6thOct, 2007 Morning

I was sitting with one of my friends in his flat in Mumbai. We both were slouched in a comfortable position and chatting, watching something on T.V. I looked at him and suddenly realized that he was one of the superstars of the film industry. It came as a surprise but I didn't feel any surprise.
Suddenly he switched off the T.V. and remided me of his latest film being premiered that evening and that I should be there with him at the premiere/showcase. Once again I didn't show any surprise/emotion at being invited at a premiere of a film. As a matter of fact, that friend of mine looked and talked like Shahrukh Khan and the film to be premiered looked and sounded like 'Om Shanti Om'. At the premiere party, with a glass of drink in my hand, I looked at my friend and he looked so happy! I had discovered that something bad would happen to him. Perhaps his girlfriend was planning to breakup with him, but I don't know how I came to know that. I was feeling helpless as I couldn't tell him, nor help him in any way.

I saw me and two of my friends trying to run away in a car with my friend driving and the other friend and I sitting at the back. I said that I was afraid to the friend sitting beside me and she hugged me and said that everything is gonna be ok. We drove on a thin road surrounded by marshes on both sides. The situation was that we had to reach somewhere at sometime and we were late. Also, I was the person who'd be playing the major role in something. But at present I can't recall what it was because I overslept !

Two of my friends and I attended some classes on logic, which included the real significance of symbols like '<', '>', '>=', '<=' etc. The teacher taught really well. Apart from that he taught other things that could really help us understand the functioning of human brain. The teacher did teach in school but we wanted to privately learn from him. It was her (one of the two friends) idea, not mine. It was a surprise to see that a teacher teaching in a good school lived in a marshy area. A few days later when We went to his house, we found his son (who looked like one of my seniors) collecting things from the cupboard and stuffing them in a bag. The teacher wasn't there. His son told us that his father won't be coming back.

I received a lot of sweets and toffees and all my favorite ones and I really loved the idea of having so many sweets to eat. One of my father's friend had come to meet me and he told me that my sister was not doing well in her studies and that she'd got bad grades not only at school level but they were very bad even at national and international level. He had brought me some more sweets, chocolates toffees. I thanked him for coming. I thought of calling home but decided to do so the next day. In the next scene, I saw my sister and I offered her the sweets. she declined saying that the sweets were for me. I asked her why she got bad grades and she said that did study for the exams. My father interrupted saying that she played games like quake 3 more than studying. She shud have devoted more time towards her studies. My sister shouted that she didn't. My father switched to a softer tone, saying that it's good to play video games but one should balance his/her schedule in a way that includes everything necessary for work and enjoyment in desirable amount. I agreed, saying that had I played anything/something, I'd have been a better driver. My sister said that I was a better driver than I thought I was, and shut the door on us.
My mother saw so many sweets, toffees with me and looked worried. I reassured her that I'd brush my teeth before and after sleep. Although she wasn't convinced, she smiled and agreed. When I had a handful of those toffees, I understood why she was worried. My right side molar teeth had started bleeding and was getting worse than what it previously was. I had to make a choice... those sweets, toffees or my teeth. I imagined the pain of dental operations/surgeries, the cold atmosphere of the AC, the bluish white light of the tubelights along with the light of the dentist's chair shining over me, and compared them to the taste of those sweets/toffees. I chose those toffees/sweets over my teeth and decided to have the rest of the sweets with my left side teeth.

Then I saw myself standing/waiting with the two of my friends for some event, either a marriage or some feast... and we'd done some makeup to look older and one of my friends (who had consoled me while we were sitting in the car) had done heavy makeup so that no one could recognize her.

2ndOct.2007, Early Morning

I was sitting in my class, trying to concentrate, and understand what the professor was teaching. Someone nudged me from behind. I turned and saw one of my batchmates wanted to ask me about something she'd written in her notebook. I told her that it could be discussed after the class and that I was trying to concentrate and understand the topic professor was teaching. After the class, we stood at the edge of the corridor in front of the class, facing the ground below and sky above (our class was on the first floor, in the same room which was the library of my school, APS Dhrangadhra when I was in 9th class), discussing some course topic she was facing trouble with. Many of my batchmates were hooting, shouting and chatting loudly that I couldn't concentrate though I could barely hear the noise! She asked me if I could tell answer her query.

