3rdNov2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself inside my house standing in front of my mother, who was folding and keeping washed clothes in the closet, and asking her as to what my father was talking about on his mobile, in the lawn downstairs. It had been half an hour and he looked concerned and intense as he walked on the grass, in the dim light of a distant tubelight at a corner of the lawn.
"Are we having some problems, some health or money problems?" I asked, without thinking.
My mother stopped in the process of folding clothes and looked at me, and said, "It is your aunt. She's having some troubles." I don't clearly remember if this aunt was my father's sister or friend, but anyways, I again saw my father through the window of our house, as he talked and tried to counsel her and convince her for something, maybe.
I was then reminded of my project meeting I had that morning with my mentor. I had to find a partner for that project. I decided to take her as my project partner. Lets name her P. Now I knew that all I had to do was to meet her the next day and ask her to be my project partner. Then suddenly I remembered that the project required coding and she was not a computer science student. I thought, "oh, never mind. I'll do all the computer science part."
I then saw two kids coming in from the front door of the house. It took me some time but I finally recognized them as my cousins. My father came in and said, "Hey kids, how have you been doing?" with a smile. The two kids didn't look cheerful. The boy must be about 10 years old and girl some 7 or 8 years old.
"Your mother has got some work, so you both would be staying here with us for a some days. I'll have your luggage kept inside." he said. Later I learnt that my aunt left town to make some arrangements and sold her house before that and all her stuff was kept in our garage.
My sister a couple of years elder than the boy. She took them to their room and tried to make them comfortable by talking to them and arranging their stuff in her room. I was impressed by her for I knew I couldn't do such a thing. I somehow lacked the compassion which she had.
But it hit me hard. I didn't know the full reason as to why my aunt had to leave suddenly. All I could think of was financial crisis. I wished I could start earning and become a millionaire as quickly as possible so that I could help them out. I held a chocolate bar as I thought of all this and looked at the bar once. A passing thought occurred to me, "How much money would this bar, or for that matter, my entire chocolate box, fetch me?" The next instant I discarded the idea as I knew that the money would be too less. I knew that all I had to do was to get employed.
(All this might make you think that I'm a kid, but i'm a college student in this dream, its just that i'm still unemployed.)
Next day, at my sister's school, where I had to attend some talk/seminar, I waited and searched for P. I knew she'd come because her name was in the list of attendees. I could have called her or gone to her house, but I wanted to surprise her. I looked at all the classrooms. Coincidently all the classrooms for talk/seminar looked like the ones in new building of APS Jalandhar when I used to study there in 11th and 12th class. I reserved our seats and decided to stand outside, in the corridor so that I meet her as soon as she comes, lest she'd sit somewhere else. As I came out of the classroom, to stand outside, I saw her. She looked just the same, except for the red pimples all over her face. Somehow that didn't bother me because she was still the same P. But why was she talking to the other speakers of the seminar.
I felt a bolt of lightening pass through me when I learnt that she was the first speaker in the seminar. I wanted to run away, or at least hide my face somewhere. Strangely I felt like a loser. I decided that I couldn't ask her to be my partner in the project. I decided to ask Atul to be my partner and finish the project quickly, as he was my batchmate in the Computer science department of my college.

21stOct2008EarlyMorning

Hide and Seek

I saw myself in my hostel room in NBH third floor. I kept the door open and frequently stared at the corridor on the other side of the doorway, with a strange fear in my mind. Then suddenly I decided that my room was not a safe place anymore, and simultaneously saw myself in a huge lobby of a big house, which was as if had been teleported to the big house or my room had suddenly grown large, or maybe it was just my imagination. The idea of examination next day increased my fear, and I had a lot left to prepare.
It all started the evening last week, at the beach party where I and my friends started the game of a new kind of hide and seek. The beach looked lovely with the lighting and the palm trees and large no. of people singing and dancing, but we had lost the mood for the party. So, we all went and sat a little away from the crowd and while chatting decided to play hide and seek with a small alteration in the rule that the ones found by the seeker would also become the seeker, something like becoming a vampire after being bitten by a vampire. We played that game all night till the last campfire burned out.
In a state of agitation, I decided to study with my friend Atul in his room. Atul was one of the players of the beach party hide and seek last week. I started studying again, doing my preparation the usual way.
Next thing I see myself sitting in the corridor, beside the open door of my room, with friends from the beach party beside me. They said it was fine, and that it was just a game and that I should forget it. One of them, Gaurav I think, said that he was the seeker and he touched my arm to show that what I was thinking was my imagination and was not true. The fact is, I was having visions, visions of places I was not at that time. While studying, once in a while, the pages of the book change into someone's bedroom or lighted road in the campus and it was not because of I drowsing while studying. I drowse quite often while studying and I know the difference. It wasn't day dreaming either. It felt like I was in those places, the visions looked so real. And with all these visions I saw a man, in his late 40s or early 50s, looking at the beach from the window of his suite.
I thought that as a seeker I had some kind of powers to see what the other seekers of the game are viewing at any time of the game, one at a time, just like one can change view while playing video games. Our last game was left incomplete because we had run out of lighting on the beach and it was too late to continue. Since I was one of the seekers in the last game, I thought that the powers of a seeker again took over me at the time same as the time last week when we played the game. I then realized that similar thing happened last week as well, but since any part of the beach looked mostly the same as the others I didn't notice the visions at that time.
Didn't my friends get the same visions?
If they did, why didn't they say anything?
If they didn't why didn't they? why only me?
Could it be that the man in his late 40s is the main seeker, looking at the world through other seekers like me? Did he touch me to give me such an ability, like a seeker in the hide and seek game?
Will completing the last game of beach party hide and seek help me get rid of these visions?
Before I could get answers to any of these questions, I guess I woke up.

14thOct2008LateAfternoon

I saw myself in my present college life, a pleasant yet slowly turning into a highly irresponsible guy. I saw myself doing nightouts for no good reason and sleeping all through the day, sometimes skipping classes and scoring average in exams...
The dream looked like reality, and felt like I wasn't sleeping, that I was still awake and living my life, until he came...
I saw myself in some circular shaped, highly spacious room which looked like an office. I saw a man standing behind his desk, his back towards me, looking outside the window behind his desk. He was short in height, and reminded me of babidi, a villian in DragonballZ. Let's call him Mr. A.
"I have heard a lot about you and so wanted to meet you in person", he said with a bit of squeakiness in his voice, still facing the window. I felt numb and nervous, and thought, "this must be about my skipping classes because of no attendance taken, and about my late submission of assignments."
"Wrong", he said, and turned away from the window, to face me. I was astouned at his remark. He did look a little like babidi. "I wanted to meet you because I want your expertise, your skills. I want you to work for me, in my research lab. You would be paid well."
"I don't understand", I said. "I haven't been going in any direction as far as my MS in IIIT-H is concerned. I have been procrastinating all my work. I think there has been some mistake."
"No, no mistake. I know who you are, what you do with your time. All I want you to do is, work for my lab and I'll fund you during your MS and PhD and beyond maybe. I could provide you with assistance in your MS. There are things to be done in my research lab that only you can do."
He gave me an offer I couldn't refuse. Instead of living on mere stipend from college, why not get a full pay package by devoting a few hours everyday for his work.
During early hours of that evening, in some classrooms (our classrooms were large seminar halls), some or the other movie was to be shown. I went into one of the classrooms, and sat on a seat in the middle-row. I looked around, for familiar faces and couldn't help notice that one of the person in the room didn't belong to our college. And when my eyes met his, he looked nervous and moved his gaze away. I got a feeling that something was wrong.
After the movie, I walked out of the room/hall and towards the mess for dinner, while many students discussed the movie they saw, I couldn't help notice that the stranger in the same classroom as I, was nowhere to be seen just after the movie was over, i.e., he didn't get out through the door. 'Maybe I am thinking too much', I thought, 'but that man had some purpose in mind, something which he had planned to do in recent future, tonight maybe.'
After late dinner I went to my room, tired and ready to hit the bed. While lying on my bed, half asleep, I thought I heard some sound coming from the window. I didn't want to bother about it, but it disturbed my sleep, so I got up and went upto the window. I was surprised to see the same guy from the classroom movie hall, hanging outside the window, trying to create a small breach in the window glass... no it wasn't glass, the window of my room was also not the same, it was different, and made of something unbreakable maybe. As I stood there, digesting the sudden surprises and thinking of various possibilities of causes and effects, the sound at the window vanished. I saw that guy outside, and for some reason, I blocked that breach in the window. He tried his best to push me away from the window, but I didn't budge and gave it all my strength. But he won, and I was pushed away from the window and on the floor. I got up from the floor, only to see him standing in front of me.
'How could he enter the room through such a tiny breach/hole/cut in the window?' I wondered. And while I wondered that, he reached for my cupboard, and took out a cardboard carton. It was packed and sealed, and addressed to me. 'How could this carton be in my cupboard, and I didn't even know about it?' I couldn't contain my curiosity and decided to ask him about all this. But he seemed to be too desperate and panicky. He pushed me back on the floor and went out of the window, the way he had come in.
Next day, Mr. A summoned me in the same office/room in which we had met last time. 'You must be having some questions', he said.
"Yes I do", I said, and by now getting used to some doses of everyday surprises.
"The man who broke into your room yesterday is one of those people who don't like my research. And the carton in your room was sent by me, as a small gift before you started your work." he laughed slightly, a squeaky laugh. 'And that fool thought it was some part of our project information that I was sending you.' He seemed to enjoy making a fool out of that man.
"So what was in that carton, Mr. A ?" I asked.
"Chocolates. You like Chocolates, isn't it?"
"Yeah I do."
'Wow, chocolates.' I thought and felt sad for myself.
"Don't worry, I'll get another carton sent to your room", he said, "and it is my obligation to take care of you, so don't take it as part of my courtesy or good deed or something."
He was a mind reader, for sure.
"I still don't understand why you want to keep me happy and want my help?"
"Because you're a genius!" he said.
"I, what?" I said, as I encountered another shot of surprise.
'Nobody called me a genius except my sister, for some reason only known to her!' I thought.
"Yes, your sister is right, though not for the same reason as mine." he said.
'I had better be careful before thinking anything in front of this guy' I said in my mind.
"Yes you should. But it won't take you much efforts to do so. Thought control comes naturally to you." Mr. A said.
I felt helpless, but my curiosity kept me going.
"You can understand the forces and energies around you, hence you can understand the intentions of a person, or sense that something is not right. It is your natural skill of playing with energies and understanding them, that I want to use for my experiements. Of course I could have used those skills without you knowing what was happening, but I guess its better that you know, and now you know it."
"Don't worry, you won't be experimented on, and almost everything is computerized and simulated."
The word "almost" bothered me a little but I only realized the truth when I went to his lab.

