving me a routine to follow and filled my head up with questions. Questions about life, questions about us, questions about our past, present and future.
So many questions!
I never knew the sun could answer them, but it was certainly the brightest object to my knowledge (although the security guard's torch certainly outshone it at night!) and it was the only thing lighting my imagination with enough steam to power my dreams.
Henceforth, the Sun became my muse. My inspiration. My mentor.