A Crisis, A Blue Sky – Ananya Pareek

We are living through a pandemic.

We are fighting because the divine whose name is lost in an array of variables, is allegedly saying some really wrong stuff. We are a generation that blames work for our boredom. Furthermore, we are having an online crisis. Oh, I meant online classes.

We find ourselves in a paradox. The problems today are more than before. Bigger than before yet somehow smaller. They have a great effect but not a wide one. And this crisis is everywhere. Like seismic waves of an earthquake, it grows, it spreads. Hurts everyone. Tramples over their hearts.

In a crisis, all I notice is the sky. That is the beauty of it. A whole crisis is covered in a sky so blue. If we were to look at the sky the whole time, nothing would ever happen. More poetry, literature and feelings of course. But not a dangerous crisis.

The sky is deceptive.

When we undergo a crisis, its shockwaves are felt everywhere. Everything becomes a before-after where the after is worse. A crisis changes us. Makes us realise things buried, sulking deep inside us. And unfortunately, nostalgia is both the biggest human weakness and strength.

But when you look at the sky, it refuses to change. I look at the sky and all I see is beauty in its supreme form, which, if you stare at it long enough, will inevitably make you cry. A splendour so huge and abundant. So free yet careful. The sky to me seems endless and yet, it starts at my soul and ends at my lips. Stirs some hope and warmth in our humble and weak hearts.

And most importantly, this sky never changes, it never realises. Most sorted of us all. Even in a crisis. It’s the same, just as beautiful. So, instead of saying you’re beautiful, amazing yada yada, just a simple “you are my sky” would suffice.

Now, I’m not saying that the sky is lifeless. It does reorient into its different emotions. A fiery red for anger, calm blue because it exudes suave and debonair (all the words with a hint of french), some pink when it blushes because I compliment it so frequently and then a timid purple with ample yellow for when it is feeling dreamy. And it doesn’t change, its gift is that it can effortlessly shift into its many overpowering feelings. Showing every side of its abundant beauty.

And that’s it. The sky, you see, needs its fair share of admirers to stop this crisis.

– Ananya Pareek, Amity International School, Noida