BENGALURU: Mehul Bhatt is a night person. And if you, like him, are a stargazer too, the reason behind this would be as clear as day. They say a good teacher could change your life in many ways but in Bhatt’s case, it introduced him to a hobby that hasn’t left his side since childhood. His interest in astronomy and physics got deeper when his teacher actually held his hand and pointed out the Orion constellation in the night sky. “I grew up in Somnath, Gujarat. Since it’s a small town, we were blessed with a crystal clear sky,” recalls the Bengaluru-based co-founder and CEO of FloCareer, a platform that provides interview-as-a-service solution to hiring companies.

In 1993, Bhatt was part of an astronomy club but today, he is the proud owner of a personal telescope. His Celestron model, which he bought for around $1,000 in 2010, is permanently perched on the terrace of his house. “January is one of the best times to stargaze,” he says, adding that just the previous night, he got together with his neighbours to have a fun viewing session. Not many can boast of having seen all the planets out there but Bhatt is not one of them. “I’ve seen Saturn’s rings, Jupiter.. Practically all the planets. Except Pluto, which isn’t a planet anymore. But besides that, I’ve also observed clusters of 100-200 stars and a double star as well,” says the 44-year-old.   

But it’s not just these sights alone that draw Bhatt towards the stars. The appeal also comes from stories behind the names and history of the constellations. He says, “The Greeks called it Orion, Indians called it Ardra. Similarly, they called it Big Dipper, we called it Saptarishi. This shows the similarities in our cultures.”

Since Bengaluru has cloudy skies, Bhatt mainly looks forward to December, January and February for the best view of the sky, when he spends an hour or two just observing stars. Having been in the city for 10 years, Bhatt can say with conviction that pollution has made stargazing worse now, but he quickly adds, “It was never good to begin with in the first place.” Now, he makes 2-3 annual visits to Coorg or Ooty for a cleaner view of the Milky Way galaxy.

But more than being a hobby, stargazing has also given Bhatt a new worldview of things. Or as he sums it up, “It enables you to take more risks and worry less. After all, our existence is merely the blink of an eye on the grand cosmic scale.”