Mayank Chhaya Daily

Of tired light and the universe

While reading up a bit in preparation for my interview later today with Ottawa University Professor Rajendra Gupta about the doubling of the age of the universe as part of his latest paper, I was yet again fascinated by the "tired light" hypothesis. Although the hypothesis was first proposed by the Swiss astronomer  Fritz Zwicky in 1929 and has over the decades met with great skepticism in the physics community, Prof. Gupta has revived it to explain some profound anomalies in the universe as detected by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

One of the anomalies is that the JWST discovered galaxies that were fully formed barely 300 million years after the universe itself was form 13.797 billion years. They seem as mature as billion-year-old galaxies. That blew physicists' minds because how could it be that a universe that young could produce galaxies that mature. Think a fully grown adult being born after just three months.

Dr. Gupta's paper speaks of tired light in an expanding universe. Tired light essentially means that the red shift attributed to the expansion of the universe is because light losing energy as it navigates massive cosmic distances replete with gas, energy and dust. So literally, light gets tired. That fascinating idea promoted these verses just now. 

इतनी दूर बसतीं हैं बस्तियाँ सृष्टि में
के रौशनी चलते चलते थक जाती है

हम तक पहुँच तो जाती है लेकिन
ग़ुस्से में लाल सी पक जाती है

--मयंक छाया

If you were Ficus religiosa, I would be a Tinospora cordifolia garland around you

On my walk this morning I was playing songs from 'Sujata', 1959, by Sachin Dev Burman and Majrooh Sultanpuri. As I came upon 'Sun mere bandhu re' and, particularly, the antara "होता तू पीपल मैं होती" I was instantly reminded of "जो मैं होती राजा, बेला चमेलिया" from 'Kala Pani', 1958 with the same composer-lyricist duo.

These are some observations about two particular antaras and how Hindi cinema lyricists of yore so evocatively wove in nature generally and images floral and arboreal into songs. These are the two antaras that I am talking about from 'Sujata' and 'Kala Pani'.

होता तू पीपल मैं होती

अमरलता तेरी

तेरे गले माला बन के

पड़ी मुस्काती

***

जो मैं होती राजा

बेला चमेलिया

लिपट रहती राजा

तोरे बँगले पर

--मजरूह सुल्तानपुरी

In both Majrooh has used the similes of climbing vines -- Amarlata or Tinospora cordifolia and Chameli (Jasmine) or Oleaceae-- to represent female love. In the Sujata song, the poet speaks of how she wishes she were Amarlata and her beau a Peepal tree or Ficus religiosa and how she would wrap around his neck as a garland. In the Kala Pani song, the same great Majrooh has the woman pining to be Jasmine climbing around her lover's bungalow. 

Both the imageries are wonderfully fragrant and achingly intimate without being suggestive and yet so erotic. I am sure poets the world over have drawn from Nature but I am not sure there is any parallel elsewhere outside India where song writers have so effortlessly incorporated such imageries so routinely as Hindi cinema lyricists. 

 

Frenzied poeting at the crack of dawn

Waking up at random times at night with fully formed verses is quite routine for me for as long as I remember. Usually such awakenings lead to either one full ghazal or a couple of random misras (verses). Last night turned out to be unprecedented in its frenzied poeting. (Poeting is not a word but I coined it some years ago.)

Five verses were born between 2.29 a.m. and 3.13 a.m. I can be so precise in my times because I recorded them on my phone. Those who may find it hard to believe this may request me for evidence. If I am in the mood, I might present it. If not, I might tell you to bugger off.

Four of the five verses have no particular relation to one another. The fifth one is a somewhat more imaginative version of the fourth.

I call these verses expressionist poetry as a takeoff on expressionist painting. Here are the quintuplet.

2.29 a.m.

टूटे सितारों से हुआ जहाँ रेज़ा रेज़ा
चलो वह आसमान रफ़ू किया जाए

***

2.55 a.m. 

मैं शून्य हूँ
कितना भी गुणा करो
शून्य ही रहूँगा

***

2.58 a.m.

भ्रमांड क्या है
शून्य में
प्रकाश का
अपार तरंग

***

3.11 a.m. 

चलो तुम्हारी ख़ुशबू को चारसू करें
तुम्हारी परछाइयों में अपनी जुस्तजू करें

***

3.13 a.m.

चलो तुम्हारी चन्दन सी ख़ुशबू को चारसू करें
तुम्हारी काली नाग से परछाई में अपने वजूद की जुस्तजू करें

--मयंक छाया