Raju was a fifth standard student and lived in a village. He stayed there with his grandfather. He studied most of the time and spent leisure time with his grandfather.
Raju’s grandfather would narrate informative stories to him every night. Raju had gotten habituated to falling asleep after listening to the stories and used to dream about them.
It was a pleasant night of the summer season. Raju and his grandfather were sleeping on the terrace of their house. The sky looked vast with the brightly shining moon amidst millions of twinkling stars.
Raju was staring at the stars. He asked, “Grandpa, why don’t these stars and the moon fall on us?”
“Because they revolve around the Sun,” said his grandfather, “Earth also revolves around the Sun.”
Raju asked, “Who stays in space?” Grandpa replied, “There are eight planets and the dwarf planet Pluto, their satellites and stars in space. The planets and their satellites revolve around the Sun.”
Raju found this fascinating and kept thinking about space. He fell asleep in some time and found himself touring space.
Raju saw that there was a fight going on between the planets and satellites. They were fighting over who holds the most importance.
The Sun and planets like Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, all were busy praising themselves.
“I am the brightest planet,” said Venus, “I am unique because I revolve from west to east, while you all revolve in the opposite direction. I am considered to be God.”
The Earth gave a smirk and said, “I am the only planet which supports life and has water and an atmosphere.”
“I am red in colour and am known as the God of War,” said Mercury.
“I have the maximum number of satellites,” said Jupiter.
“And I am counted amongst the biggest of planets,” interrupted Saturn.
Uranus said, “I am huge and green in colour. The Greeks consider me as their God and worship me.”
“I am blue in colour and very big and I am known as the “Sea-God,” said Neptune.
The Moon was getting irritated with the praises from all the other planets. With an angry tone, the moon said, “I am the most beautiful. I am the only satellite of the Earth. There is an estimate that there may be life on my surface. I can also bring about eclipses.”
The Moon was extremely proud of himself and was rude to others, so nobody commented. Pluto was quiet as he had nothing to say. He was a dwarf planet and did not want to intervene in the fights.
The arguments went on and finally, Pluto said, “You all are fools. The Sun is the most powerful.”
“How come?” asked the other planets.
“You all revolve around the Sun,” said Pluto, “It has the maximum temperature and planets get their energy from it. It is the brightest planet that gives light to all the other stars and planets.” “There are hot gases found on the Sun and the Sun’s presence determines the day and night cycles,” added Pluto.
All the other planets were enlightened about the power of the Sun.
They apologized to the Sun.
“It is because of the Sun that we are alive and that the plants get light and nutrition,” interrupted Raju but nobody seemed to be paying heed to what he said.
“Raju, wake up. Its 7 am,” said Grandpa.
Raju woke up and realized that it was a dream. But he enjoyed the thought that he was in space for some time and got to meet all the stars and planets.
It was indeed a very pleasant morning for Raju.
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