11thSept2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself in a hasty process of getting ready for school. I saw myself wearing my uniform as fast as possible, and hang the tie with an untidy knot around my neck. As I started wearing my socks, I felt the need to attend nature's call. "Damn", I thought, "why can't this happen when I wake up in the morning, everything has to happen at the last moment!" While sitting in the loo, I was reminded of something that was important to me and that I had to do. In my mind I saw myself with a backpack, a modified form of my schoolbag, but stuffed with heavy stuffs. I was getting late with every passing second. I heard the chattering sounds of school kids and a few honking horns of the bus. My sister shouted that the bus won't stop for me! Of course it won't!
I was again reminded of something that I had to do, which was important to me. I thought, "I chose this life for myself. I am doing this for my friend. I didn't mean to harm anyone, but no one understands the language of love and peace. I have to help my friend and save him."
I rushed out of the toilet, while pulling my pants on, and tucking my shirt. I grabbed my schoolbag, looked at it for a few seconds, smiled and rushed outside. The bus had already left. I decided to catch it at its next stop. I took a short-cut, the connecting paths between the buildings. The bus followed the road and hence took a longer route to its next stop. I reached the place and was standing there when I saw the bus appear from behind the last building I could see on that road. I smiled at the driver as the bus stopped in front of me. I got into the bus and sat beside my sister. Looking at her I was again reminded of that day.
That day, me and my sister got lost in a carnival. I don't remember my parents presence in the carnival. I and my sister stood at some foodstall, when I saw a man staring at us. He had long hair, and traces of beard on his face. We left the stall and went elsewhere but he seemed to follow us. I started running with my sister. We ran between strings of foodstalls on either side, then we went and hid behind a bench. Once in a while I peeked over the bench and still saw him standing, looking around for us. I had no idea why was he looking for us. The place behind that bench was a good hiding place because he couldn't find us there for the next few hours, i.e., while the carnival fair was still on. I was too afraid to leave that place, and I also had the responsibility of keeping my little sister safe. So we slept there, behind that bench that night. I didn't like it there, behind the bench. I wanted to be back at home, with my mommy and daddy, in my room, on my bed. I'm sure my sister was scared too, but she didn't say anything, just held me close and slept.
I felt like killing that man then and there but I was a teenager and he was a full grown man, armed perhaps and fierce looking.
Next thing I remember was me and my friend with the dead body of that man. How did he die? Did we kill him? If not, what were we doing there? I don't know either of these things.
As I sat in the bus, which steadily moved close to the school, I knew what I had to do. My friend had taken the blame for that man's death on himself. Perhaps the cops might have found us with that man's dead body. I had to save my friend, help him get out of this mess which was created because of me, I guess.
I looked at my sister. She didn't seem to remember anything about that evening, which was good.

9thSept2008EarlyAfternoon

I saw myself in one of the events that happened in my life earlier. I saw myself standing on the bridge which is famous for some reason I don't remember. I don't even remember its name. This bridge is en route from Rameshwaram to Trivandrum. It was a big and wide bridge with a road on it, and pavements where vendors sold fruit salad/slices, channa, bhel etc. My father parked our car along the pavement and my mother got out and asked me to follow her. We went and stood at the edge of the bridge. It was breezy early evening with warm sun-rays and moving and stationary vehicles and people on the pavement keeping the bridge road a busy, occupied place.
She said, "Isn't this a wonderful view!" I stood there looking at the river water and the tiny disturbances on the surface of water, those tiny waves when suddenly I felt nauseatic and dizzy. I stood at the corner of the bridge and felt like I would loose consciousness any moment. I then realized that I didn't feel comforable looking down from a considerable amount of height. I lost consciousness.
Next thing I remember was being at our old neighbor's house for lunch. They were our older neighbors from another city were we lived earlier. I remember myself riding a bike, a bicycle with strong tyres, in front of their house. One of the children in their neighborhood were riding their small bicycles and one of them hit her bicycle to the tyre of my bicycle and the tyres of her bicycle broke into pieces. She started accusing me of being the reason and I argued with her that she hit my bicycle's tyres and I wasn't the one coming in her way. Other children also took her side and said that it was my fault. They started shouting at me. Next thing I saw myself allowing her ride my bicycle for sometime. Since she was quite small, I held the bicycle for her and she pushed the pedals with the tip of her feet. She had won the argument and I had to allow her to ride my bicycle for sometime.
There was a crazy TV set in the garage of my former neighbors at whose home we had gone for having lunch. Only their kids knew about the craziness of the TV set. It felt like the TV set read my mind, because some of the advertisements showed some of my batchmates wearing funny clothes and selling stuffs, in short, a model for the advertisements. In one of them, I saw one of my batchmates selling the baseball kit. He spoke a few lines for advertising the product while playing with the ball and wearing the baseball glove in his left hand, a baseball uniform with cap. Then he started singing a song in a funny way and concluded the advertisement reassuring how good the product was. I could be hallucinating about all this, but the next advertisement was about home delivery and stuffs and I saw another of my batchmate acting like a disciplined punctual person who does everything on time. He emphasized that the home delivery service of some company is as disciplined and punctual as he is, as if people would take his word for it! He played with his moustache for a while. The advertisement showed him in a lot of different clothes, once as a cook preparing food in his own kitchen, once as a business tycoon who concludes a deal within a few minutes etc. After watching this commercial I started feeling hungry because the advertisement showed a lot of delicious dishes, especially chicken dishes. I do remember having gravy chicken that afternoon in lunch at my former neighbor's house.

26thAugust2008LateMorning

After a series of exciting experiences, which I forgot when I woke up, I slept again in the hope of reviving or resuming those series of experiences. The scene took a different turn and I saw yet another weird and "different" kind of dream, something that has never happened to me in real life.

I saw myself, with my college mates going to some other place, as a team to attend a workshop and conduct some experiments as a part of that workshop. We took a bus to that place. The place looked like very old, with faded colored walls with dark patches, and dingy ambience inside the buildings. We wore special suits kind of thing, like what bomb disposal squad wears or those dealing with viruses or biological weapons! I saw myself and others sitting in the same row, with old looking desks and apparatus, with washing sinks in front of us. It reminded me of the chemistry lab of my school which looked quite like that lab we were sitting in.
After the trip, I felt like I desperately wanted this kind of work or project. But I didn't have good CGPA or experience to support my predicament. Nevertheless I approached the professor, and as expected he dismissed me because he expected some "better" students to take up such projects. I couldn't believe it because the professor believed in giving anyone a chance.

In my desperation, I fell for my friends' suggestion of fabricating a false identity that showed that I belonged to a family which was a part of some specific groups of families. The trick worked as the next day the professor called me himself and offered me the project. My friends' had changed my identity quite meticulously in each of my records with the college authorities.
A couple of days later, during late hours of evening, as I walked by the dean's office, I heard this, "I found this. He's son of an army officer, he's an army kid." and before I could think of my next move (I easily guessed they were talking about me.) the professor saw me, and his face showed anger and disappointment. I looked at the dean, and (OMG, what happened!) he looked different. He looked a little younger and had dense hair on his head. The dean wouldn't have delayed a judgment so long. The professor won't spare me for what I have done, so he possibly couldn't be preventing the dean from suspending me for a week and calling my parents. I had this feeling that he wasn't the real dean, but a fake duplicate. But why couldn't others see the change in his looks, and his behavior. He didn't show any signs or anger or frustration, but falsely made a concerned and angry face.
I was ridiculed by many in the college the next day. People stared at me and talked among themselves, wherever I went. But something else was disturbing me. I wanted to find out more about the changes in the dean. My friends had no idea about it and surprisingly didn't even observe any change in the dean. It was only after I told them about my observations that they agreed.
Next night, I managed to get myself into dean's office. I searched for any clue that might explain such a behavior. I found a few deadbodies inside the cushioned side row just outside his cabin, where people sat, waiting for their turn to meet him. The bodies didn't have disgusting odour but did feel like human body when I touched them. The faces were recognizable but not of anyone I had ever seen. It confirmed that the present dean wasn't the real dean. The real dean would have suspended me but this dean didn't bother and spared me. Is it that dean was in danger (or perhaps dead, which could be, with so many dead bodies supporting this claim!) and this pseudo dean has some other business here that he's least bothered about the college and isn't interfering much with the administration work.
Sitting there in the dark, in front of the opened side row, with dead bodies in front of me, I could hear his words ringing in my mind, "he's an army kid". I felt the energy and the fervor within. I realized that I had a big responsibility to shoulder and get things right. I must find the dean and the answer to why can't anyone else realize that the dean is missing and this dean is not real. Could it be that the day I missed college for the workshop, that same day he replaced the real dean and did something to everyone else?

16thJuly2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself totally petrified at the idea of taking part in a speech olympiad kind of thing. I saw huge stadium with people from all over the world as audience as well as participants. It was an international event. I was one of the participants purely on the basis of my academic performance, is what I recall.
As I walked across my room, slowly keeping each foot after the other one, with soft sun-rays entering my room (illuminating the dust particles and keeping my room warm), I tried to build the speech in my mind on a random topic. The main point here was to keep on speaking on the topic without any long or lingering pause or pauses. I did that for a few topics in my mind till I couldn't control my anxiety any longer. For all I could recall, I had never spoken in front of any audience anything for a duration of five minutes. And now I was supposed to keep them engaged and interesed in my speech.
I asked my mother about the topic of my speech and she said she had given the slip of paper with the topic on it, to me a couple of hours ago. I started looking for the slip of paper and when I
found it, read the topic on the paper. It gave me cold feet.
My mother then suddenly came to my room and asked me for some medicines. She said they were for my father. I took out the medicine kit from the closet, looked for those medicines and gave them to her. Well, most of the medicines in that kit were for me! It was but evident that I couldn't take part in the speech olympiad because my parents had to leave as my father's
health had gone bad and he also had to get back to work in a couple of days. My mother urged me to take part and return home a couple of days later, but I refused. I felt slightly relieved for not speaking on the podium in front of such eminent people making the audience, but I also knew that it was a big opportunity lost.

I met her yet again, this time when I got back home after not attending speech olympiad. Meeting her made me forget all about the speech olympiad. She told me that she'd moved to this city but was visiting the city for the first time. She wanted me to drop her home. Her presence is something I can never deny.
As a third person, I saw her and me in a cab or an auto-rickshaw. Then as first person, I sat beside her and we talked. I slowly dozed off (What an idiot!). Perhaps a couple of minutes later, I was woken up by a sudden jolt in the movement of the cab. I realized that I had my head on her shoulders. I again closed my eyes. I felt drawn to her and for no reason, I kissed her cheek gently. She shook in a state of surprise. I pretended to be just awakened by my deep sleep and that I didn't know what happened and that whatever happened was while I was asleep. She only smiled. And I smiled too.
After reaching her place, she asked me if I was in contact with any of our common friends. I replied in affirmative and gave her the contact no. and e-mail ids of a few of them I was in touch with. She was really happy about that.
Later that day, when I went back to her apartment to do a favour by getting her something she had asked for, I found the door open. I entered the house. There was a laptop on a small round table in the center of drawing room. Stuffs were thrown on the furnitures. I saw the door of her bedroom ajar. I moved closer to a door and saw a guy lying on the bed with all clothes and shoes on. Who was this guy? I moved closer and saw her head on his belly and eating some ice cream candy, and both were talking. The guy was playing with her hair.
Of course she has a boyfriend... idiot me!
Perhaps the guy saw me, and following his line of sight, so did she. After a brief span of shock, she smiled and introduced me to him. She thanked me for all my help (of course I would have helped, and of course it doesn't make a difference!). Maybe she was too overwhelmed by all my "help" that she showed me a message she'd be sending to one of our common friends. She asked me for suggestions about the message. It had been a long time since she had not communicated with anyone of us. I said it was just the thing she should write, a part as apology, a part about all that had been going on in life, and about present state of life.
As I began to leave, I turned and looked at her again. She was still smiling and her face was still glowing, her eyes still shining. This was what had mesmerized me ten years ago. She had changed a lot, but she was still the person.
Alas, we are just friends, and even though I still feel the love for her, friendship is not love, isn't it!

I was glad to be back in college, in the Old Boy's Hostel among my friends for the final year. I saw Mridul grinning at me, the way he always does, for no reason whatsoever. I saw a heap of books wrapped in plastic. Akshay came from behind, saying something and ends his talk with a broad smile, in the process saving himself from tumbling over the heap of books. I asked him what he was saying and he said, "never mind, I'll explain later. First we must pick this heap of books and take it to my room." I couldn't interpret the words he said. I felt nostalgic about the fact that all my btech batchmates wouldn't be around after one year...

4thJune2008LateAfternoon

I saw myself in a huge bathroom, with tiling on floor and walls completely covered with mirrors. It had a huge bathing tub, and a shower area with curtains... I suppose I was a guest in someone else's house, perhaps some aunt of mine.
Next thing I saw was being late to a grand party, which was supposed to be in some awesome place. My father kept on asking me to hurry and get dressed. I quickly got dressed in my suit (probably tuxedo) and my parents, my sister and I left for the party. I remember getting down from the army vehicle (gypsy) and walking into the grand place with my parents and sister. My parents walked straight into the grand hall where other officers and their wives were sitting. My sister and I walked up the steep curved lane to the first floor.
For a person looking at that building from outside, from one side it would look like a cylindrical shaped tall structure, because of the curvy path to the upper floors. As we reached the first floor, we saw a few kids with fancy conical caps, masks etc. peeping from a hole in the wall beside the curvy pathway, while one other kid who stood at the entrance of the first floor hall, on hearing someone call his name, ran inside the hall. The curtains had been drawn, and so I looked inside the hall and saw few small kids running all over the floor, chasing someone or being chased by someone and perhaps falling in the process. I went inside and asked one of the persons responsible for taking care of the kids and providing them with soft drinks and eatables, when they asked for some, about the shooting event. He said that the shooting competition was on seventh floor. Surprise was my first reaction, urgency became my second reaction.
My sister and I left the first floor and walked up to the second floor. Second and third floor had teenagers and in one glance at the second floor hall I saw a few of them chit-chatting, talking about all kinds of stuff, and saw a few groups p about stuffs, playing games in groups, and we passed those floors quickly.
Third floor was more or less similar to second floor, in terms of noise levels, movement of persons etc. Fourth floor hall had curtains on. But as we started walking up, someone called my sister's name. We turned and saw her school friend standing outside the hall. My sister said that she'd like to hang out with her friend, so I left alone and walked up the two floors. Surprisingly, the fifth and sixth floor were only lighted in the curvy pathway and the respective halls were closed. This made me wonder why they chose the highest floor for the shooting event.
Finally, when I reached the seventh floor, I saw a few people sitting on chairs lined up on either side in the hall, leaving enough room for the shooter to stand at a distance and shoot. It looked like the event was almost over and it was apparent that I was late. As a matter of fact, the event had to start at about 7 o'clock and the time was about 8:30 or 9 pm. I was hopeful for getting a chance for hitting a few shots. Yes, it was shooting something like balloons, but I felt as if I'd been excited and waiting for this event for some substantial amount of time.
Luckily few more guys walked in and looking at more participants, we all got chance to shoot. When I got up to shoot, I saw my sister walking in the hall, with her school friend and waving at me. I waved back and then I saw myself wearing a hat and yeah, leather jacket, like a professional shooter or a cowboy, and aiming my gun (it was a pistol or shotgun).
I don't remember what happened after that, if I won or not, but I do remember that the feast was the grandest that I had ever seen. Two halls, each having long table with delectable dishes, some delicious desserts, but I don't remember much about what I ate, but all that I ate looked great.

30thMay2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself running frantically on the corridor of a school/college building. I was on the second floor. I looked at the class numbers on the tiny wooden boards as I passed by each class. I was looking for the exam room in which I was supposed to sit for my exam. After two rounds of the second floor, I went to the third floor to find the exam room. I saw science labs, sports rooms, kindergarden etc. After half an hour of running around, I found Dhingra having water from the water cooler. He saw me and asked me, "Did you complete your exam?"

"I can't find my exam room, did you finish you exam?"

"Yes, a few minutes ago. Others are still writing, but you know me, I leave the exam hall before everyone else."

"Yeah."

I couldn't find my exam hall and only half an hour was left when I looked at my watch. I walked into one of the rooms where some students were giving exams. I talked to the teacher/invigilator sitting there about my situation. Surprisingly she got me my question paper and made me sit in one of the seats. I started writing as fast as I could. After the examination time was over, she was kind enough to allow me to write till I completed my exam. She sat beside me which made me a bit uncomfortable because she occasionally read my answers which were not neat (both in presentation and language). She was pretty, though.

2ndJune2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself with my friend who was asking me to hurry lest we might be late for some place we had to go. Actually I was involved in doing something else and he came and reminded me of the fact that we had to be somewhere at that time, which was more important. So, I stopped whatever I was doing and took some essentials like my diary, my ID card etc. with me so that I may be able to enter the venue.
Before we could reach the place, I was kidnapped!
Actually it happened so that I and my friend was walking to that place, on an early sunny evening, on a road with trees on both sides. He walked a little ahead of me and I remember him wearing a light blue shade suit as I looked at him from behind, walking away. Next thing I remember I was sitting with a couple of men, both in their middle ages who were asking me about my identity and some information about the meeting or the place I had to go to. At first I tried to lie, suspecting some conspiracy or danger to me, my family or something or someone else. They looked so desperate. They threatened to call my parents and ask them about it. I
imagined my parents standing there and my father telling me to tell them everything about myself and that it'd be no harm to do that.
Due to fear, I told them everything, about me and about the meeting that I would have attended, had they not have interrupted. I was left alone for sometime, tied to a chair with a rope, in that dark dingy room, with some last sun-rays coming through a broken glass of
the window. They returned and untied me, and told me about their motive of keeping me that way. They said that they had made something, and they showed me the draft and the prototype. They said that their model was much better than that which would be shown in the conference that I'd have attended. I could then imagine people sitting in the conference, with a couple of men showing the prototype for the purpose that they were talking about. They explained that the prototype to be shown in the conference involved fusion of a few things at various stages while their prototype did the same thing in one step, with greater efficiency. As I imagined it, I
could see the difference.Perhaps I saw myself taking their prototype to the conference, a roll of the sheet of papers as I walked out of my car, even though I was one of the guests.