ALARM WENT OFF !!!

I shut the alarm of my mobile, saw the time, 7 o'clock, and decided that it was too early to wake up since today was a holiday, so I slept again.

I saw myself travelling to a lot of places, like a tourist, a lone one though. I visited temples, walked on city streets like 'fashion street', even school functions like sports day/annual function (I saw myself attending my school's sports day!) and at night would return to my room. I also remember travelling by train, sitting alone at the window seat. I visited a temple which was a little below the ground level and when I saw the temple from the main entrance, I could see the whole temple and it looked majestic and splendid, artistic creation. It reminded me of the Shiv temple in Ellora Caves. But this temple was also huge in size and spread over large area.
I realized something during all these days of traveling that I never felt alone during daytime when I was travelling but at night when I returned to my room, I felt lonely. The dim faded yellow light of my room made me feel more lonely.

When I went back home in Pune, I saw everyone in a jolly, festive mood. The house was getting decorated for something (diwali, probably). I saw my father dressed in a suit, adjusting his tie in front of the mirror of the dressing table. I saw my mother dressed in a beautiful saree and my sister wearing some nice dress. My father asked me to pick up one of the boxes of sweets kept in fridge while leaving for someone's place. We went to some place and I saw my father's colleagues and my mother's friends and my sister's friends... everyone was there. My father very fondly was giving sweets to everyone. It was strange that I seem to know no one. Everyone was a stranger to me out there and I somehow didn't feel comfortable there. Amongst the talks between my father and the other officers, one of the officers said something (not directed to me) and I heard it while not directly being a part of the conversation but standing some distance apart. It made me feel the regret and guilt that I was never an achiever in my school days and things hadn't changed till now. I recalled that I never had/have the skills to organize events or people and get your work done by others, work that is important and for which the organizer
is responsible. I could never handle responsibilities and that man forced me to recall this painful truth about myself. I felt more uncomfortable and as I saw other kids in that room, full of vibrant energy and enthusiasm and felt that these kids would do anything better than me.

Suddenly, I saw myself standing on a road and saw a car/truck on fire. Two men were fighting in front of the car/truck on fire. It took me no time to recall that the two men were present in the party that night. I could only watch them and do nothing about it. They hit each other very badly. The elder man dominated the fight and in one final blow, knocked the younger man (he was wearing spectacles and a cloth mask on his eyes which he took off before falling) to the road. Perhaps he died.
When I started to run for help, the whole scene around me changed and I saw myself standing on a calm road, with a few two wheelers moving on both sides of the road. The two men had vanished, so had the burning car. I asked a rickshaw puller if he had seen something of that sort and he said that he had been standing on that road since early morning that day. He said such things never happened and that I must be hallucinating/dreaming. He asked me if I needed a
ride. I said if he could leave me till the central railway station.
The rickshaw puller on our way told me that companies don't reveal their secrets of how they work, their strategies, their plans. Everything is a black box which a user can use. The black box may be free or it may cost something. (I was surprised at the amount of information that rickshaw puller had!) He said that one of the companies actually receives it's visitors at the airport and takes them in a black car, with black windows and the visitor can't see the
route by which he/she is taken to that company. (He said that such was the idea of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but of course it was my brain churning strange thoughts! :D )
I reached the central station and looked at it from outside for a few seconds. This was the last I saw before I woke up.

1stOctober2007_Early_Morning.

This time, once again I overslept, in the hope to continue the dream I was watching when I was woken up by the alarm of my table clock, but all in vain.

