My Sleeptime Dreams

1st January 2012 Late Morning

2012-01-01T01:26:00.000-08:00

We were at this place, a resort maybe. I could see that I was with my colleagues from office, the technology team. It seemed like a harmless team outing. We had few events and the place itself was exotic!
Suddenly they told few of us standing in a group that some person in our team was taken down. One of the DBAs surprisingly produced a gun and handed it over to me. Few of us who were standing near the bar were seemingly cornered by them. My seniors started retaliating to their shots. Maybe they ran out of bullets or something but I was perhaps the only one left to fight them off, and they were three. I was hiding behind a crystal closet. They urged me to start firing back. I gathered some courage and started shooting. They fired back. I felt a certain pain in my arm and realized that I got a flesh wound as a bullet fizzled past my arm. Once I tasted the bullet, I somehow didn't feel afraid. I didn't hide back behind the crystal closet. I stood up, walked out and shot one of them in the head, during this time constantly feeling that some bullet will be flying in my direction and ready to make a hole in my chest or my head. The other one I couldn't aim properly so he got a bullet in his arm. The third one was taken care of by my senior.
I just stood there, exasperated. Some people came and praised me for my accomplishment. I was feeling thrilled and the bullet wound felt like a medal of honor! I had this feeling that some of them were not convinced it was me because they'd not seen this in person. Two of my office friends who drive bikes really fast decided to give me a ride. I sat behind the taller one in a bullet. At the end of the kaccha road, he took a swift turning, hoping to see some reaction from me but I was holding the bike to keep my balance, but didn't feel scared. He started speeding up and it looked like he'd take a sudden turn at the main road too, so I jumped off his high speeding bike and landed on my four legs. I felt this animal strength in me and quick reflexes. To the other friend coming from behind on his bike, I pretended that I was still scared of speed and asked him to drive slower.
I saw her walking out of her yatch with her mother. I guess she heard about the bullet wound and tried to make sure I was alright. I asked her not to worry, but I was quite surprised to see that I felt taller than before, especially when I wrapped my arm around her while we were walking and talking.

5th Nov 2011, Late Morning

2011-11-06T02:07:00.000-08:00

I saw myself in a war like situation. We were continuously being attacked from the other side while we were trying to hold our posts. We fired back few times but then we had ran out of ammunition. I started searching for knives or such sharp objects to readily attack in case the enemies infiltrated into our area. After few minutes, few enemy men did infiltrate and managed to slip in through our first line of defense by wounding our soldiers. I was ready for them with firmly holding the dagger pointing towards the entrance. Few men entered, and I expected them to fire at me. Instead they looked around, then asked me, "Have you ran out of ammunition".
"Yes", I said.
Next thing I remember we were all sitting together, the enemies and us, in a long hall on a long table, having dinner, and having friendly conversations.

I was in this boutique store. I didn't find it odd that I was there but I couldn't remember why. So I left that store, walked through many corridors in that mall (or was it a 5+ star hotel). At one place, a diner maybe, I saw this girl who was my classmate in 11th/12th and she was sitting at her table, alone. I entered the diner, walked up to her, and introduced myself. We talked for few minutes but she didn't seem interested enough to continue the conversation. Suddenly it was like an army of men with swords, daggers etc. and shields entered the diner, shouting with anger. Few people who were sitting there ran for their lives. Suddenly my frame of reference changed and I became an observer, and my character became Jackie Chan! I thought that he being the Jackie Chan, wouldn't give up without a fight. There was this white curtain and then the rest of diner was visible. I saw everybody, even my school friend (who was perhaps the last to escape) run out but not Jackie Chan. I saw a glimpse of him but then I think he went back to fight them. Sadly, I then saw the left half of his face was badly bruised but he was still fighting. I saw them lifting him up and taking him away. Next scene I saw him again, in his tuxedo, sitting at the same table beside that classmate of mine and starting a conversation. Was this a Deja Vu, or a local time loop? Or that if one is destroyed, another one is created almost instantaneously to replace him?

