Ali was born in a middle class family. One night, while lying flat on his back in his cradle, he saw lots of stars in the sky. He asked his father in his innocent childish broken language, “Which one is the best star, papa?” His father did not have a clear answer for the innocent question of the child who was so young in age to communicate properly. The father replied, “All the stars are same but you are brighter than all of them because you are my lovely moon.” and kissed the child’s forehead. The question remained in Ali’s mind increasing his curiosity even more with the passage of time. He would ask the same question to the people who came across him. After much endeavor, not getting any satisfactory answer to his question from anyone, he felt disappointed and left asking the question to people anymore, rather he simply asked himself the question and would answer it, but his answers were never satisfactory.
It was Ali’s first day at school. When he entered the school gate, he saw a big star painted on the right hand side wall, half enclosed in a crescent moon, which he later came to know to be the national flag of his country. “Is this the best star?” His innocent mind wondered once again but when he touched the wall, he did not like it because something from the wall pricked in his hand. After some days, he started learning to draw various things in the sand, provided to children of play group in a tray, where all the kids were asked to draw sketches of their own interest. He drew a star in the sand which he liked very much and once again he asked the same question to himself, “Is this the best star?” but before he could reach any conclusion the class teacher came in to check the works of the kids, and seeing that Ali had drawn a beautiful star on the surface of the sand in the sand tray, she applauded him by making a star on his beautiful cheek with a yellow color marker. He returned home that day quiet excited, and while washing his hands for taking lunch, he saw in the mirror placed above the wash basin the star on his cheek. His innocent mind repeated the same question, “Is this the best star?” but he couldn’t decide whether that was the best star or not. Time kept passing and the small child turned out to be a handsome, energetic and athletic boy who was then the best soccer player of his school team. He was given the title “Star player” by his school and to honor him the school management designed a special uniform for him, having a big star on the back of his shirt. When he was presented the shirt with the big star on its back, the same question came in his mind again, “Is this the best star?” but as usual “No” was the answer he got from inside. When he completed his schooling, he was selected for the gold medal award as he had been the brilliant student throughout the school years. When he wore the gold medal, the bright golden star twinkling on his chest again intrigued him with the question, “Is this the best star?” but his heart replied in negative. His life went on and he started his career as an aeronautical engineer and there he saw some shining stars in his field, but those stars were not enough to satisfy his quest of knowing about the best star. One day, he got a chance to go into space to see a real star. When the space ship carrying them landed on the star, the very first thing that came to his mind was again the perpetual question, “Is this the best star?” but even being on a star he couldn’t listen his heart say ‘Yes’. He remained busy in his works on that star, not finding a satisfactory answer to his question about the best star.
Unfortunately, there came the bad news on all the TV channels that the space ship having all the brilliant minds of the country including Ali had been lost and they had not been able to contact the spaceship. The spaceship remained lost without any clue for two months. Everyone in the country was really worried especially Ali’s parents because he was the only child of them. His mother was in a state of trauma since she had heard the news of spaceship carrying her son been lost.
One day, all of a sudden, there came a signal on one of the radars of the control room of aeronautical air base. The operator took the wireless and found that the lost spaceship was coming back and all the people are safe and sound. It again became a breaking news in the country. All the media and the high ups of the country were waiting the spaceship to land safely, and it did land finally. When the crew got down from the spaceship, they all were taken to a big stadium which was jam-packed with people who had gathered there to see the shining stars of their country. Ali was interviewed about the star and the troublesome journey and at last, his parents were brought on the stage to greet their son. When saw them, he rushed towards them. His mother was so emotional seeing her son back on the land safe and sound that her eyes got filled with tears of joy. Some drops of tear trickled down her cheeks and two drops of tear remained on her eye lids blinking and twinkling like stars in the flashlights of the cameras. There he smiled tears in his eyes because he had got answer to his question, and he said, “These are the best stars I have ever seen in the world.” He kissed those long waited eyes of his mother having drops of tears in them. He turned and said to his father, “Dad, these are the best stars.” and he hugged his mother and father. When the people saw the emotional scene, they all had stars on their eye lids shining, blinking and twinkling…