1st June 2008 Early Morning

First thing I remember was a huge 'Khaai' or canyon. It was deep and beautiful. It was vast and covered with vegetation. I saw it while safely standing on top.
Next thing I remember is our professor coming up with a crazy but interesting idea for a project. It involved the whole batch. It was a big project and had a lot of scope but he asked us to start our work one week before the end semester exams. And no one was in a mood to work for the project as we had other deadlines to meet. I took a part of the project that I would be doing, after few of my batchmates planned and discussed the division of the work of project amongst us. My mind raced through the schedule for coming week and allotted time for the project in that schedule.
Last week of semester proved to be disastrous. After missing two English classes because of staying at home during that week sometime earlier in the semester, this week I missed one class and was late for one, after I overslept due to fatigue. I reached the class half an hour late and sat beside Bhanukiran. He asked me where had I been in all previous English classes. Of course he knew the reasons.
One should never lie in life. I had not good reason to lie but I did the same. I stood at the first floor corridor of school building, looking into my notebook at a half torn page in the bottom half of which I had written a few things that could help me conveniently prepare for exams. I looked at it, both in amazement that I have a shortcut now, and in disbelief that, will this really help me?
I would never have thought this in my worst nightmares, but I sensed it now. I felt that the headmistress was standing behind me, looking at what I was looking at. I turned slowly, cautiously and found a couple of students walk past me. I turned to my notebook, closed it and as I turned to leave, I saw the headmistress standing in front of me.
"I would like to look at the page you were looking at, in your notebook!"
I sensed danger!
I turned the pages of my notebook back and forth in an attempt to find a similar half torn page at the top. I found a close replica scribbled in same way, which I showed her. She asked for my notebook and asked me to leave. I saw myself walking away from her and she looking at that page when I heard her call me from behind, with the notebook in her hand, "It is not a good thing to lie."
I froze at my place. How could she know of the shortcut?!
I always thought she had some magical powers. I saw myself sitting in front of her, in her office. She seemed furious. After few seconds she spoke, "you wanted to take the shortcut, isn't it?"
I couldn't say anything to that.
"Let me make it easier for you", she said. She handed me my notebook open at that page. I did what she wanted me to do. As I read the contents of the page, I saw myself looking at a street junction. I saw the headmistress standing on it, in front of an antique shop I think. I saw a man of almost her age walking towards her. She slapped him or something and he was hurt. A few seconds later, I saw them kissing passionately and that man apologizing.

31stMay2008LateAfternoon

I saw myself traveling with my parents and sister. We were all traveling by train, and it was dusk. I sat there and my mind wandered into yesterday, the instance when it all started.
There was a man who looked quite like J K Simmons (the egotistical newspaper editor in the Spiderman movies). I recalled the last time I looked at him, he wore a black overcoat, and I could see his face for a brief moment when the light flickered on his face, then it went dark again. I remembered the fact that the man was not very much liked by anyone. He was a shrewd and tough guy, and rude sometimes. We had to leave the house we stayed in because yesterday, like sometimes, he didn't speak in a very good manner with my father. But yesterday was different. Unlike everytime when my father, on the advice of my mother, ignored his rude irritating behavior, yesterday my father told him about what the fact that the man was rude and wasn't very cooperative while working, and my father being a kind of person not tolerating such kind of behavior, vented all his anger and frustration in the form of words and louder pitch in voice. My father scolded that man yesterday. The man was either my father's colleague or his boss.
A couple of hours ago, me and my sister were suddenly woken up while I was enjoying deep sleep. My mother said that we had to leave the house immediately. I saw packed trunks and furniture, paintings etc. wrapped in gunny bags and cardboard. All the luggage looked packed.
Next thing I knew I was standing at the station. I felt strange that within an hour I was standing at the platform, waiting for the arrival of the train. It was still dark and we, and a couple of people who'd come to see us off at the station and help with the luggage.
I looked out of the window, and saw the slow process of darkness vanishing and things coming to light and the bluish greyish ambience.
Early morning freshness was not the only reason for my pleasant mood after the sudden turn of events. I knew we'd be going to a new house, meet new people, make new friends...
It turned out that the people in our neighborhood and my father's colleagues in the office, all really appreciated what my father had done. They felt sorry at the same time that they couldn't prevent us from leaving the place. My father said that he felt better that way.

26thMay2008 EarlyAndLateMorning

This time, it were not snakes but crabs that troubled me. From what I can recall, I found myself lying on perhaps a sandy beach or some similar place where lots of crabs live. I stayed lying there and couldn't get up. I saw a couple of crabs slowly moving towards me. One of the crabs near my feet hit me with its forehand claws (or whatever they are called!). The crabs looked like the red colored crab "sebastian" of Disney's Little Mermaid cartoon. The hit woke me up and I found myself lying on my bed. My first instinct was to look at my feet that was hit.
I slept again, this time to visit a big conference kind of thing in some foreign country. I remember being in one of those large halls, among big celebrities, though I don't remember seeing anyone distinctly. I remember me and Mohit staying in luxurious hotel room, with lots of celebrities in neighbouring rooms. One evening at dusk, after the conference when I came out, I looked around at the big glass buildings and the broad roadways. I felt the cool air and the bluish dimness of the dusk. After sometime, I saw Shah Rukh Khan walking across in front of me. I was totally taken aback after looking at him from such a close distance. He was perhaps looking for someone or something as he stood there in front of me, and looking here and there with his searching eyes. My first instinct was to ask him for an autograph. He looked at me for an instant and I froze at my position. When he turned his gaze away, I walked up to him and asked for an autograph. He obliged, but I didn't have any page or notebook or something on which he could give me an autograph. At that moment, Mohit walked up to me and I asked Mohit to get a sheet of paper. He got a sheet of paper and Shah Rukh Khan gave his autograph on it, one each for both of us, on the top and bottom half of the sheet. I wasn't looking when he was giving the autograph. Something strange happened and he struck off the autographs given by him with pen strokes on it (was it because of IPL, but that can't be because they'd won that night!). He then apologized and asked for another sheet of paper so that he could again give us the autographs. At that moment, his car arrived and he had to leave.

4thMay2008EarlyandLateMorning

The first thing I remember is being in a big closed box, traveling with Alok and Abhinav, on some big and long two wheeler vehicle. They didn't know that I was in that box, and when I couldn't stay in the box any longer, I came out and they were surprised (of course!). Unfortunately, the thing that I replaced myself with, in the box was very important for them and so they started grumbling about the fact that they'd have to go back and get that thing. The road looked dim and things around looked bluish, probably it was early morning time.
Next thing I remember being with my parents and sister, in a tourist bus, going to some place. In the middle of the journey, our bus broke down on a deserted road. It was dusk. We all got down from the bus, and started looking around. My parents, sister, I and a few other tourists walked a little further away from the bus, and saw a pathway on the left side of the road, leading to some place. The pathway was at a certain depth from the road, and was lit by a bulb, which showed human habitation there, or nearby. So we got a rope from the bus, and started going down by holding the rope. During my mother's chance to go, (she was the first amongst us to go) her hand slipped and she fell directly on that path. None of us had noticed (it was getting dark in the evening) that there was a snake beside the tiny plant which marked the start of that path. Beside the plant was a deep trench and hence one had to land on the other side of the plant. My mother did land on the other side of the plant, but she also activated the snake. The snake started hissing and this caught our attention. I saw that and was terrified. I was afraid to go down there, even to help my mother! :(
But suddenly something happened, and I directly jumped near that plant (or was it my father who pushed me?), didn't use that rope), and slipped a little towards the trench. I was flat on the floor, in between my mother and the snake. I started blowing air on its face from my mouth, to prevent it from coming on to me. That thing frustrated the snake even more and it started hissing more loudly. I saw another snake emerge from behind this snake, a little distance away.
Next thing I saw I was standing with my mother in some corridor of a nice restaurant or hotel or some similar place. My mother then started a conversation with some lady and told her that she really liked her visit to Kerala and that although she didn't like south Indians much earlier, she really likes them now and would like to visit this place more often. That lady was also from Kerala and she didn't take the remark pleasantly.
Next thing I saw was myself in some small town market, with shops and people and streets etc. There was some school function going on and I think I was also a student of that school, because I saw students doing some P.T. kind of thing on the ground, or some dance kind of thing, and I was watching that as an audience among other students. Next thing I remember was sitting in some advance class, with professor lecturing on something. I pissed him off by saying something and he gave me some work or shouted at me or something, and I was upset. The professor was a nice person, but I "really" pissed him off by saying/doing something I don't remember now. I was sitting there in the class, wondering about the shop, some shop that was, through which I had reached this place. I was a school student and once I came through that shop I became a student of this advanced class. Now I wanted to go back through that shop to my school life. But I decided to stay in the college life and accept the challenge. That shop was kind of grocery shop or a bakery maybe.
Next I remember asking Asrar that why doesn't he do some exercise and body building and he gave me a genuine reason I don't remember now.
Next I saw myself talking with Yogendra, we were standing beside some vegetable sellers. Yogendra said he was interested in Mechanical Engg. and I told him that many people do two engineering, so can he, and that electronic engineers also do lot of mechanical work! :D (soldering etc.)

2ndMay2008EarlyMorning

I saw myself as a school student, with same teachers teaching me who taught me in 11th and 12th class. I saw myself sitting in the same classroom, wearing that same uniform and having that same school backpack. This week the teacher teaching computer science had given some work to me, which I had to show her on monday. Also, there was this movie being aired that weekend. Me and my friends decided to go for the movie. That evening, we reached the cinema hall but we were not allowed to go inside because we were not invited, or rather not eligible! I couldn't understand what did he mean by "not invited". We stood outside the entrance, looking for a chance to sneak inside. The cinema hall was small and had one small screen hall, like a small town cinema hall. A few of my friends also tried disguising themselves differently (rather as adults) and tried to get in, but all in vain. Eventually I, and also my friends saw that the gate-keeper wasn't there, so we all rushed in. I was hesitant, as I saw the gate-keeper coming from a distance. All my friends had entered and were signaling me to hurry up! I looked at them, then at the gate-keeper who was chewing something and moving towards the main-gate, with a long stick in his hand. All I did was pretend that he wasn't there, and coolly walked in. My heart beat stablized only when I was well inside the corridor. I saw the door of the hall open. I went inside and saw nice cushion chairs covered with white cloth, and the floor covered with carpet. I was suprised to see only few people sitting inside. We waited for about half an hour, then started to leave. I saw my computer science teacher, and looked for a place to hide. But she also saw me and called me. She told me that the movie had not yet arrived, and that she and her family had also planned to come by and watch this movie (why weren't we allowed in, then?). I was happy she didn't mention anything about the work. As I walked out of the main-gate, I turned my head around and saw the gate-keeper sleeping on his chair and the dusk slowly filling the sky and the small town, with darkness.

5th April '08 Late Morning

The Puppet-Master

The first thing that I remember was confessing my love to one of my friends after I met her after a few years. She and I used to study together in the same school and knew each other very well. She also liked me but yeah, didn't love me! She just smiled after she heard what I said and said that she, kind of, had that feeling that I might be in love with her.
Next thing I saw myself walking with her in the corridor of some place which was either a school or some other place. Surprisingly enough she was holding my hand while walking. She entered some place which was in fact a dressing room. I said that I'd wait outside, but after sometime I went inside and saw her a bit undressed from the top, standing in one of the sections. I felt like hugging her and kissing her. Her face showed strange anxiety and fear, which I couldn't help notice.


We were standing together in some well lighted, well furnished railway station, which more looked liked an airport than a typical Indian railway station. She spotted her mother, and we went to her. I greeted her mother, and tried to show extra respect by bending a little. Her mother had a baby, which was supposedly hers. Only baby's nose was showing, rest was covered. I requested if I could see his face to see if he looks more like her mother or her father. Aunty obliged, and when I saw his face, it looked like both of his parent's face, a perfect blend. We then realized that the train in which we were to go, was leaving the platform. We quickly bid goodbye to her mother and started running. I asked her to hold my hand, which she did and then we finally caught up with the last bogie. We didn't have any heavy luggage, just a backpack each. I got onto the stairs of the entrance of the bogie, then got inside, then helped her inside. I saw that it was a luggage compartment without any direct path to other bogies. The train also had stopped temporarily for a few seconds, and had then again started moving. I asked her to get down, got down myself, then went into the compartment before the last one. I got into the compartment, then helped her in. She realized something as she got into the compartment, and exclaimed, "I dropped my Encarta DVD while getting inside!" in a tone of agony more than sadness or pain. I pressed her hand which I was holding, to assure her that everything is going to be all right, that we are safe now, although I had never seen her as perturbed as this before. Something was going on that I was unaware of.

There also I found no path connecting to the other bogies, but we had to stay put as the train had gained good speed now. So we sat there. Surprisingly there were a few beds, with mattresses and bedsheets on them. I found that strange, and thought that some persons had laid them for themselves. But there was no crease or wrinkle on those bedsheets, as if were meant for some visitors. I wanted to stretch myself on one of those and sleep for a long time, but then I saw a pot belly, dirty shirt guy who was standing outside, on the extension part of that bogie, moving inside the bogie. I hadn't noticed him earlier, and was both surprised and disturbed at his presence. He was puffing his cigarette and looked at both of us for more than a few seconds, as if expecting us, and he walked back into the extension part of the bogie and started doing something, calling someone perhaps!
I signaled her to stay with me, sit beside me, but I guess she wanted some time with herself. There was no time for that, so I got up and sat beside her. I had a feeling that this was some plan, that we were being set-up. My fears couldn't be more true when I saw the pot bellied guy again, this time with few of his friends walking into the compartment and standing in front of us. What surprised was that the train hadn't stopped, that it was still moving, then how did these guys get onto this bogie?

"Ah I see, your friends are better dressed than you are!" I commented at pot bellied guy. I felt as if I knew those people, dressed in strange costume kind of dresses. They were four of them, and the pot bellied guy. The guy who looked like the leader spoke, "I had been looking for you for such a long time. Finally I have found you!" but he wasn't speaking to me, he was speaking to her! At this, she caught my arm and pulled me closer to herself.

I got scared and angry at the same time. I looked at her and realized that she knew him as if I could read her mind by looking at her face. Those expressions were so clear and distinct.
"And as for you, my friend, I know you too. We had met lately. You're a nice guy, I like you. You possess great powers, but alas you're unaware of them!" and then he laughed wickedly, "Now if only you would move aside and let the girl walk to me."

When I refused to let go and held her close to myself, wrapping my arms around her, he said, "then I am left with only one thing to ..." before he could finish his sentence, I suddenly realized that 'he had the power of optical illusion, which felt real as he attacked the person's mind. And that he'd be using some kind of flying snakes as an attack on me and that I can and should resist the snakes, and keep them at a distance and not allow them to hurt me, as one hit would also weaken my mind power.' I heard all that as if someone was whispering in my ears.

The scene around us changed. I saw huge flames, and lava, and flying snakes coming out of them. I heard the sinister laugh of him and others. I resisted the snakes and didn't allow them to come near me. It took some time, but after that I realized that I was walking without my luggage, on some railway platform which looked similar like the previous one. I felt that I was still holding her and that she was walking beside me. I met a few of my friends who had come to receive me at the station. They grinned at me and asked me that why was I keeping my left hand, half stretched out, in a weird shape while walking, as if holding some invisible person?
I looked at my left and realized that I'd lost her. "O damn!" and started running in the opposite direction. I covered a few blocks of the platform running when I saw someone carrying her and walking towards me. He was one of our good old friend from high school. But what was he doing here? I hadn't met him in years! And how did he find her in such a condition and how did I lose her? All these thoughts made me think, "How did I suddenly end up walking at this platform, i.e., at the right destination?" "Where were the snakes and those men?" and a few more perplexing questions!
"Hey man! Thanks! Thanks for saving her. Is she alright?" I asked.
"Yeah, unconscious though."
I saw her, and it looked like the flames of that illusion had affected her a lot. Her dress, her hair, her face bore the signs. I felt miserable that I couldn't even take good care of her.
"So, we haven't met in years, how have you been?!" he asked me, as we walked together, with me
carrying her this time. We went back to my friends, and I introduced him to my friends and vice-versa. I explained my friends everything that had happened. We all hurried to our college campus, which was the best thing to do at that time, as suggested by my friends because they were suspecting some curfew or fight to break out somewhere in the city.
By the time we reached the campus, it was late evening. She was still unconscious, which disturbed me a lot. One of my friends looked at me, realized what I was thinking, and said, "I know what you're thinking, but we can't take her to the hospital."
As we got down from the cab, we heard disturbing voices and movements from inside the campus building. We ducked behind a cover in front of our campus. "I never expected our college campus to be the epicenter for this fight." One of my friends said.
"Listen, you must help me. We must find a safe place for her to rest. Is the whole campus filled with these fights? There has to be some place inside, which would be safe!"
"Are you kidding me?" he said, "No place is secure right now."
We heard a sudden blast from inside the campus, with flames and smoke flying upwards.
"See! The place where we are right now is most secure place, got it?" he said in an attempt to close the discussion.
A few more blasts and we saw about 15-20 people running out of the building. These blasts woke her up. She was surprised to see where she was and also among the people she was. I decided to go inside and help them. "I have some special powers, that I have recently realized", I said, "and I am going to use that." Before they could stop me, I left.
I cautiously entered the building, by walking behind the wall of the campus, to avoid being spotted. As I reached inside, a group of people caught me, then somehow recognized me and said, "Abhishek, please help us!" It was more of a plea than an order. Those were my batch mates.
We all assembled in one of the classrooms and everyone was told that I was also there to join the battle. I was called, Beachhead, I wondered why! We were all GI Joe fans, but this fight looked more than real! As we moved out of the room to face the enemies, I saw many people lying on the floor, some of whom I could recognize. I felt miserable again. I fought with my mind-power, and converted some people from the mobster's gang into our team. I controlled and ordered them and prevented few others from attacking anyone. Everything was going fine, when suddenly I felt that she might be in danger. I immediately left the building, freezing minds of my players.
I saw my friends and her hiding behind the rock, at a distance when suddenly I saw those 4 people in costumes and the pot belly guy walking towards them from behind. I ran as fast as I could towards them, and shouted, "NNNNNNOOOOOO". They looked at me, and the optical illusion guy gave a sinister smile, and while other four handled my friends, he went towards her, and as he was about to hold her, something inside me shouted, all my rage came out as I stretched my right arm, palm facing towards him. He got a shock inside, then he attacked me with his illusion thing, but I had tasted it before, so I simply got rid of it in no time. I froze their minds.
I didn't meet them, but went back inside the campus, to finish what I had left. I activated my players, who were attacking their team, and surprising them. I was rather having fun now, but also felt tired and relieved after what I had done. She was safe now, I thought. Suddenly something caught my ear.
I heard my group leader say, "Zander, come on man! You're injured doesn't mean you can't fight. GI Joe's always fight!" and then I saw this "Zander" guy, sitting with his girlfriends, moaning. "Alright!" he said, and got up. I asked my group leader, "How can you name him 'Zander'! 'Zander is a cobra's name, not a GIJoe's name!"
I might have said this a bit louder, but surprisingly after I had completed my sentence, I felt silence all around. I turned around and saw that everyone was staring at me! I couldn't get much time to wonder as to what had happened, because everyone suddenly started shouting and laughing... someone played music in the background and everyone around me started dancing!
I was REALLY perplexed this time! Now what happened? I thought. I saw the people lying on the floor rising and dancing! It scared me for a fraction of a second. If that was not all, I saw her and my friends who were hiding outside, rush inside, smiling and laughing! She didn't have any burn marks and looked as beautiful as ever. But what was happening?!
"It was a game" someone shouted from the basement floor, "in case you're wondering what's happening! " and started dancing again!
"You were at home when we had planned all this." my group leader told me, "But I didn't know you were so good. You played the role of 'Puppet Master' beautifully! You were great!"
"You mean, the people I controlled, converted, attacked were acting? They weren't even looking at me when I was doing my stuff!"
"O come on! I agree you were great, but don't take it too seriously, it was a game."
"What about the people we met in the train?" I asked her. To this, the group leader showed that he was surprised, and I could see that without looking at him!
"What about them? I didn't have knowledge of everything! I just knew my role, that's it! And I am sure he must have planned all the weird things that happened with us during the journey, with optical illusion or other hi-fi gadgets he uses.", she said looking at the group leader. I had no idea how the two knew each other! She was not a student of my college.
"What? NOOO. Wasn't the game supposed to be just within the campus premises, as the last celebration during the holidays before the new semester started?! Hey you know what, relax guys, its celebration time! Weird things happen. They are just coincidences." he said cheerfully!