4th February 2011, Early Morning

2011-02-03T22:38:00.000-08:00

I saw myself with some of my comrades/batchmates. We were in a dark room with light streaming in from a distant source of white light. We had lit something like a lantern and discussing ways we could do robbery efficiently without anyone noticing. I suggested we use the number system and rob some money from the financial transactions happening on the internet. Many didn't understand, others didn't believe me but we worked out a plan and executed it. The basic idea was to hide information in those digits in the long numbers which had holes or loops in them, which are 6, 8, 9, 0. Our code was 0889. The information was safely hidden in the holes and transferred to our machines. Each two of us had to share a bed that night. Few hours later we were woken up by torch lights and we had to leave. From under the bed I took my machine which had helped us do the digital robbery! Dandu was still skeptical but I asked him to wait till the dawn.
Outside that resthouse was chaos. We had a plan to escape but we were stuck at that place for now. It wasn't our place, it wasn't even our country. In a foreign land which looked quite like our homeland, we were running on the street, our hearts filled with fear and uncertainty. I saw one of my comrade who was lagging behind earlier, now riding in a jeep like vehicle and swooshed by us from behind. We waved at him and shouted for lift. But I guess the vehicle was full or people were too eager to find a safe shelter.
Towards the corner at the end of the downward road was a place, a university perhaps, where we were to come the next morning. There were three of us and we were standing outside the gate. It felt as if we were standing outside our own hostel and desperately wanted to get into our respective hostel rooms and get a good night sleep! Suddenly an old acquaintance, a jolly person, came to us on his scooter and offered us a ride. Since there were three of us, he asked me and my friend to take the scooter while he took the third guy from our group and reminded him that his hostel was quite near the main gate, and that they lived in the same hostel.
My friend and I couldn't go very far into the campus on that scooter.
It was past midnight but there was humongous gathering of people with torches and sticks. Hue and cry was rampant. It was only when I turned to my back, on left I saw an old building that housed government office was being burnt and realized that the torches were actually being used. We were forced to get off the scooter. One of the older man in his late 40s who looked like their leader caught me and thrust a torch into my hands, and looked into my eyes, expecting me to participate as well. Usually I'd play along and when others got busy with other things, I'd leave. But this time I bluntly refused to comply. He shook me violently and pushed me to my knees. A teenage kid, probably in his late teens, pointed a gun at me, which was fully covered with some cloth to hide it perhaps (don't know why!). The older man told me that since I won't participate, I am of no use so I must be killed. The teenage kid looked at their holy place, a temple, a synagogue, a mosque, or a church... I don't remember which one, and said that in the name of whosoever I believe as my God, I should kill myself. At that moment I shouted so loud that I woke up. I didn't shout in reality, and I didn't even open my eyes but realized that it was just a dream, and tried getting back to that dream, but couldn't. My shout was filled with agitation, fear and pain. I could feel those emotions for sometime even after I had completely woken up!
Why would they expect me to participate in their protests? Did they mistake me for one of their citizens?

22nd Nov 2010 Early Morning

2010-11-23T13:13:00.000-08:00

I saw myself in a seven star cruise ship, at dinner time with candle lights, bulbs, chandeliers etc. I saw myself talking to a lot of high profile people, one at a time. We had a meal in person and I ordered something for every date. When the time ran out, I excused myself and went to another table to meet the next person. Eventually, the party was over for me when I had met everyone I had to. From among the last set of people I met, a girl came over to me, poked me on the arm and asked me if I wanted to hang out, and I replied, "Let me get my food first."
The thing is that I had some leftovers after meeting every person and I wanted to go back to those tables and finish them. But the place had closed down for the night and the cleaners had begun their work. I couldn't find my leftovers, and I was still hungry. I walked up to the end of the ship to the small hall facing the ocean which had a long table with some leftovers. I started scavenging for untouched food among them. The cleaner approached me and asked me to stop doing that but a lady asked the cleaner to allow me to continue.

