Just another evening...

It was a full moon night and the sky was clear. a light, pleasant breeze was blowing. The entire stretch of water and thin wisps of land that lay in between, was bathed in white light. Sometimes, light cotton like grey clouds would float over the moon partially covering it. I was standing at my favorite spot, with my back rested against a pillar, taking in the beauty that lay in front of me. The moonlight shone on the water surface and the wind made patterns on the shimmering water. I had been standing that way for around half an hour, but still could not have enough of the ambience. As if to add to the beauty, the vast canopy of sky above me cracked with a lightning. The vein like pattern of lightning engulfed almost the entire sky. Gradually the clouds thickened, at times hiding the moon for a couple of minutes. I would keep staring at the spot I knew the moon was hiding and wait desperately for it to come out again. The wind had also become stronger, the lightening had become more frequent, the water was changing patterns in a jiffy and the moon had become busy playing hide and seek. In short, the still picture had become dynamic and I knew what was coming. I could anticipate the direction it was coming from, from the wind direction and I looked in that direction, waiting for it to arrive. My wait was short. I had never before seen a storm approaching and I looked at it with awe. The horizon had become blurred with swirling dust. The small paper pieces and dead leaves that were lying around me were already moving in circular motion. Soon I could also hear it approaching making the kind of eerie whistling and howling sound that they show on TV. The wind had become strong and I was wondering if I should leave, but at the same time I was unable to tear myself away from the fury I was witnessing. I held on to the pillar and kept watching. All of a sudden a strong gust of wind kind of blew me away. I was surprised by the force. The force of wind against my face was so strong that it was becoming difficult to breathe. The entire scenery in front of me was in a chaos. The wind had carved a hollow in the middle of the water body and the moon was no longer visible. I took in the beauty around me one last time and left my shelter behind the pillar to leave. The wind was so strong that every moment I felt like I would be blown away. I managed to reach the door, but the suction effect created by the wind was so strong that I could not budge the door. After a few minutes the wind paused for a second, as if to catch its breath, and the door opened.

I wrote this detailed account just because I would not like to forget any part of that wonderful evening, not only during the storm, but also before it. Such beauty makes one forget all worries and pains. At that moment I felt like forgiving myself for all the wrongs that I have done, I felt like forgiving my closed ones for all the times they have hurt me. I felt kind of liberated, as if every thing around me was trivial. As if the only thing that would last was the beauty around me. And nothing else mattered.