It was a regular family gathering afternoon, my family was
invited to my uncle's house for a Friday Feast, everyone had just finished
their lunch, and were now drinking tea and chatting, it was then when I sneaked
out and left the crowed to go to my uncle's office where he had this huge
library, I was about 7 years old, I can hardly reach the top shelves that held
the heavy old looking books, so I settled for the ones my tiny hands could reach to avoid the trouble I would get into if I needed anyone to help
me to get to the ones on the top, because that would end up with my mother freaking out and me
outside the office which was not an option!
I grabbed a couple of books, sat on the floor, and started
to flip through the pages, the book was in English, so I didn't understand a
thing and kept looking at the photos in it, now from the title of this blog
you’ve guessed already what that book was about, it was about Space! More
specifically the Solar System, which at that age barely knew anything about, anyhow
that didn’t stop me from flipping for more pages and gazing at more photographs,
it was a few minutes later when my little sister had found me hiding in my
uncle’s office, she came in, looked at the book and then asked ‘what are these
things? Basma, do you know what are they?’
‘What are these things?’
By the time she came in I was staring at a drawing of
Saturn, it for some reason captivated my attention because none of the previous
drawings of planets had any rings around them, so my sister’s question was about
the rings, now I myself didn’t know what were they, but it was shameful for me
to seem so ignorant in front of my little sister, because after all I was the
‘smart mouthed’ kid in the family, I had the answers to everything, how can I
not know ‘what were these things’ so I made up a story and told my sister that they were advanced antennas
for alien satellites and that she shouldn’t ask anymore questions because it
would be dangerous, of course I only
said that to scare her away from asking me any more questions that I had
absolutely no idea how to answer them.
She left the room and never asked me anything related to
space till this very day, except our usual ‘do you believe in alien life’ arguments
now and then, now I understand why she doesn't believe in intelligent alien
life, I think I scared her for good!.
My family's weekly visits to my uncle's were the highlight
of my week because it meant more time for me to sneak to his office and flip
through the pages of the space books he had. I had so many questions but I was
afraid to ask, because then they would find out that I was disappearing into
his office which was a forbidden zone for the children in the family, so I
settled for only looking at more drawings, and oh man I was hooked!
In our school systems, they only teach you about the Earth,
moon and Solar System, so you grow up thinking that the universe is that
limited. That is if you’re thinking about the universe in the first place.
For the most part while growing up I wondered about the
shapes that appeared on the moon and if they meant anything, now I know there’s
no man on the moon and there’s no rabbit either, but in fact it’s ‘maria’ that
resulted billions of years ago when a giant asteroid hit the moon and caused the
lava to expand to the other side of the moon which we now see as dark regions.
As I grew older my love and fascination with our ever expanding universe
intensified, I’m often asked ‘What is a Laboratory Medicine
student doing reading about pulsars?’ or why do I spend hours in the library
chasing down an information about the history of the universe, I can list a
million reasons to why, but I think one is enough.
It’s love.
During a long exhausting day of lectures, whenever I have a
free hour, I would run for my life and I mean RUN, to my university's library
just to escape into a parallel universe outside the pressure of lectures with
‘Heaven & Earth’
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After 2 weeks of library deprivation due to my hectic schedule, I came back to find my baby alone and dusty! |
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| With my friend Randa at our university's library , where I spent a good 40 minuets explaining to her what was a 'Hubble Deep Filed' |
I remember once a my friend Raghda was traveling to Qatar and
it was during the tough times of Rafah Crossing, she texted to tell me that she finally made it outside
Rafah Crossing boarder, and I replied ''congratulations, you made it to the
other side of the black hole''
One time when I was visiting my family in UAE I went
to my mother's office to help her out, I met some of her co-workers, all nice
people and got to know them better, of course they noticed my Space Geekiness,
because it was the 7th of March and there was a huge Solar Flare
heading towards the Earth and I was on my mother’s computer following the progress
of the Flare online.
So it’s no question that the perfect gift for someone like
me was ‘The Night Sky’, which was exactly what I got when I went in for the
last time to say Goodbye before heading to Gaza
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| Heading home with my new best friend! :D |
More more Love
-It was a regular night in Gaza and by regular I mean there was no electricity, I was sitting in my bed with a small searchlight in my hand to help me read ‘The Night Sky’ I happened to be reading about pulsars when the Israelis decided to bomb near by, of course I freaked out for a second but when I noticed the irony I exploded with laughter, oh Gaza you always know how to ‘blast’ my mood! :D
-On my way home one afternoon, I shared a taxi with my dear
friend Rana, we were talking on the drive home and of course, again, somehow I
ended up talking about space! I started about the space-time continuum and
drifted to a completely different world and started to explain to her using my
hands, how Einstein said that space and time are interconnected like a fabric,
days later she told me that the guy that was sitting next to us in the taxi
‘freaked out’ according to Rana he did ‘’especially when u got excited and
started to talk about space there were some birds flying above his head’’..Call
me crazy but I enjoyed it! :D
-After a bad day or a long exhausting day, the only thing
that would lift my spirit is looking at
NASA’s Astronomy Picture Of The Day website to find the dancing Nebulae speaking to me and only me about the secrets they so creatively keep. Or sitting on the rooftop with my
mug of coffee listening to Umm Kulthum while watching the stars, these luminance
wonders so far away that they almost seem mythical.They never fail to spark optimism in my soul.
It’s magic.
Though my soul may set in darkness.
It will rise in perfect light.
I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night
- Sarah Williams
When everything seems to be dark as the dark matter, the
only thing that would bring back lost hope is looking at the starry night sky,
even though in Gaza sometimes the sky is feared because it carries the war
planes that bear destruction, so if you’re ever in Gaza, never mistake a
passing flash in the night sky for a supernova, it’s most likely a just a ‘light
bomb’ or what is locally known as ‘Qanadeel’ which is their attempt to light
the night sky to get a better visual.
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| Gazan Moon! Photo taken from my rooftop! :D |
The way I feel about Space is the same way Elizabeth Gilbert
feels about travel, and this quote pretty much says it all:
‘’Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love
of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first
went to Russia
When you love something this badly you don’t need a reason
to explain it to others, they can see it in your face and the sound of your voice
when you speak about it, I know it might be weird and uncommon for someone to
care this much about what seems to be useless to others, but like Elizabeth
Gilbert said, I don’t care!
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| Antares :). My favorite Red Giant |
‘’We are StarDust.We are golden. We are billion year old
carbon’’
The quote is from the song by Woodstock
Every atom in your body was once a part of a star. But how
you may ask. You may know that heavy atoms only result from the nuclear fusion
of smaller atoms which can't occur on Earth. This only happens under extreme heat. Which is called
Thermo-nuclear fusion. This reaction only occurs inside the core of massive
stars. They are the giants that harbour this immense heat. And when the star
dies and goes supernova more heavier elements will be created.
Anyhow, you may find this hard to process but that’s not
what I’m getting at by quoting Carl Sagan.
My point is, if you believe that you are something more than
the flesh and bones that make you. That you are indeed a supernovic pulsating
star of life. You can’t imagine the countless astonishing achievements you can,
yes YOU can achieve. You only have to open your mind and B.E.L.I.E.V.E.
''Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known''
- Carl Sagan
Great references if you’re interested:
Documentaries:
Websites:
