Meghadūta
This morning, I woke up to a torrential downpour. Rains lashing, the occasional bright lightening and the rumble of a thunder setting up the scene. However, it was the clouds , travelling swiftly with the winds which captured my emotions. It looked so beautiful yet there seemed to be a determination in the way they moved; as if they carried a certain message and had to travel far to convey the same. I could appreciate that probably such beautiful cloudy day that had prompted Kālidāsa to weave his " Meghadūta "epic. A poem of 111 stanzas, it is one of Kālidāsa's most famous works. The work is divided into two parts, Purvamegh and Uttaramegh. It recounts how a yaksa, a subject of King Kuber (the god of wealth), after being exiled or a year to Central India for neglecting his duties, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife at Alakā on Mount Kailāsa in the mighty Himalayas. The yaksa accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud wil