15th Oct 2013, Evening

I saw myself with a very big family, many strangers who seemed to be my relatives, including many little children. We were at some place where the corridor looked like the terrace of my Mall road's house. Some kids were complaining about wasps. My mom and I went out with them to the terrace and I saw some wasps even though it was after dusk and dark bluish lighting in the environment. Some kid pointed out the wasps nest and we saw them flying out of it. We rushed the kids inside, and we followed. When indoors, I saw that the wasp had bit me in my left arm. I showed my mom the swelling which was very BIG. I found its sting floating in the brownish puss. I took it and threw it away, and cleaned up the puss. Then I went out in anger and destroyed their nests.
Next I saw three couples, all hero-heroines from 70s, like Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Hema Malini and all in a boat at that twilight time going from somewhere towards a temple area which looked like Varanasi or Kashi's dham. I saw myself asking this heroine sitting in the boat few questions on relationships, it felt like an interview. Actually they were also keeping weapons in case they were attacked.

11th March 2013, Morning

I saw myself in some fort. I was learning song writing by a renowned expert! I had promised my friend that I'd get better at it and will write more and better lyrics for him. We were a great team. One day I wrote something really good and wanted to show it to my teacher before anyone else could see it or use it. I didn't want to go through the regular stairs leading up to his chamber at the top most floor. I decided to go from outside the fort. I took the stairs circumventing the outer periphery. After a flight of stairs there was steep slope. The fort was made of stone and so wasn't slippery, my shoes could get a good grip and my bare feet better grip but I was standing on the edge. Suddenly the supporting barrier that one often has in terraces to prevent someone from falling, the stone made barrier just moved behind me, got dislocated I think, and fell, leaving me open to fall. I looked up at the slopy path, the stairs above and the steep wall that I would need to climb after that to reach my teacher. With scroll in which I had written the song in my right hand and fear in my legs, I stood there wondering was this ever a good idea.

23rd August 2013, Morning

I see myself in a train with my family. I am planning the trip with my father, to Pune, then Mumbai, then few other places that we planned to visit within next 10 days. We reach Pune and visit my uncle's house. From there my father, I and my uncle leave for Mumbai in a local train. My uncle insisted on coming along to meet our relatives.
The local train had interesting arrangement of seats. There was two columns of two seater benches one behind the other and on the periphery were single chairs rows with the back towards the glass upper half of the wall. I was looking outside at the skyscrapers of Mumbai through the droplets covered glass interface of the wall. Just then my uncle got a call and we learned we couldn't meet the relatives so there was nothing else to do and we had to head back. On reaching Mumbai, I got down to see if we could get earliest ticket back to Pune. Since I had come to Mumbai after many years, I had lost touch and it took me some time to run around and figure out what was where. What perturbed me was that my uncle and father were comfortably relaxed, sitting in the same bogie. I was shocked to see this when I returned to bogie to ask them for help! My uncle, in a surprised tone asked me, 'Where did you go all of a sudden? You got something to eat for us?'
'I went to get the tickets for our return journey. Shouldn't we get the tickets asap so that we could reach home before night?' I saw that my uncle looked amused.
That moment I felt the train move and I saw outside, the train was moving in the opposite direction, retracing its path.
Rest of the journey, I sat on the periphery seat and looked outside through the glass interface. Once we had left the platform, it started drizzling again. Through the droplets covered glass, I looked at the skyscrapers and the city bathed in water and grey. I heard some college kids arguing about something and I responded, 'Koi bhi kaam badaa ya chota nahi hota, bas chutiyapa ya dilchasp hota hai' (no work is big or small, just boring or interesting). The guys readily seemed to agree to me but the girls kept arguing so they went back to argument.
I turned and looked at the grey city again. While watching a drop slide across the glass, I got an epiphany that tried to explain my life and other's life who complain that 'life isn't fair'. It just occurred to me that maybe life isn't fair, or maybe life is just playing a game or writing a story, placing its players or characters in various situations and when the buildup is done, when the right time comes, the final move is made and the end game commences. We all have a role to play in the game of life.

18th Sept 2013, Late Morning

I saw myself standing at the center of some small town area, under the archaic looking streetlamp which never worked. It was reasonably dark but the street ahead and the shops on it were visible, so was the board on this streetlamp post, advertising a very famous coaching center for cracking CAT and other B-school entrance exams.
I stood there with my manager and a couple of other people and we were looking for a free room on that street, to hold our meeting. Most of the rooms there were classrooms where when we peeped in, saw students sitting and learning. It reminded me of those days when I attended coaching for cracking CAT. I had enjoyed the classes but wasn't really interested in the management program admission.
Later I saw this young girl, college student I guess, standing behind my manager who suddenly realized that and turned and they laughed at the same time. He asked her not to sneak up on him like that, he gets quite scared! She was his daughter who was taking coaching there. After their brief conversation and our realization that we won't get any free room today, we were ready to leave. All of a sudden this girl asked her father if I could walk her to her classroom. That was weird! But her father, being a cool guy, waved his left hand in the gesture asking me to leave and escort her.
Being in a situation I have never been before, I did what I do best, kept quiet! Once we reached her classroom, I think she invited me in and the room was empty because next thing I remember sitting on some desk, one of the many desks which had schoolbags and books on them, and chatting with her, smiling and laughing. I don't remember how many hours we spent talking but it was fun, refreshing.

