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I am sure most of you must have seen the Super Moon on 7th and 8th of April. It is said that it was one of the closest to the earth in its elliptical journey round the Earth.

As per NASA ,Super Moon takes place when the full moon is at its closest to Earth at about 363300 KM as compared to average distance of 384400 KM. Since it is closest it looks bigger and also brighter too.

Although I took some shots in the evening of 7th April when the sky was still in its natural colour but when I went to the terrace to capture again at night ,it did not show its face as covered by thick layer of clouds. Hence I planned to get up early in the morning of 8th April to take some shots if the sky was clear . However I could not shoot it from the terrace as it was obstructed by the high rise residential buildings at Kaushambi. The only alternative was to come out of the house and shoot it from the wide road , hardly 20 meters from my house gate. Then the question arose
“Should I cross the “LAXMAN REKHA” fixed by the Lock Down declared by the Prime Minister on 24th March 2020. After thinking for a few minutes I thought of coming out of the comfort zone just to take a few shots (observing norms of Social distancing ) as there was practically nobody on the road in the wee hours of morning.

The shots gave me the insight under which the whole world is going through at this point of time.
As you know the whole world for the last few months is under threat of its own existence for its own deeds as we think ourselves to be invincible for the life style we have adopted at the cost of other living beings.

I remember during our childhood our parents had a lifestyle of SIMPLE LIVING AND HIGH THINKING and that is the reason why imbibed those principles, followed them and reached some stage in life where some people look to us. But most of the people now have changed the life styles and they have been exposed to EXHIBITIONIST tendencies and now the new mantra appears to be HIGH LIVING AND NO THINKING or LEAST THINKING . In following this philosophy of life , destroying all the creatures which are coming on their path for pleasure as to show that they are superior to all other creatures inhibiting this earth without knowing that all the comforts being enjoyed are on account of them as they are maintaining the equilibrium of all the natural resources on this earth.

The Moon also plays its role from time immemorial in causing tides and through them keeping mangroves live which in turn provide food to many creatures which many of us have not even seen.

The shot taken in the early morning reminded me as if we are passing through one of the worst phase of our life and it also showed me a ray of hope when the moon comes out of the clouds indicating that we will come out of this phase provided we make efforts to protect our mother earth.

The only and the best alternative at this juncture is to maintain SOCIAL DISTANCING to ward off the Covid -19 disease so that it does not reach the third stage known as COMMUNITY TRANSMISSION.

Let us STAY HOME and STAY WELL not only for ourselves but for others too . Perhaps this is the only way we can help the Doctors ,Medical Staff ,Paramedical staff ,Police officials and other service providers who are working selflessly leaving their own family for days together so that we all are in comfort zone.

I Salute each of them.

Images of Moon from Kaushambi, Ghaziabad taken on 7th and 8th of April 2020.

About Vinod Goel

He joined Customs & Central Excise service in 1982. As a civil servant, his job takes him to various parts of India, which gave him an opportunity to capture our wild heritage, through his camera. His passion for wildlife photography started in 2004 when he was posted at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and this passion continues till today.