2nd Nov 2011 Late Morning

2010-11-02T02:35:00.000-07:00

I saw myself backstage, few minutes before my speech or announcement but a stage presence nonetheless. I was nervous, but quite excited. Some people looked at me, few of the onstage ones also, as I frantically went through my speech. Maybe it were the large audience, the bright stage lighting or both that made me feel overwhelmed about the whole situation.
Next I saw myself in a pool of crystal clear blue water. I was swimming and keeping away from sharks which were sharing the pool. The pool was small in size but when a person is in the pool, the person shrinks perhaps because the pool seems much bigger. I was in the pool, preparing for my speech when a shark advanced towards me with its open mouth and large, uneven knife-like teeth. I swam for my life, and did a rookie mistake. I went deeper into the pool. I got myself a much needed push from the pool floor (which was all soil and tiny water plants) and heaved myself upwards, but the shark was prepared to block my way. I lost most of my momentum while changing direction away from the shark. To my relief, Inderjeet came to my rescue. He knew how to deal with the sharks and helped me out of the pool. As we both sat staring at the tiny sharks in the pool, I thanked him. He said that we're trained among the sharks to improve our public speaking skills so that stage feels much less scary.
I was at my house, with my mother and sister (I think) and few other kids. I wanted to have bath but couldn't because of cloudy weather. I was waiting for the weather to change but my wait had been too long so I had to take a bath asap. I looked at the mirror to check my hairline. I was scared when I saw that my hairline had reduced almost a centimeter since the last time I had taken a bath.

9th Sept 2010 Late Morning

2010-09-09T03:14:00.000-07:00

I saw myself traveling in a bus. There was this school friend of mine sitting behind me with whom I was talking and a guy in one of the backseats moved his lips to say that my friend was really pretty and showed me a thumbs up. I moved my lips to say, I know and smiled. Later, I got down with my friend at her stop near her house instead. While walking to her house, I took her hand in mine and to make conversation I suggested she don't bite her nails because fingers don't look good with bitten nails. Yeah, the guy in the backseat successfully made me feel conscious in her presence.
After leaving my friend at her house, I decided to walk back home because I guessed by time taken in my regular ride of the bus that my house won't be more than two kilometers from there. In a few seconds, I realized I had no idea which direction to take. I recalled the direction bus takes and walked in that direction. A few minutes later I found myself in a completely different locality with differently colored tall buildings. I was enjoying the experience. I kept on walking for half an hour in various army cantonment colonies and felt as if I had visited different states or countries. Tired and eager to get home asap, I decided to take help when I saw the army jawans on the gate of one of the colonies. When I asked one of them the direction to my house, he showed his palm and asked for Rs. 2 as charges. I was surprised, and amused. As I stood there looking at him, he lowered his charges to Rs. 1, then added that had I given him Rs. 2, he'd have given Rs. 1 to his partner, and pointed at his partner who was looking out towards the gate.
I think I might have given him Rs. 2 and he'd have given me the directions to my house.

4th September 2010 Early and late morning

2010-09-04T03:19:00.000-07:00

My mother was at IIIT-H celebrating my birthday! There were so many people around who were probably my friends. We had few snacks and then my mother brought a huge chocolate birthday cake. And all this in front of the incomplete building in front of library building! One of my mother's childhood friends was also there.
Reality: My mother's childhood friend was to reach our house in Pune to meet mother today, and when they called me at around 10 am today morning, the above dream ended.

