Cloud-Watching

Cloud-Watching

I don't actually remember when I actually started liking this activity. What I do remember is that watching the clouds flow by does provide me with a sense of inner peace and calm. 

During my childhood days, when I understood the fact how the clouds are so involved in rainfall, that fascinated me. Wow! Now that I think about it, putting science aside, isn't it amazing? Those fluffy cumulonimbuses and cirruses seem like some magic hands have shredded the wools off some magic sheep grazing high up in some galaxy and strewn them all across the sky. And once those magic hands are happy with the cover, he/she with a simple clap of the finger brings the thunder in and those fluffy cotton balls open up and we hear the tipper-tapper touching our skin.

So, moving back to cloud watching. I remember myself holding the hands of my grandfather and taking the familiar route to the big, green field where he used to sit and chat with his friends, while I just ran around, meeting a chance dog or a friendly cat to chase. It was him who showed me one day, while we sat in the open field, the clouds. He had said, if you look closely at each of the cloud patches, you'll see faces. Faces of people, of animals, and whatnot. 

That statement surprised me. How could that be? The real people and animals are here, down below. Why shall I even see faces of them, up there?

I tried to see through them, but no, they seemed like normal clouds floating in the sky, as if in a hurry to quickly reach somewhere and rain. Did that place actually need rainfall? Can the clouds decide where it would rain? If yes, why doesn't it rain in those deserts where the land's too dry. And why does it keep raining at places continuously resulting in floods?

I was sad for the next few days, how hard I tried I couldn't see any faces or anything on the clouds. Some days there were no clouds. Then I forgot about it all.

One fine day, during a really boring class in school, my eyes fell outside the window. There were clouds stuck in a traffic jam, it seemed. But wait, as I kept looking at them intently, it struck like a lightning. There was a cloud, whose shape seemed so easy to calculate. The face and nose and the lips definitely looked like a smiling old man. I was ecstatic. Did I stand up and had the eureka moment? I do not remember that part though. If I did, I won't be too sad about it.

Thus my love for cloud watching started. I could clearly spot the clouds and see various faces, structures, and so much more. Grandfather was right. You need to look for it with a little bit of imagination. And I guess that's the fun part. A tad bit of imagination.

Even today, whenever I feel a bit off, and whenever there are clouds floating by the sky, I try to go to our roof and take some time to see them. Trying to understand what they really tried to speak. What my imagination tried to decipher from it all. And you don't have much time though. A moment back you see a dinosaur, and when you look back again, it's gone. Or mixed with another cloud. Or maybe your brain now thinks it is a hippopotamus. 

One day, I missed my grandfather. And during my cloud watching sessions, it seemed I saw him on one of them. I was pleasantly surprised but waved and smiled at the cloud. 

During the pandemic era, this activity has kept me going. It helps me to take the mind off of the daily work and gives me some time to carry on with this activity before getting back to work, a smile on my face. 

I guess the beauty of cloud-watching is that you actually don't need any single piece of equipment. It only needs your imagination. And some floating clouds who want some human beings down below to see and decipher them. I think that makes them happy too. Who knows! I am yet to see any "Thank you for deciphering us" signs in them. Maybe someday soon.