I saw myself reading some wierd kind of books, not as wierd as reading about 'palmistry' or 'tarot card reading' or 'black magic' but something similar. I was reading stories, short stories of the incidents which were the result of some supernatural elements. Incidently, all were not stories as such, and looked real as when some of such stories were opened in the book, they turned into some kind of 3d videos and I could actually live the incidents. Though living/witnessing those incidents/stories was not a pleasant experience, it wasn't frightening either. It was more amusement and humor at times.
In one of these stories, which turned into a video as I opened the page for that story, I saw 'Owen Wilson' (not kidding) leaving his bunglow, crossing the road and walking towards a small broken wall. He climbed the wall which was covered with wires and barbed wires in the shape of a spiral, took an electric wire (high voltage), wrapped it around his neck, and started the flow of current. I saw him electrocuting himself with large size full moon shining brightly at the backdrop. It was not scary, it was rather mystifying.
In another of such stories (rather videos) I saw myself standing in some building, perhaps the terrace and saw a man, terrified as one could be, white faced, red eyed, fear covering his severely wrinkled face, was running from something or someone, perhaps his death. He looked here and there, and moved rather slowly when he reached almost the end of terrace.
None of the stories had the creatures like vampires/werewolfs but they were as wierd as the one I just told.
As I progressed in my reading of these stories, they became more live and personal, and I could feel myself standing and watching the events happening in front of my eyes. They gradually turned into a 3d movie watching experience from a mere reading and visualizing/imagining experience. I would sit for long hours in library when I didn't have classes and read books on these stories at a stretch. I had no idea why I chose a particular book or why I was reading such books. It was a kind of sudden interest that propelled this new desire of mine.

In the next scene, I met my mother in a big temple. I say big because it was 'BIG'. It had huge domes, large area, with smaller temples scattered all over the place and though I don't remember going for darshan to any of those temples, I do remember standing beside my mother, while she collected prashad and the first thing she asked me was if I had completed reading those books. I nodded in affirmation as if it was she who told me to read those books and I didn't show any sign of surprise.
She asked me to collect prashad. I took a plate like everyone and joined the queue. Most of the people in queue were dressed in traditional Indian dress, i.e., girls/women wore saree, and boys wore a dhoti and a cloth covering their upper body. The pundits offering prayers to God and their presence were confined to the interiors of the temples. The sweet(prashad) sellers wore dhoti and a cloth covering their upper body, just like the boys. The only exception was that no man (adult male) was present to offer his prayers in that/those temple(s). Hence I wasn't an adult but a school boy in this dream ! :)
My mother had come to the temple with some of her friends.
My prashad plate (thaali) was filled by different prashads as I progressed in the queue and visited different prashads counter (donno the hindi word!), including a large poori, some sweets and two pieces of some sweet which looked like small thick poori, soaked in sweet syrup(chashni). Of course I paid for all the prashads(sweets) I got but the prashads were supposed to be blessed with the blessings of the Almighty and hence the person who ate the prashads would be blessed for live and that all his bad deeds would be forgived.
One of the sweet seller refused to sell me more than two pieces of his sweet. On my insistence he said that if more were sold to a particular family then brufanity (he might have meant 'profanity', but rather the word looks like 'brutality'+'profanity') would increase. I couldn't understand him, and I was the only one who was asked by his mother to take prashad from him. She said that since he wasn't there in the temple last year, we should seek his blessings as well by buying his sweets, perhaps a little extra than usual amount, and so asked me to take some extra prashad. This might have meant that more the different kinds of prashads one gets, the more blessed one is (this is my guess).
I looked around and saw that other people in the queue behind me and before me had left, rather vanished. No one seemed to notice this prashad seller.
I asked him if he wanted more money for his sweets and he said that money was not the reason, had it been so, the rich would have dominated the others long ago. He said it was something else, which he couldn't tell me. He was getting little restless and irritated.
Like a small baby, I went back to my mother and said that the person refused to sell his sweets.
On watching my mother approaching him, he gave a terrified look like the other people I'd seen in those stories I'd read.
Before he could say anything to my mother, I WOKE UP !!