The Mountain And The Cloud...

 

“But, we are so different…”

“How??”

“Can’t you see!!...I am the mountain….strong, firm…rooted deep within the Earth. And you are the cloud….fragile, free….with the wind beneath your wings, you live high in the sky..”

“Yes, you are the mountain, and I am the cloud….and the pristine white snow that rests all over your body, makes you as white as every little bit of my existence…and during every dawn and every dusk, the same sun makes us both glow in hues of red and orange and purple, and the same moon and the same stars play hide and seek with us. You hold up your head to the same sky where I live, and I am born from the Earth that roots you.”

“The Earth roots me, cloud…and you…you are a free bird…free to roam around…to visit places that I can’t even think of. You are a wanderer, and living my life won’t make you happy…and you will lose yourself…you just can’t stay with me…why don’t you understand!!”

“A wanderer having her home….isn’t that beautiful??...having a home to come back at the end of the day with stories of far off lands….with the fragrance of far off wild flowers and forests….with the songs that the birds sing, the melodies of the distant streams, as the make their way through the rocks and the pebbles…dancing to their own rhythm, as they run to meet the deep dark ocean that rumbles in fury when the wind tries to unravel his deep dark secrets…..won’t it make you happy, mountain, to have me just next to you, and telling you all the stories of my adventures??”

“Cloud, listen…it won’t be easy. You are the one who looks beautifully different in every passing moment….in whatever shape, in whatever colour you come…and me…I have been like this since my birth. I don’t know how to be interesting…how to be appealing…I don’t know how to….”

“SSSSHHHHHH……You think a lot, don’t you??...listen…no matter however you are, no matter in whichever form…in whichever shape…in whichever colour you see me, just know that I am always yours..”

“And what if, we ever collide??...will you leave me, if we ever clash with each other??”

“Calm down, Sweetheart. I know there will be times when we’ll clash with each other, and whenever that happens I will probably turn grey in anger, roaring with my loudest thunders that will echo through your peaks and valleys and probably, flashes of my lightening will even scare you…but fear not, my beloved… I’ll melt in your arms once again, drenching you with my downpours of Love, that will seep through your cracks and crevices, and give birth to flowers….as beautiful as you.”

“You know….I am still not sure if this is the right thing to do. I mean….just look at me…..all I have is rocks…hard, impenetrable….standing here since ages dutifully…I don’t even have a spark of Life within me…I don’t know how life feels like.”

“And those very hard impenetrable rocks give Life to those tall enormous trees, standing with their heads high against the winds……being the home to the numerous birds that reside amongst their branches. You don’t know how full of Life you are, mountain. I know it is tough….but you have been so strong through all these years, and I am so proud of you…”

“And…what if I ever feel tired??”

“Then I’ll embrace you in my arms….carressing your wounds with every bit of myself….singing you lullabies to sleep. And within your crags, I will let myself be lost into oblivion.”

“You know….the way I am falling in Love with you inspite of all my efforts to resist…its scary..”

“But…isn’t it worth it??”

The mountain kept quiet. He knew there was no point in holding himself back. He knew it was already too late, and his heart now belonged to the cloud…and no matter how hard he would try, she would never give it back.

The cloud smiled shyly. The free bird she was, she never knew that she would be brave enough ever to fall head over heels in Love…but here was the mountain….so different from her, and yet somehow, they were so much like each other…and she knew that there was no going back.

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The lazy afternoon sun yawned, as he prepared to take a leave for the day. The sky prepared itself to welcome the dusk, as the winds bellowed down the valleys….bringing the home calling songs of the birds from the far off trees.

The mountain and the cloud basked in the ecstasy of their new found Love. As they stared silently into the horizon, their fingers intertwined for the first time. Nobody spoke. Yet they both knew what remained unspoken…..