Mystical. 

That’s how the night was, or shall I say, that’s how the sky was that night. 

Reason. Clouds. 

When we were kids, the elders told us that the dark clouds carried rain, and the light ones did not. They never came together. That night was special. It was a fusion. Gloomy ones in majority. I was a curious 11-year-old then. Having witnessed this strange mix of clouds through the window, I had a strange feeling that something epic was about to unfold. 

I finished my homework and stepped into the wide terrace of our beautiful house. A swift breeze hit my face as I stopped and soaked in the fresh, cool air in one long breath. 

Close your eyes and Imagine 

It’s dark. A few lights visible in the distant mountains. An arc of dark clouds raised above those mountains with faint lights. Just below the arc, stood a few white clouds in various shapes and sizes. You can’t see the moon, but you know it’s there as the shimmering moonlight flows in between the blank spaces. 

What you imagined is what I saw with my eyes wide open. A quick lightning flashed by. I waited for the sound of thunder but oddly it never came. Expecting more lightning to follow through, I kept looking up. 

“There it is!” I exclaimed as another bolt of lightning flashed. My eyes didn’t move as the clouds slowly started forming a familiar shape. A human face. 

As I kept staring, the whole form became clear. A human, down on his knees in a cloudy platform of sorts. As the lightning continued without any thunder, a second formation started to become visible. 

Goosebumps. 

A silhouette of another human like form appeared directly opposite, sitting in a throne. Only it was larger. The human form stayed put but the throne quickly transformed into an animal. It seemed like a lion but had an odd unfamiliarity. 

Was the human form a captive in God’s court and being punished? 

As suspense built up, a twist changed everything. A new form took shape. This time a cloudy apparition of a man with a bow and arrow. As it became more prominent the apparition grew as large as the one sitting on the throne.  

Next moment the lion disappeared completely. So did the bow and arrow but not the apparition holding it. Two large beings stood face to face as the first apparition had left the throne and confronted the other one. As though this wasn’t enough, other manifestations started to emerge. 

A serpent. Another human form riding a crocodile. A two-headed dog. A monkey! As lightning continued to flash in the background, it added to the drama that was unfolding. The scene was so vivid that even an 11-year-old couldn’t stop thinking, ‘There’s a war among Gods unraveling.’ 

A heavy raindrop fell on my forehead. I wasn’t bothered as my eyes were glued to the sky in anticipation of how the story of the Gods will transpire. The battleground was set, high up in the skies. The cloudy apparitions turned darker as both sides moved closer. 

Suddenly a thunderous roar echoed, followed immediately by a fierce lightning which lit up the entire mountain for a split second. Frightened, I took a step back and instinctively looked around. This was bizarre. Unnatural. For the first time, maybe since forever, thunder struck before lightning! 

Everything went quiet. I couldn’t even feel the breeze anymore. It felt like the wind stopped dead on its airy track. Slowly, among the dark clouds a light apparition appeared. 

Was it a Goddess? 

It certainly did feel like one. Lying patiently on a bed of cottony clouds. A sense of calm ensued all around. Slowly and steadily the dark apparitions began to clear, and the sky turned into a blank canvas of black and white clouds. A higher, divine power had just stopped the battle of the Gods even before it started. I was stunned. Shaken up to the core, unable to believe what I just witnessed. 

As I tried to take it all in, the rain came pouring down through the dark clouds above. I did not move, still lost deep in thought. I could hear my mother shouting from downstairs asking me to come back in and not get drenched in the rain. It took me a minute to get back to my senses as I slowly started to walk towards the stairs. As I reached the stairs and turned around for one last look, I could see the clouds forming shapes of birds and the trees, with elephant faces to human faces, quickly deforming due to the strong wind. 

I walked down the stairs and thought, ‘What if, the clouds were, an inspiration for God to create the beings that exist in this universe. What if..?’ 

– Prateek Godiyal 

p.s – a few clicks I gathered along the way to support my belief. (Unedited but maybe a little color enhanced)