Partly Cloudy

"Partly Cloudy" is an amazing short film by Pixar Animations. When I watched it for the first time, I could not stop watching it again. Even after that, I watched it many times. If you have not watched it, you can watch it here.

What strikes me the most is the theme of friendship, the film portrays. It reminds me of my own friends. That is why I like to watch it again and again.

It starts with an innocent dark cloud who is lonely and doesn't have good creative skills compared to other white clouds. With some effort, he creates a small alligator. The important thing to note is that he likes the things he creates. To him, all his creations are good. According to that world, birds carry these creations and drop them at right places. And for the birds, his creations are not so liking.

After he is done with his creation, he waits for some bird to come and carry it. But being at a lower level than other clouds, and being a dark cloud may be, none of the birds come to him. This situation reminds me of my old days in my school. I joined a new school in my 4th class and continued till 10th. I used to be the most silent person. And for one or two years, I never had good friends. Also I was not a clever guy and being very silent, nobody used to talk to me. I used to be fat too. I guess, these traits scared people off. And may be because of that I still crave for friends and people to talk.

Going back to the film, a weak bird finally approaches him. Though it is weak, it decides to work for him. He was very happy that finally a bird came to him. He makes friendship with the bird and the bird too makes him a friend. The bird bears all the pain of his creations and cheerfully works for him. The bird is the ultimate symbol of this film. I can compare it with all my good friends who stay with me in spite of my painful bugging and caring. I still remember my sister Shiny telling me that she introduced me to her old friend as the "new bugging IIT friend!". I was so happy for that. It never mattered to me that I am so bugging and caring. She was the first to understand me and I was perfectly fine with her introduction.

Back to the film again, the bird becomes too tired and seeing that the other birds are having good time, it decides to leave. This scene is very common to me. It reminds me of all those friends who "used" me and left. I too cried like the cloud many times. Back to the school days again, few years after joining, people found that I am good at maths and started making friendship. They are all false friends who befriend me because they want something from you. And when their need is over, they will leave. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. I used to feel very bad when a friend leaves. Now I understand how foolish it is to feel like that. Still I allow people to "use" me. But when they leave, I pity them. Thanks to Granny for teaching me this lesson. I hope one day she'll understand what friendship is.

Once again going back to the film, the twist in the story is that the bird doesn't really leave. It goes to another cloud for help. And our black cloud doesn't know that and starts crying. This teaches two lessons, the first is that true friends never leave you and the second is that true friendship is valued by everybody. The second lesson can be inferred from the fact that the other cloud tries to help the bird bear its friend's pain. I never had any friend who left me and came back. I hope I will never bring such situation, like that of the bird, to any of my friends.

Finally I want to say that friendship, like any good relation, needs understanding and bearing of pain. Friendship doesn't mean that the friend will bring heavens down to you. Neither does love. Friendship is also a form of love. And hence you can bear the pain happily, unlike an unwanted relation.