I looked at her and she looked at me. We knew those were not coincidences. I finally figured out what the illusion guy meant by, "we have met lately" and the reason only the nose of the baby was showing when we had gone to meet her mother. He became the baby as a disguise, so that he could keep track of us. He knew I might recognize him and the perfect blend of mother and father's looks was what took my attention and he saved his cover.
She didn't get burned or bruised, or unconscious. Those flames were meant to attack me only and I could prevent those flames from hurting someone else, which I now realize. I was fighting that guy's illusion, in the process of which, I teleported directly to my destination, the reason I am still unaware of. She was left alone in the bogie, since those bad guys couldn't attack her because I had defeated them and so they left her alone, and decided to take her when I was not around. She found herself alone in the bogie and got down at the right station, coincidentally meeting our good old friend. She made a plan to trouble me and make me feel guilty that I had left her. She didn't see me teleporting because she had closed her eyes when I was holding her close, and when I teleported, that feeling of me being around remained for sometime, then vanished.

Everything around me felt uncertain now. She was afraid, in fact and that she wasn't telling me the whole truth. My friends might have told her that all the things happening along was a game, which did give her some relief, but in reality also, she was expecting something of this sort to happen.
I loved her, but she didn't trust me enough.
My thoughts were interrupted by her voice. She had turned a little away, and said, "I'd better get going to my aunt's house. She would be waiting for me and getting worried." She smiled, but not as cheerfully as she usually does.
"I'll accompany you!" I said.
"No need. You celebrate along with your friends. I can go myself!" she said, then walked up to me, held my hand, pressed it a little and whispered, "thank you for everything." and finally she smiled with that shine and beauty. I was assured that she would be fine.
The guys who were after her had been suitably rewarded. From now on, they can't use their brains, they live like zombies. They'd stay and decay where they are lying right now. I am sure there are other guys looking for her, for some reason wanting something from her. And I'll be there to ensure that they don't succeed.
Then it struck me as obviously and as strangely as ever... "the Encarta DVD".

8th March Early Morning

The first thing I remember was that I was in a big room on a ship or in some hotel room and there was this pretty young lady with me. It had been a rainy day and black clouds covered the sky. We had met somewhere in the city and somehow got this liking for each other. I saw her standing on a bridge and me standing in front of her and we were talking and laughing...

Next thing I remember is that we were having sex... I could feel the warmth and the touch, the smell, it was gentle and smooth... I was totally into it... looks like I am telling myself subconsciously that I want something (even though I don't really think about it while I'm awake) and also I am training myself for the same subconsciously using the information gained from external world and the coded information in my genes... oh it's too complicated, let's stop at that!


I hardly ever get angry enough to shout, but something happened that changed it all. I received the news of death of one of my best friends of high school and I think it was Himanshu. I had not met him since last 4 years and it was a straight shock. So, that evening itself, when someone was
cracking a joke on me (like sometimes people do and I play along) while we were standing on a
training ground (beside the rope climbing area) which looked like a military exercise ground, but
this time something inside me, which seemed wanting to come out, came out and with rage I abused him and abused all the others. They were shocked and realized something was wrong. I hadn't noticed that earlier but that pretty young lady was also standing there. I said, "Time changes a person. I was deeply upset after receiving the news of my friend's death and I guess that came out as rage from within me and you all had to see it. I'm sorry." I rather felt light hearted and better and from then spoke such words occasionally whenever I felt like.


This time my house (group) was supposed to play host. We had to prepare the meal, decorate the place and invite other houses (groups). I had expected this as the last thing on the earth to happen to me but it happened and I was made the head of all this, especially the food preparation part! I, as always, ended up delaying the things and on the last day had a lot of things to be prepared! I was really freaked out and was also frustrating the others in my group. The long list of unfinished items that I looked at made me realize that nothing can be done now... it's over. Still I tried and divided the work and as I was about to leave for my long list of work, when I thought, why not call someone from the other group to help me, some friend of mine and guess what, I called Rahul. Of all the people I called Rahul! Anyways, he came, and a few of his other friends. I asked him to do something and though initially he was hesitant, he agreed. Interestingly enough I had written To Do things on some eatables (as a reward for those who finish that To Do thing) and he picked the corresponding one, while I was about to write it down on some paper. He said, "Thanks, I'll do it and then have this", grinned and left. I felt a bit apprehensive but also better after realizing that I'd reduced some work for myself.

As I was about to leave to do the work I'd assigned myself, someone called me.
It was that pretty young lady again and this time she was calling me "sir". Perhaps she must be my junior or maybe since I'm in charge, she was using that word! I followed her into an adjacent room and what I saw both embarrassed me and also made me respect her. She said, "Sir, I've prepared, or rather got these thing prepared as I saw them in your list of To Do things." She sounded hesitant as she might be thinking that she looked into the To Do list and it was wrong. Well of course it is wrong to look at other's things without permission but I guess it was the right thing to do. I mean I looked at the prepared dishes, and a few which she had served on a plate and it looked perfect. I felt like hugging her and saying "Thank You". I just said, "That's good." and before I was over with saying that, a few people got a few things by carrying them on their back. She directed them to keep it at some destined places. Those things were packed so I couldn't see what it was.

I then realized that she saw me with those guys and she also knew that they were from some other house (group). I felt guilty of not being able to do things after I was made in-charge of the whole event. I then saw that those packed in the room were meant for decoration. She was bending towards one of them to open it and then she turned and looked at me, and smiled. I felt she was smiling sarcastically and wanted to say, "I knew you wouldn't be able to do it and this time also I had to take care of everything."

Finally everyone came and we had a good time. I also eventually prepared a few dishes and did a bit of decoration work. The last thing I remember was talking to Asrar, Gaurav and others about the awards kind of things that India wins. Someone said, "India ko US mein koi award nahi milte hai but UK mein mil jaate hain har baar." Others agreed and I saw Asrar grinning broadly at that fact, but I couldn't understand what it was, even though I agreed fully to the fact.

