The "real" magic

Greetings!

Satyajit Ray is a uniquely genius film maker from India. His last movie is also my most favorite of his films. This movie is named "Agantuk" meaning "The Stranger".

In this movie a middle class couple is surprised by the visit of an old man, who claims to be a distant uncle of the wife. This man claims to have run away from his family in early years and says that he had been an anthropologist touring world over since then.

The movie depicts dilemma of the couple, the joy of their son to find an exciting grand-uncle and the thirst of the stranger to connect with his family even though he is connected with nature more than anyone else!

The entire movie is an experience that I recommend everyone to watch (Digital version of the full movie with subtitles can be found Here)

A scene from this movie where this strange explorer is showing magic trick to children - has been etched forever on my mind. The scene happens when the stranger meets his niece's son along with his friends and goes somewhat like this...

Stranger: (Using some coins on an envelope) How big is the Sun, and how big is the Moon? Almost same size right?

Children: No! Sun is bigger!

Stranger: Oh! (Puts a small coin for Moon and large one for Sun) So they should look like this then? But they don't! Wonder what may be the reason?

Children: The Sun is far away and the moon is near. So they look the same.

Stranger: Wow! and when the moon comes in front of sun? When you have full eclipse, don't they match each other exactly? And when earth comes in between sun and moon, the earth's shadow too matches the size of the moon exactly? Isn't it?

Children: (Surprised and reflect that sense of wonder that only children are lucky enough to possess!)

Stranger: You can go and ask any pundit, any astronomer about anything and they will have answer for that. But ask them why are the Sun, Moon and Earth all placed in such a way - that the size of Sun, Moon and Earth's shadow exactly match each other, when seen from here? I bet they won't have an answer! Why? Because this is the "real" magic!!!



I guess there comes a time in our life when we simply stop wondering at such "real" magic. We simply trudge through jaded expressions and false selfie frowns. We look at WhatsApp forwards to get our ration of private chuckles, vicarious rage and made-up wonders in strange videos...

And then some brilliant story teller comes and re-introduces us to the "real" magic that is happening around us - every day, every night and in between... 

Sincerely Mine!
Anand Kulkarni



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