30th June 2013, Late Morning

I saw myself in a big hall where they'd kept us. They seemed to be waiting for the night to pass. I was sitting with some of my friends, scared. They said we were under attack. My mother said to me that all my father wanted for us was to see this part of the country but he had never anticipated this would happen. I said, I
understand, but where is he? He was nowhere to be seen.
My little sister along with other young kids were made to run errands with the understanding that they won't shoot kids. I saw her through the water drops covered glass window, carrying something onto our side. Next scene we were still there, but now we were not under protection but as hostages. This time my mother was not there beside me, only my friends were there. One of my friends felt something was nudging against his lower back, on retrieving it was found out to be a video camera, the big ones journalists are shown to use. The terrorist thought that we had weapon so pointed his machine gun, closely strapped to his shoulder, at us. Ironical it was, a helmet wearing soldier in uniform replaced by a face covering terrorist, although both had same kind of gun strapped closely to their body and same stance of attack.
The terrorist looked rather excited, I could see it in his eyes. He took the video camera from us, fondly looked at it and started fidgeting with its buttons. He showed us the video of this conquest and said they had recorded many such conquests. He told us it was his friend who enjoyed doing all this, who was gunned down by the military commandos, but his camera had survived.
Meanwhile on TV at one corner of our hostage hall, I saw one of my friends getting a prestigious award, it was Oscar I guess but it didn't look like one. It was broader and thinner and wooden. Somehow while giving her the award, the trophy broke from the center into two equal halves being held strongly by its wooden stand. She got angry, really angry and started criticizing how callous the organizers had been for it was no local affair but an international event covered by media all across the world, all into the mike for everyone to hear and know. Within 5 minutes, a new trophy was presented, and to the organizers relief, this one didn't break.
I saw myself looking at my father on one chair and some other guy on the other side, talking to his comrades regarding implanting some I.C. chip, some tiny device in my father's skin as part of their mission. This they did perhaps because my father is an army officer. Later they left, freeing all of us? I was really concerned regarding that device and its effects. I was told by some expert that it only leads to mild amnesia but I still wonder what's the purpose? I visited some remote village to find the twin of the terrorist who did this. This other guy looked like a total wreck, selling chickens to earn enough to live, face covered with beard, red eyes devoid of sleep but full of intoxication.

24th April 2013, Late Morning

I saw myself at my home, my colony. Papa was there, there was mummy, my sister and my friends. It was like I was living in a shire, life was beautiful!
One day I walked out of my house and saw that my neighborhood looked some different. Apart from the fact that it was a cloudy day, which was rare in my neighborhood, I saw that walls and fences were being built where we had hedges and plain grounds. It was like in the game of Age of Empires, my neighborhood was changing not brick by brick but wall by wall. Things were moving really fast. I was a kid so nobody would tell me much, I was just asked to stay out of some areas. On my insistence my mother told me that Indira Gandhi was coming. I was like, bullshit, she's dead! And she's like, NO, she's just too old. I said, maybe its Sonia Gandhi and not Indira Gandhi that's coming. She was like, no, its Indira Gandhi.
For rest of the day wherever I went, I was asked to go play somewhere else. Walls were being built everywhere, it was like they were making a maze. Finally I was fedup of people telling me where to be and where not to be, so I told myself, what the hell, and went off in whichever direction that intrigued me. On my way I met few neighbors who said I should be indoors, that its not safe, that the biggest and most powerful personality of our country would be visiting us and that we should not be of any trouble. I met my mother on my way who wanted to take me home but I wanted to roam around and spend time in my new neighborhood. I saw all the grown ups taking all this quite seriously. The hawkers were moved, the shops were closed, the walls were being built at blazingly high speed.
At the end of the day I was the only one roaming around, my friends had left for home. I walked into this forest like area when it was almost dark. The fruits on the trees lit up like light bulbs, like in the movie Avatar. Suddenly I saw live feeds of chats of some of my friends. I was confused because I hadn't met them in so many years. And then I saw this group of people my age walking into the same forest like area. Some of them were dressed up like Vikings. I saw that they got together at some place. I walked closer and saw that there were weapons kept on a dias for everyone to select from. Everyone was picking some weapon, holding them and in some cases leaving them at their place while in other cases jumping with joy to have found the right weapon. This reminded me of the movie Hunger games where there was blood bath when people went to collect their kits and weapons. But here, today, everyone was so excited to see these weapons that mostly looked like toys to me, that they were happy holding them and pointing them at each other and discussing about them in their own little friends group. I scanned the assortment and went for the bow that was kept at the left side because bow-arrows have always fascinated me. I picked up the bow and it was like a wooden toy, I didn't feel anything, except disappointment, not the elation others felt. I was clueless and considered asking someone how all this works. Then my eyes fell on this beautiful looking dagger. It looked like it was made of wood but when I bent down to hold it and lift it into my hand, I felt a certain vibration. Next thing I saw this dagger come to life, a beautiful golden color handle with a sharp shiny powerful metallic blade, like the dagger in the movie Prince of Persia. All of a sudden, I saw the others looking at me, did that mean I was invisible before? I saw this other guy walking up to me and pointed his dagger at me.
So I was like, hey dude we both have same weapon, isn't that cool !! And he was like, yeah !! Suddenly some circular shaped blue color boulders came falling from the sky. I tried my best to save myself from them and accidentally ended up catching one of them. They were big and heavy. And this other guy with the dagger did the same, just that he caught it willingly and was grinning about it. I was like, dude, its like we have same powers, that's so cool !!