Be it in a child's lullaby, like "aayo tumhe chand pe le jaaye", or in a lover's dream of togetherness, where Dilip Kumar mouths the very famous "tujhe chand ke bahane dekhoon", in a hero's description of his beloved's ravishing beauty when he sings "Chaudhvin ka chaand ho, ya aaftaab ho, jo bhi ho tum khuda ki kasam, laajawaab ho", or even in Meena Kumari's plea to the moon to stay the night so that she can share with her love the few moments till he breathes his last, in "Ruk jaa raat theher jaa re chanda"- every Bollywood masala engulfs in it the serene shadows of the moon.

Cutting through the ages, innumerable number of these 'moon' melodies have been scored in Bollywood movies and the picturisations of these have gained immortality in the history of Indian cinema and also in people's hearts.

And that is how the unavoidably elegant moon, is weaved in every moment of our lives....it is simply indelible!

The moon has been a symbol of faith, love and remembrance over decades. And it still continues to be. Not only in the fantasy of movies, but also in the stark realities of an everyday life, where a person even with the coldest of heart stares at the moon in a quiet night awaiting solace.

From time immemorial the moon has served as a constant inspiration for poets and song writers who have captured its essence sometimes to embody love in its facets of beauty and betrayal- or sometimes to express the feelings of loneliness of a sad heart. The moon when seen on a dark blue sky- speaks of hope too. And even when the stubborn shadows of the clouds hides it- to a poet's eye it has been the unmistakable signs of a sweet game of hide and seek.

When the night is devoid of this angelic presence- some see it as a darkness left devoid of light and hope and love. And so in Chitra's unforgettable voice comes the words, "raat hamari toh, chand ki saheli hai, kitne dino ke baad, aayi who akeli hai "- adorned with a few quiet tears, this is how the heroine voices her anguish.

Bollywood has taken inspiration from the moon and have used it in the film titles, lyrics and dialogues. Films like Chandchakori(1945), Chandralekha (1948), Chand (1959), Chaudhvin Ka Chand (1960), Chand Aur Suraj (1965), Chandni (1989), Chandramukhi (1993), Khoya Khoya Chand (2007), the list goes endless.

However the compilation is incomplete without werewolves! Ah! The moon and the werewolf- seems to be most improbable to place the two together, isn't it? But the truth is, or rather the 'myth' is that as the full moon appears in the night sky, the cursed man changes to a werewolf, mad with wrath and hungry of blood- in search of its prey! The Ramsay Brothers who have scared the Indian audiences from the past three decades with their horror flicks have used moon to create an eerie situation full of suspense and smoke (to portray 'fog') in most of their movies. The 1992 Mahesh Bhatt directed a film named Junoon also had a situation where the hero (Rohit Roy) turned into a man-eating tiger on a full moon night.

It is often said that love and hate are two sides of the same coin- so similarly, I believe, that the
moon too, has a double role to play- inspiring the good and instigating the devil!

In every expression of the soul, in every moment of solitude, in every bloom, in the summoning of the doom- the moon acts as a metaphor, in Hindi cinema. It leaves behind the simple, white, round 'thing' in the sky and goes beyond how the moon is the fifth largest satellite in the solar system and only second in brightness to that of the sun or how it orbits the earth at a distance of about 384,000 kms and has a certain diameter and mass, etc.- and makes it a personification of the heart, at times merry, at others, mellow.

And to end with- I can say that I am not a poet, and there is no 'one' I write it for moreover, there is nobody to read my poetry; but the moon moves me too (surprisingly), to write a few words.

I feel like saying .

"Moon in its glory,
full in the sky's face
freckles and spots as if from age
as though beautiful in haste
There blooms a moon,
far from me

Not a soul to hear my woes
Not a hand to touch my core
Not an embrace to help me hope
Not a word that leads me to love-

But there the moon,
Looking down at me,
whispers to my ear
"Never fear, you hear?"

With that a smile,
Comes to my face
Every time I look up,
Walking into tomorrow with the passage of days

Yet, wishing it were near
Oh dear, oh dear!"