Writer Ratika Deshpande states:

I will always mourn the slow death of our view of the night sky and all it contains. I was very young when I last saw countless stars above me in a small village in central India. Now, about two decades later, even those remote places have dimmed, their stars having disappeared from view thanks to light pollution.

But that early experience was enough to make me seek them out compulsively every time I step out in the night, even when I’m in the city because what if this time I can see them all again?

I wasn’t made for studying hard science, so my fascination towards space pulled me towards fantasy instead. Instead of going up there to study celestial bodies, I try to bring them closer by writing about them (when the Muse is generous) and hunting for stories about them. Here’s a selection of some favorites.