Penguin Books is doing us a great service by publishing new translations of Kalidasa, dressed up in gorgeous floral covers appropriate for this poet of nature. Meghadutam is Kalidasa’s masterful rendering of the trope of a messenger between separated lovers, a trope which necessarily places that particular narrative moment in the love story within the mood of viraha (‘love in separatation’), a favourite in Sanskrit poetry. We are familiar with this situation in the Mahabharata, through the story of Nala and Damayanti and the geese who carry their messages to each other. But Kalidasa elevates the cliche of missives of love to something sublime. We are also familiar with the pain of separated lovers, Rama and Sita being one of the many such couples in our classical literatures. Human go-betweens are there in both Sanskrit and Tamil love poems. In Meghadutam, we have a yaksha who has been exiled by his master Kubera because he neglected his duties. The yaksha pines for his beloved wife and prevails upon a rain cloud to carry his message of love to her. The cloud travels over hill and dale, over mountains and plateaus, rivers and lakes filled with lotuses, over lovers who are together and young women who are preparing to meet their lovers.