Moon-gazing is an esoteric pastime for a motley group of people ranging from celebrities to yogis. It is a part of Trataka, an ancient yogic technique that has been practised for thousands of years and is known to bring incredible benefits to those who practise it. It includes steady gazing at the moon and apparently can heal the eyes, clear the mind and even increase psychic abilities. Hollywood celebrities—Kate Hudson, for one—are known to have moon-gazing parties where invitees gaze at the moon for fifteen minutes and then meditate before their Rabelaisian pursuits commence.

I too, by a quirk of fate, turned into a moon-gazer during the early years of my police career. Every evening as I returned home, I would look at the moon to see whether it was waxing or waning. Nights when the moon is down are called ‘dark nights’ in police parlance. It is on dark nights that criminals prefer to operate, as they are difficult to spot by police patrols. I would be anxious with the waning moon, apprehensive about the possible occurrence of a serious incident in my jurisdiction, as gangs belonging to an erstwhile criminal tribe were active in my district, whose depredations were the stuff of horror stories.

I was posted as deputy commissioner of police in south Delhi between 1989 and 1992. Midnight raids by gangs of criminals, who more or less had a common modus operandi, plagued my district. They would break into homes, bludgeon the residents to death in their sleep without any provocation and then ransack their homes, looking for jewellery, cash, wristwatches and other small items of value. If spotted and chased by the police, they would throw stones at them, sometimes severely injuring the officers, and then escape under the cover of darkness.


To be continued...