No matter where you are in the world, you may have seen the supermoon on March 19th. A supermoon marks an instance when slightly oblong orbits bring our sister celestial body especially close to Earth. The result is a giant rising glowing moon. It’s a rare event. The last time this happened was in 1992. If you missed it, you’ll need to wait until 2016.
Imagine my excitement when my friends and I were scheduled to be riding a houseboat through Kerala’s backwaters on the evening of the supermoon. Just after sunset, the moon appeared as an orange orb on the horizon line. It rose fast, decreasing in size as it progressed upwards, but increasing in clarity as its shadowy surface came into view.
The moon was stunning, but I found myself admiring the marshy backwater landscape just as much. These waters are the lifeblood of surrounding villages. Locals live beside them, bathe in them, fish from them, and travel across them. The steel blue lakes and canals were alive with movement as washerwomen wrang out clothes and egrets swooped onto lily pads. Perhaps it was the afterglow of the supermoon that highlighted these backwaters in such a special light.
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