How can something

come out of nothing,

let alone the universe?

But that is what contemporary

theory of cosmology proclaims—

14 billion years ago,

the universe sprouted

out of vacuum

from a quantum hum—

an energy fluctuation

that did not create

something trifling,

but everything—

an ever expanding

space-time fabric,

sprinkled with glittering confetti

at an astronomical scale—

stars, galaxies

comingled with planets, black holes…

billions of them,

including our tiny corner—

the solar system,

a stable cluster of marbles

circling the ever-luminous Sun.

The moment of birth,

anointed as Big Bang,

is impossible

to visualize or verbalize

within our cognitive limits,

as the universe

had no ancestors—

not even mother,

and most shockingly

no past.

It was an immaculate conception

of the inanimate kind,

with the universe booting

into existence

out of nowhere.

Who turned on the switch?

We gazed

into the heavens in wonder

at the omnipresent

confetti of candles

dazzling the night skies—

and we started eulogizing them

in various languages—

as we evolved

and streamlined

our communication

from gibberish

to structured sonics,

and invented a plurality of languages—

to verbalize the awe

and splendor we encountered as children,

with immortal lullabies a la—

Twinkle twinkle little star

How I wonder what you are.

It took the great Italian, Galileo,

to shatter the myths

and permanently rupture

the curtain of ignorance

masking the heavens.

The simple act of pointing

his mighty scope into the skies

revealed their true colors—

the moon is all but a barren

marble, not some heaven.

It was the same curious Italian

to first hear whispers

of nature’s native tongue—

a prescient observation

that Mathematics

is the hieroglyphic language

of our scientific Bible.

Nature’s rich phenomena

are best elucidated

with theories—

narratives woven

with abstract characters:

integers, points,

circles, triangles—

Is it just another language

we invented,

or the very tongue cosmos

prefers to express?

Is mathematics

God’s mother tongue?

The dual incarnations

of the animate world—

animals and trees,

the kinetic and static

denizens of the planet

breathe in synchrony,

inhaling and exhaling

complementary molecules

of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide—

the oxygen of one life form,

is the poison of the other

and vice versa—

one of nature’s

many balancing acts.

These two main kingdoms,

replete with a spectrum of species,

partake in an interdependent,

evolutionary dance—

interacting, creating

and sustaining life

in this seemingly

lone blue capsule

decorated with

an infinite array of paintings—

lazy clouds embellished

with flocks of birds,

savannahs sprinkled

with leaping gazelles,

mountains hugged

in shimmering snow…

and sweeping swaths

of opulent green—

an ecosystem

rife with life,

in stark contrast

to dead planets

flooding the cosmos.

Are we the sole

blue dot in the universe?

What a rarity is life!