A Magical Love Forged in Perseverance

A while back My Dad and I happened to visit a jewelry store in the hopes of buying a gift for a relative. My initial reticence due to my aversion to jewelry was quickly replaced by a few controlled words from my Dad, and I decided only to tag along as a faithful friend. (I know you are laughing right now but let’s keep it our little secret. Shhh!). But as it turned out, it was an experience that pushed my bored mind to its imaginative depths. Forget what the old adage says, all that glitters can be ‘Gold’ itself, literally. We were welcomed into a giant hall with walls glimmering yellow. With artificial light blaring unforgivingly at the poor exhibits, they stood no chance but to shine. Not long after, we were escorted to an adjacent room when we expressed our requirement. Men being men, it didn’t take long for us to narrow down to what we wanted from a carefully curated selection (Guys will resonate with me on this), and we ended up holding a small gold chain bedecked with frail decorations.

As I held the chain in my hand, glimpses of a distant past surfaced, and shied away. They were memories of a tale born, experienced and dulled by the inexorable passage of time. I couldn’t believe my eyes that I was holding a small nugget of Star dust with its own molecular memories. That day, I understood the true essence of magic. It’s the craft of carving out an extraordinary story distilled from a mundane existence. It made a forcible impression on me primarily because for a brief moment, I was getting to be part of an incredible lineage – a lineage forged by gravity, heat, and resilience. For the non-science fellows among us, a star’s story begins when interstellar gas clumps together under the influence of gravity to form an immensely heated core. This core attracts more gas around it by exerting its own gravity and a nascent baby star is born. This baby grows in size exponentially over the next thousands of years, developing into the star we see today! Now, there’s a story that needs to be retold, isn’t it? Wait a minute; it gets even more exciting. After millions of years, towards the tail end of its life, a magnificent and fiery firework awaits. The star implodes under its own gravity and finally goes boom. This is when Gold, Silver and other precious elements are created.

Whenever I feel let down, my usual practice is to gaze up at the starry night sky, trying to comprehend what it all means – our myriad experiences, interactions with our own, and our place in this vast and baffling landscape. The chain I was holding that day may very well have had its origin several million years back, probably in some distant galaxy, alone but forever determined. Such thoughts provide crucial reassurance for me that we all have a place in this strange and untamed world.

So, boys and girls, the next time you hold a piece of ornament in your hand, think back to an incredible lineage hidden within it and marvel at the history you are getting to witness.