A rare phenomenon occurred on Monday night soon after Maghrib (sunset). I happened to be sitting in the verandah (which has a fly-wire sheeting to allow breeze to come in and yet is sheltered from the top) as it was humid inside the house. And happened to glance up into the sky through the slightly swaying coconut leaves – voila what a splendid sight withheld my gaze. Venus was bright and standing strong so close to the 3rd day moon. A gentle crescent carving a cradle beautifully for Venus. It was so bright I was enthralled for a while – then motioned my brother to come see it. Bro went into garden to get a clearer look. Now usually dad is the star-man in the house and dad had gone for 40 winks after maghrib prayers and was in the other end of the house, where even my bugging calls, wouldn’t reach him.
Later that night, on the news, it was reported that this rare phenomenon stayed in that position for abt 3 hrs! Wow. Thereafter the positions reversed and Venus was sitting below the crescent arc. In Arabic the alphabet n’oon is formed when a quart of an arc is below a dot [ﻥ ] and the alphabet ba or ‘bay’ in Urdu is formed when the dot is below the arc [ﺏ]. So the next day everyone is going around asking ‘Did you see the ‘bay’ last night? Stunning wasn’t it?’ which took me a while to realise they were referring to the crescent moon sighting. And questions like “I saw the noon, did you see the bay?” Haha.
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