Lesson 2: Clouds

He wandered far in search of the clouds, down winding paths and alleys, till he reached the old mud hut. There, he turned on to the dirt track. He saw a grass-cutter coming from the other direction, a bundle of freshly cut grass balanced on his head. He stopped the man and asked, "Have you seen the clouds there?" "Clouds?" The grass-cutter was amazed, as though he had been asked the most peculiar question. "Yes, clouds." He was disappointed to see that the grass-cutter was still mystified. He walked on until he came upon a farmer ploughing his field. He asked him the same question, "Did the clouds come here?" The farmer, too, couldn't make sense of the question. "Clouds?" he asked. "Yes, clouds." He was asking after the clouds like a man who has lost a child and asks wayfarers if they have seen a child wandering. Perhaps the clouds, too, were lost children and he was going around asking people about them. But no one could give him a satisfactory answer.

His mother was the first he had asked in the morning, "Ammaji, where have the clouds gone?" "Who's gone where?" Ammaji said, as if he had asked an exceptionally stupid question. "Clouds." "Clouds! Have you lost your mind, boy? Hurry up, now. Wash quickly, eat your breakfast and go to school." Dejectedly, he washed his hands and face, ate his breakfast and left home. But the question still haunted him: Where did the clouds go? He remembered what he had seen the night before-clouds gathering in the dark sky. But when he went to sleep, the sky was clear and full of stars. When he awoke again, he had no idea of the time. All he knew was that it was the middle of the night. Up there in the sky, the clouds were rumbling. In the occasional flashes of lightning, they were dense and black. It looked as if it will be raining. Rain will have ruined his sleep, he knew. When he got up in the morning, he was amazed. The sky was clear and empty! Not a trace of rain in the courtyard. He was surprised and saddened-the clouds had moved across the skies without shedding a drop of rain. And it saddened him to think that he had fallen asleep. Had he stayed awake, perhaps, the clouds would not have disappeared like that. It would have been the season's first rainfall. The month of the rains was slipping away. He looked up once again at the skies. Not a single patch of cloud. The sun beat down on his head from a clear sky. In the fierce heat, he walked between the fields. His body was on fire, his throat dry. After crossing several fields, he saw a large tree in whose shade a Persian wheel turned gently. It was like he had reached an oasis in the middle of a desert. He reached the shelter of the tree and splashed the cool water from the Persian wheel on his dusty feet. Then he washed his hands and face and drank his fill.

Refreshed, he looked around. An old man sat on a wall by the Persian wheel. He looked at the old man, wanting to say something but hesitated. Finally he asked, "Did the clouds come here?" The old man looked closely at him and said, "Son, when the clouds come, the earth and the sky know of their coming." "But the clouds were here last night and no one got to know." The old man said, "It is not enough for the clouds to come. I once lived in a place where it hadn't rained for ten years." "Ten years?" He was open-mouthed. He sat there listening to his tales. Suddenly, he realized how late it was. He walked for miles in the sun and dust. He went back by the same dirt track he had taken to come there. The sun was still fiercely hot but when he reached the mud hut, he felt a nip in the air and the earth was damp underfoot. As he neared his village, he saw the roads were wet. Trees that had been standing draped in layers of dust when he had left in the morning now looked freshly bathed. He felt a wave of happiness. He hurried home. He wanted to see how fresh and clean the jamun tree in his courtyard looked. When he got home, he saw that the rain had changed everything. The jamun tree stood clean and scrubbed, freshly showered, and Ammaji was saying," That was a good shower, thank God!" Raindrops were still rolling off the leaves of the jamun. He stood beneath the tree and let them fall on his head and face. He raised his eyes to the sky and saw it clear, without even a wisp of cloud. He had walked so far in the dust and sun in search of the clouds, and in his absence they had come, shed their rain and gone away!