23rdFeb'08LateMorning

Examination

I saw myself with my parents and sister in a new city where we were tourists. We were roaming about, trying to kill time and at the same time, trying to reach the railway station lest we should not miss the train. We reached the station and I saw myself holding on to something with my arms and hanging in the air while my mother and sister were pulling my legs, one each, and I was shouting and asking them not to do so while they were laughing. I had a few bags hanging on my shoulders and it seemed that I was hanging there in air to get those baggages across to a large store room. I saw a coolie (porter) come to me, and I left one hand free, to give him the air-bag that was hanging on my shoulder. He took the bag, dumped it in the store room and took the other one from me which was hanging on my other shoulder. When I came back down, I asked my mother and sister not to pull my legs again when I'm hanging in the air !
My parents, sister and I caught a bus and we came to the place where I was supposed to give my exams. The place looked familiar. It looked quite like some part of NDA Khadakwasla, Pune or IMA Dehradun. Many of my batchmates were there and we were supposed to give two exams, C/C++ and Algorithms. I was highly unprepared for both, but was more afraid of Algorithms. My parents left me at the entrance, all three of them wished me luck and I walked inside, through the open gate into the campus. I saw the soft sun-rays of early evening fall on the campus. I walked through the long corridors until I reached a long hall. I walked inside, only to find my batchmates and a few other students who had come to give that exam. I knew that I had very little time and that after giving both the exams, I have to rush back to the railway station.Interestingly enough I had my laptop with me and the hall where I was sitting had Wifi facility. I thought I still had some time before my exam starts, so I opened my orkut account and was surprised to find a scrap from someone who'd hardly come online. She had replied to my scrap and for the first time, her scrap was three lines long. She had written something philosophical, but I was excited enough to have received a scrap from her after a very long time that I was pleased to read whatever she'd written. She had also kept a few pics of her on orkut which were very attractive and sexy. I had never seen her like that and I was totally taken aback by whatever I saw and was perturbed and a bit disturbed. My thoughts and mixture of extreme emotions suddenly vanished when I realized Rahul Jain walking towards me from behind. I quickly changed the tabs on firefox (but my fingers were still numb after whatever I'd seen) and asked him, "Hey what's up? Ready for the exam?" I asked him as I kept my laptop on a seat and got up.
Rahul was surprised at my statement and said, "I never saw you in the exam hall. Were you sitting in some other room?"
"What do you mean you never saw me? Did I miss my slot of exam?" I exclaimed as nervousness started making space for itself in my mind, displacing all the other emotions.
"I guess so. We are both dual-degree student and so we might have been given same slot. But you can still talk to our server admin, Mr. Ganesh. He is one of the persons in-charge for the exams conducted today and he's sitting right over there." He indicated where he was sitting by pointing at him.
"Yeah, right. Ok I'll go and ask him. And what time is Algorithm's exam."
"After one hour."
"How was C/C++ exam?"
"I'd rather advice you to go and talk to him and clarify things. You'd not want to miss your exam. You can give me this laptop for now. I'd also like to check my mails." He sat where I was sitting and took my laptop in his lap.
"Oh no... uhm... wait. Okay, I'll give it to you." I almost snatched my laptop from him and closed firefox. I gave it to him and went to talk to the server admin.
"Sir, I missed my exam. I was sleeping." I said and tried to pursuade him a lot. Finally he agreed and gave me the immediate time slot and asked me to join it. I took my documents, writing pad etc. and rushed to the exam room, and gave a glance towards Rahul and my laptop from the corner of my eye while leaving.
I saw myself sitting with my juniors and other strangers and giving exam. The exam was not a simple one. When I returned to the long hall after the exam (it was getting dark and the long hall looked quite different and beautifully illuminated with yellow light bulbs and candles etc.), I saw that the feast had started and that many people were enjoying themselves. I also felt like eating something but I had to meet Mr. Ganesh to get the slot for Algorithms exam. I met Vivek Prakash as I entered the long hall. He asked me how were my exams and I said that I still have to give Algorithms exam. He adviced me that I better do so at the earliest because all the slots would be over otherwise. I met Mr. Ganesh, quickly took the immediate available time slot and went for my exam.

22nd Feb '08 Late Morning

I was sitting in my room, when I heard a knock followed by lots of footsteps. I was startled, and perturbed. I opened the door, only to find a person with a gas-mask pointing a maverick at me. He took a step back and said, "Start moving", pointing the gun in the intended direction.
I saw many of my friends, moving out in a queue, climbing down the stairs. I could not understand.
I was afraid now and my mind was filled with the incidents of last night, watching "Wedding Crashers", chatting in the corridor. The sun was just rising in the east and in the midst of the soft sun rays, I saw the cold, unfriendly masked men with snipers and mavericks.
Next thing I remember was that we all were divided in groups for doing a series of assignments. We all sat in some classroom, with benches, desks, a green-board, a cup-board. As I sat on my seat, and looked around, I found many of my batch-mates and college-mates but I also saw some unfamiliar faces. I saw a few of the same gun-men whom I had encountered in the morning. The assignment looked tough and I wished that I was in some other particular group because I was unfamiliar with my group-mates and they didn't show the willingness to work and finish the work. I was eager to be the person to finish his work so that he could be allowed to go home.
At night, we were directed towards a line of barracks having long rows of bunker beds, like a long dormitory. The atmosphere looked war-like and we lived as if living in concentration camps. The work done by us was all academic kind of stuff. We were given an assignment each morning and we had to submit it before sunset. The assignment had a few questions and each group was given an assignment sheet with questions printed on it. I felt that courses at IIIT were much better than these assignments.
Surprisingly, after a few weeks, our results were declared. That day also, gun-men were standing near the entrance of the classroom. I was nervous, like I am whenever results are declared. I knew these results didn't matter anymore to me, as I couldn't anticipate in what way getting good result would help me.
The scene changed and I found myself sitting at home, with my parents and sister. My mother was furious after I told her what happened to me and my friends. She wanted to take some action against this but my father and I tried to calm her down. My father was also upset. Actually the main reason for their being upset was that my right leg had a muscle pull while I was in that "concentration camp" and so I limped for rest of the time there. I suggested that my leg be shown to a doctor and proper medication be taken by me.
The last thing I saw was that I was sitting in Military Hospital and my father brings a walking stick for me and handed it to me with a grin while my mother and sister stood behind and smiled. I saw myself walking out of the hospital like the way Dr. House walks in the t.v. series House M.D., with the only difference that my damaged leg was different one from that of House.

2nd Feb 2008 Early Morning.

Haunted Tourism

I found myself standing in a corridor brightly lit by bulbs on the decorated walls and had a layer of carpet below my feet. I saw in front of me, small cabinets for dining, and saw a child eating his meal at a round table, laughing perhaps with others of his age whom I couldn't see. A few couples and a group of ladies passed by me as I stood at the corridor, looking at things around.
I heard my father calling me and I walked away in that direction. After dinner, my mother insisted that I wear a sweater/cardigan as it'd get colder late in the night. It was when I looked out of the window that I realized that we were in a ship.
I saw dark blue world outside, foggy weather, moonlight giving some visibility, and when I looked down at the sea, it looked calm with gentle waves. I saw a few tree stems in the middle of sea, a little distance away from the ship. It looked both spooky and adventurous and reminded me of Pirates of Carribean series.
Next day we reached the shore, but our destination was still a little distance away. We hired a gypsy car and were accompanied by a few foreigners (UK natives). That evening, after reaching our rest house, my parents fell asleep as they were very tired. My sister watched TV as I came out of the room to stroll outside for a while. While coming to that resthouse, in the way I'd seen a small lake. I walked till that lake. It was still foggy outside with the bluish greyish mix backdrop, giving it a perfect spooky look. I saw the lake in front of me, it's water still as ever, and enclosed on all sides by land with fog floating on it's water surface. I started walking along the lake, on the banks of lake. Something happened that was far more spooky and made me chill down my spine, much more than the whole winter season had done so far.
For the distance along the bank that I walked, water in that corresponding part of the lake started freezing and froze along as I walked. I felt like stopping but my feet continued to walk as my mind stopped working at that time, so I walked a little more and then a little. I had walked along half the distance of the bank at one side... and that much lake froze. Then I stopped and saw the rest of the lake freeze in front of me.
I felt colder inside and sneezed. Perhaps it was time I get indoors, so I jogged back, giving one last glance at the mysterious lake, which still looked frozen. When I reached the resthouse, I saw that we had some guests. They were foreigners (from UK) and were also tourists like us. I shook hands with them and introduced myself. I had to pronounce my name three times for them to be able to pronounce it correctly ! And their name I could never understand so I politely smiled. But one thing I've observed everytime I meet a foreigner who visits India is that, they like to know the names of other people and mix with them for better experience and guidance.
I told them (my parents, sister, and the foreigner family) what I had just experienced. The person in charge of the rest house said that it's a natural weather phenomenon and that local people here see the lake freeze in front of them many times, at a specific time, not a minute before or after that. But I couldn't agree because I felt something within me that was not just cold or chill due to weather or fear. I felt many people looking at me and one of them following me which perhaps made the lake froze, but of course I couldn't see anyone and the reason was not the fog.
The next day was brighter but still without sun. We had plans for sightseeing and the foreigner family (sorry don't remember their name) decided to join us. We hired a big boat, and stood between the indoor cabin and cabin of the person driving the big boat. We looked outside at the sea and sea waves and the land masses at a distance. I heard the foreigner lady start a conversation with the cleaner of the boat. I turned to look at them and heard her asking, "So have you lately witnessed freezing of lakes, as the weather is getting colder every next day."
The cleaner lady turned pale and continued to clean the floor. The foreigner lady threw a coin at her, but she continued to clean the floor. She threw another one. This time the cleaner looked up, then reached her hand at the coin to pick it up when the foreigner son, who was now standing beside his mother, displaced the coin a little away from the cleaner lady with some stick he had in his hand, perhaps a walking stick. The lady looked up again and continued cleaning the floor. When the foreigner lady threw the third coin at her, the cleaner lady looked up again and said something that would have scared the hell out of anyone !
But the foreigner lady, as cool and calm as ever, replied, "So you agree that the place is haunted."
Cleaner lady replied, "And the place you all are now going is far more haunting."
The foreigner son pushed all the coins towards her and we all looked at each other.

