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SIXTEENTH CENTURY

That was a summer evening. It was getting dark. Some time had lapsed after setting of sun. The sky was full of twinkling objects. Abhijeet just finished his dinner and came out of the house. He looked up and was amazed by the glittering little spots in the sky. What must that be? He was lost in thoughts. His father came out and found Abhijeet engrossed looking at the skies.

“What are you thinking my child?”

“What are those sparkling little things in the sky?”

“Abhijeet, those are the blossoms fallen from the trees in the garden of GOD. By the morning somebody in the heaven sweeps them off. But again in the night the blossom falls. The garden in the heaven is so very big and there are so many flowering trees in there, that this huge sky gets fully covered by blossom drops. Splendid. Isn’t it?”

“Yes. Indeed. I want to see those flowers. Touch them. Feel them. Can we go to that garden? I am very keen.”

“No child. We can not go to that garden. It is far off. Only GOD stays that far off. We can not even think of it.”

Little Abhijeet was disappointed. His spirit was dampened. He went back inside the house and slept on his bed.

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TWENTIETH CENTURY

The sun set much earlier in the wintry night. Little Aryan had reached the village of his Grandfather to enjoy the Diwali vacation there. He was tired and was preparing to sleep. Just then he peeped out of the window of his Grandfather’s house. And he was startled to see so many twinkling things in the sky. “What that must be?” He could not sleep thinking of the glittering spots in the sky. He called his Grandfather and asked him about those sparkling things in the sky.

“My child, those are the planets and stars in the universe. The planets are in our solar system. They are like our earth. Some of them are much bigger than our earth. The stars are like our sun. Some stars are many times bigger than our sun. But they all are far off. So even the big stars look as small as planets of our solar system. Some billion years ago our solar system was formed. The invention of telescope has made it possible to see into the space. Countries like US, USSR are trying to send human beings on to our moon and planets like Mars. But there is no atmosphere there. So it is going to be difficult to land a human being there. But very soon that will happen. “

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TWENTY SECOND CENTURY

After sunset, when it was getting dark, little Aniket with his father came out on to the terrace of the 130 storey building where he was staying on 101st floor. He looked up and was dazzled by the sparkling stars in the sky.

“What are those twinkling little objects in the sky” asked innocent Aniket.

“Oh. Those are the planets of our solar system and stars of the universe.  Planets of our solar system are few A.U. away from our earth. But stars are much farther. Now since we have installed WEB SPACE TELESCOPE in the space much beyond our moon, we can see much deeper into the space. Some stars are a few hundred light years away. These stars have their own system of planets and there is a possibility of some life like human beings on some of the planets” father said.

Aniket’s curiosity reached very high. “Can we go to some star to see the planets there?”

“Yes, why not. We will book two seats on inter galaxy space shuttle and certainly we will be able to see the planets of solar system of some other star. On the way, we can have a glimpse of the rings of our SATURN as well as Jupitor. So now you go to sleep. Tomorrow we will have to board the inter galaxy flight. Okay. Let us get into our house and take a quick nap to be fresh for the flight.”

They came back in to their house. Aniket jumped into his bed and was dreaming about their inter galaxy flight the next day.