Meghadootam

Long before there were lovers sending short messages and twitters swamping the world with inane messages, in the celestial city of Alakanagari, high among the snow kissed mountain tops around the Kailash Mountain, was a person who took a more relaxed and romantic way to send messages to his beloved. He used the clouds.

Kubera was the unbelievably rich king of Alakapuri. He curses one of his Yakshas (Celestial Spirit - caretakers of nature and natural wealth): You are banished to the faraway, isolated Ramgiri mountain. There you will suffer a lot by staying away from your beloved fiancée for a year!

The dejected and heart broken Yaksha keeps his love alive by sending long, beautiful, love filled messages to his beloved using the clouds that pass by him. The story that was immortalized by Kalisada in his great classic - Meghadootam (The cloud messenger).

What would Indian literature be if the device of sending messages through clouds, birds and the wind wasn't used? And most importantly, have we forgotten the beauty of love and longing and even writing in these days of instant messaging?