27th Jan '08 Early Morning

The first thing I remember is that I am sitting in some classroom and struggling to learn something. Bhanukiran walks upto me and says, "Dude, it's quite late, it's night time. And you're sitting in the dark staring at something I can't clearly make out what! Is something troubling you?
I stared at that thing again and then replied, "Nothing".
The truth was that I was nervous. And something was troubling me. I was in a situation that I wanted to do something but didn't have the courage to withstand the wrong consequences.
Our college was one of the colleges selected for some martial arts fighting competition and it was to be a 'team fight'. As far as I can recall six members were there. One of them was Gaurav, not sure if Atul was also a part of the team. We had a teacher who was an expert and we had evening sessions for a couple of months.
Evening sessions were cool. I learned some nice stunts/tactics about self defence but the idea of taking a punch or kick in the face is what was making me nervous. Luckily during evening sessions, nothing of that sort happened!
After the two months of training, we were trained in weapon fight. We started with a Bo. It reminded me of Donaltello of TMNT cartoon series. I eagerly learned each and every move with that Bo, but getting a stick in my face added to the list of my fears! :(
Our first match was against some local college which we won convincingly. We traveled in a bus to that college and returned late at night. The task was simple, make all the opponents fall on the ground. I tried to use the Bo as Master Splinter of TMNT and it worked in a few cases because the other team was also smart. I was the first one to fall to the ground from my team but I made 2 people fall before falling. I was happy and thrilled never the less because it was my first experience in a combat and my face was not hurt!
There was a machine which had crawled the whole web, indexed every information available on the web and had made a graph of the hyperlinked structure of web. Our college had built that machine and had given it to students to test run it and tell the bugs and limitations. Me and my team were the only ones left to test it.
The machine had a large bluish screen with a complex graph structure on it. The machine could sense if a person nearby is there to use that machine or to do something else. As we went close to it, a digitalized female voice started speaking and giving instructions. It was simple to use and felt like a person was standing on the other side of the machine and teaching us how to use it. My friends gave a lot of queries and were impressed by it's accuracy in fetching just the relevant documents. It seemed like high level of AI and sensors were used. I gave the name of my old friend as a query since I wanted to find out where she was or what she was doing and I had googled her earlier but it couldn't find any result.
I was again disappointed when this machine displayed at the screen that no result could be found and apologized (which was amusing because the female voice also announced it as "No results found, sorry")
Next week we had a match against a local college in Madras (now called Chennai). Looking at our good performance in the last match, our teacher decided to teach us the use of Katana Blades (or sword). He gave each one of us a sword and asked us to become comfortable with it. I felt it heavier than the Bo and also didn't have much degree of freedom in holding the sword. I lifted it and brought it closer to my face, it's pointed blade pointing to the roof of our practice room ( a wooden room with thatched roof). I looked at the shine of the blade and saw my face in it. My fears were confirmed now... I now feared a long scar on my delicate face! :(
As I got into the bus for leaving to Madras, all I knew was that I was nervous and also had to be very careful... I recalled the conversation I had with Bhanukiran last night and now all I wanted was my face to be safe.

14th Jan 2008, Early Morning.

I slept early yesterday, at 11 pm. Does this affect the kind of dreams I get? I guess not!
The first thing I remember is that I and my girlfriend are alone in my house (I don't have a girlfriend, though!) and we are together in the attic. The attic has wooden floor and is quite spacious and also big enough for a person to walk erect. I saw all this from a third person view. Even though I couldn't see either of the person's face clearly, I know the guy was me. There was only a bulb throwing yellow light to light the attic and it was hanging in the center of the roof of the attic.
We did some things (I don't remember much. We ate fruits and other things, we read something... can't recall what we did.) and frequently kissed each other then I saw us naked and having sex and then suddenly I saw us dressed again and with her lying on me and smiling at me while we looked into each other's eyes. All of a sudden, the doorbell rang. As a third person view from the attic I saw my parents enter the house and I and my girlfriend greeted them.
My father told me that there's going to be a festival in some place in India (I guess it was Kerala, because what I saw later, most of it looked like the temples and palaces of Kerala since I have lately visited Kerala). This festival is quite famous and also has an event of boxing in it. I thought in my mind, "so what?" but then my father interrupted my future thoughts by telling me that I was good at boxing and so I should participate in it. Now that is news, I thought, but never mind, I'll see a few games then try to do what other participants would be doing. Then I imagined myself standing fully dressed for boxing, with gloves on my hands and wearing a red hood on my head and looking at an ongoing match, trying to learn their moves.
I saw myself in Kerala (my imagination tells me that it was Kerala and this time, I have first person view.) with my parents. We went to a temple to seek blessings for me, I really needed blessings! When inside the temple, I looked around. It was dawn and sun was yet to show it's presence and come up in sky, and people were out of their homes and visiting temples and doing other activities. It surprised me but I was impressed. Hardly a few people, and I think they were the ones responsible for maintaining and looking after this temple, were inside the temple. When I saw the idols of the deities right in front of me, I didn't remove my shoes (I was well aware of the fact that I should be removing my shoes, but didn't worry much about it) and just went in. I didn't go too close to the idols (they were small idols, 5-6 of them and were kept on the two adjacent walls) and joined hands from a distance and prayed to them. As I walked back towards the exit of the temple, I felt that wearing shoes and praying wasn't the right thing to do. So I again went back, this time after removing my shoes and again prayed to them, this time went a little closer, and asked for forgiveness.
My parents and I then went to some place, where a lot of people had gathered, either it was a palace or a place of similar historic importance. I was impressed by the architecture and the design of the place. Suddenly I saw a snake outside, at the entrance of that place. It was big, orange in color and it was FLOATING IN THE AIR. It saw me and I shrieked. Everyone turned and stared at me. They turned and saw in the direction I was looking at and started laughing. They said these snakes often come to this place during this festival season. Snakes are sacred animals to people of that place. In a few minutes, I saw a few more outside the place but none were as big as the first snake (the orange one) I saw. One of them suddenly flew past us, at amazingly high speed and I again shrieked. Everyone laughed again, including my parents.
My parents asked me not to worry. The snakes are good. You are a good boy, you do nothing wrong so you have nothing to fear. In fact, we should join hands and greet them and pray to them. They started to leave and I thought that they might be right. So, I turned to the other side and saw that orange snake suddenly moving inside the palace and came quite close to me by slowly floating in air. It's vision was completely fixed at me, and it moved it's forked tongue inside and outside. I never saw a snake so close before in my life ! The orange snake then slowly went back to the entrance.
I was not convinced. They looked ferocious and scared the hell out of me. "you do nothing wrong so you have nothing to fear", this statement of my father popped into my mind and I remembered wearing shoes inside the temple. I did something wrong and so these snakes were here to punish me. They are sacred snakes and it's confirmed. Now I had a reason to fear. I asked my parents that we should quickly leave this place and go somewhere else but didn't tell them why.
I wanted to go back to the rest house but my father had other plans. He wanted us to see yet another place (a museum or a palace I can't recall) and so we went there. I saw the same kind of architecture there and instead of feeling happy and impressed, I started feeling scared again. There were a few people there. I looked at the entrance and yet again saw the same orange snake. My fears were confirmed that I had made God angry and he has sent these serpents to punish me. These serpents are looking for a moment when I'd be alone and then they would punish me. I decide to stay with other people.
We reached the common room in that palace, which was the place where women prepared food, spices, butter etc. It was like a big courtyard. It had roof but sun rays were also allowed in. I saw a streak of sun rays coming into the courtyard. I looked at the time, 10 o'clock. I looked below at the floor and saw the sun rays striking the stone floor and illuminating it. Suddenly I saw a couple of snakes moving across my feet. I wanted to jump and run from there, but out of extreme fear and also fear of hurting those 'sacred' snakes, I didn't move, but I was shaking within, while standing there. I wouldn't have shouted, but for a snake who came and sat on my neck. It was heavy...
I felt numb and I stopped shaking so that the snake on my neck is not troubled. I didn't want to make any mistake now, after what I'd done in that temple. I wanted to oblige these snakes so that my punishment be lessened. Something happened to me and I tried to rub the snake off my neck and back. The snake was heavy and also stuck to me as if it was a lizard. I had never touched a snake and when I tried to gently rub it off me, I touched it. It had both sticky and slimy kind of skin, and moist as well. The snake slowly moved a little and towards my face, and I could feel it's movement on me. I could see it's forked tongue moving out and vibrating, its' eyes waiting to look at my face and ... I lifted the snake off my back and left it in the air. The snake, not expecting that I'd do so, fell on the ground, rather than floating, as I expected it to do.
The snake immediately rose into the air, in fury and I realized that I was a dead man. I started begging for mercy and said, "please, please forgive me. Please don't punish me. I won't wear shoes into any temple again. It was a mistake, please!"
I felt that the snake was rather amused at what I said. He asked me to look into his face and into his eyes. HE WAS TALKING TO ME, IN HINDI. I could have collapsed but my fear prevented me to do so. I closed my eyes and again started begging for mercy and started chanting prayers and hymns randomly and quickly. He said, "be quiet and look into my eyes and into my face, we are here for something important. The idea of sacred snakes is a myth. If you don't want to be a tagged person, look at me and into my eyes. I'd free you if that is what you want."
I opened my eyes, saw that green snake floating in front of me and a little further away, I saw the same orange snake I'd seen earlier, the same morning. He left me what no other option. I looked at him, and into his eyes. This time, he didn't move his tongue, so that I could concentrate better. He floated in air, his body moving but his head fixed, and we stared at each other for a few seconds. He moved a little back (all this time it was floating in the air and floated a little back) and said, "Sorry sir, I didn't know it was you." and suddenly I saw what he was thinking. I saw a man wearing horn-rimmed glasses and working in his laboratory which was floating in outer space.