I remember locking a person in bathroom of my house because he was disturbing me by making too much noise or telling me things that bothered me. He was strong so I could lock him up only by tricking him into it. After more than 12 hours I realized I had done wrong and he was not really the reason for my disturbed state of mind. I unlocked the door and allowed him out. I expected him to hit me for treating him like that so I apologized just after I opened the door but he was generous enough not to hit me and said he was glad I allowed him out.
Reality: can't figure out for this one. :(

I saw myself sitting in a room lighted with bulbs and having ancient style furnishing. There was this other girl sitting near me and few other people sitting around us. Some person came to us and asked that girl and me to sign on a sheet of paper at some specific location in the sheet. She promptly signed it. I signed, the realized I had not put my own signature but a disturbed form of it. Nobody else knew what my signature looks like, until they verify with some source but I knew my signature but couldn't recall it. I cut the previous signature and signed again, producing a different signature, yet not my own. I took a separate sheet of paper and tried recalling my signature. That person left with the sheet of paper with my wrong signature. Almost everybody was looking at what I was doing. Finally I scribbled a signature that satisfied me.
Reality: Yesterday, PKR suggested me an idea for publishing a research paper and told me that after finishing that work my MS work would be over. I should have felt delighted because I wanted MS to be over asap but I felt sad because I didn't contribute anything original yet. Perhaps that's why I was not able to recall my signature.

29th July 2010 Late Morning

2010-07-29T02:08:00.001-07:00

I saw myself trying to race my toy car by pushing it with a lot of energy. Sadly I couldn't generate much speed. There was this other guy who kept on telling me that my car was much faster than that but I wouldn't believe him. Few hours later I discovered it for myself that he was telling the truth. All I had to do was rewind my car, as in push it back on the ground and leave it, and gently release it from my grip and see it zooming to the other end of the room. Interestingly enough, it bounced back from the opposite wall, and then the wall behind me, and then the opposite wall so as to make four lapses with just one rewind!

Moral: Sometimes you must get back to basics, you must listen to the other person who has more experience.

I saw one of my friend's middle name was "Niranjan", it was inscribed on a metal sheet on some memento or trophy in his room and hence his name abbreviated to ANS.

16th June 2010 Early Morning

2010-06-16T03:38:00.000-07:00

I saw myself in a group of few guys and girls going to some isolated, deserted place. The girls seemed excited after reaching the location. It looked like a photoshoot and the girls were the models I guess. I am not sure why I was there but there was this other guy who was a photographer. After a brief session, two older men came to that photographer and whispered in his ear. They turned and looked at me. Next thing I remember seeing two of the girls lying shot dead and the lead actress standing and trembling in fear. The older men pushed the revolver at me and forced me to shoot that lady. I refused. They threatened me that they'd kill me if I didn't obey them. I refused, fully understanding the risks but also aware that they'd kill me anyways (a situation akin to that in the movie 'Nick of Time' which I watched few days back). I was nervous but not scared of them. The photographer guy didn't look comfortable. The actress was continuously gazing at that guy, perhaps wanting to ask him, "why?".
Next thing I saw myself lying on the awkward stony floor of a completely wrecked room with some wall still left around it. I was lying with my head down. I remember seeing a wall on both sides and then looking up and seeing that photographer guy pointing the revolver at me. I looked down again, well aware that I'd be shot dead anytime. I wanted to indicate at the top of my head with my index finger so that the guy shoots me there but I guess I was numb with fear. I quickly tried to recall all the important things in my life, but to my embarrassment could only recall the TV show characters like That 70s Show etc. I focused hard and recalled my father, my mother and my sister, visualizing each of them giving me a kiss and a beautiful smile. After that my mind started recalling the TV shows again. :(
I heard the gunshot and for a second felt like the top of my head had exploded but that was my imagination. I was not shot at, I was still alive. Cautiously, I looked up and saw the photographer guy on the floor, bleeding from his head. Apparently he had killed himself. I guess he couldn't take it anymore. I grabbed his revolver in my handkerchief and started running away from there.
My efforts at running were similar to the end scene in the movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" in which Ferris runs hard and a for long time to reach his house from his girlfriend's house before either of his parents could reach the house. I was running for my life. I ran through a wild patch of land, then through a small town and then through an urban settlement. I happened to gaze into one of the houses which had a glass door and was well lit from inside, and saw my father talking to some other man in there. I banged at the glass door hard enough for them to hear me and take me in.
My father was concerned and asked me about the situation. I tried to tell him but was gasping and struggling to breathe in properly. My father introduced me to the other man who was probably his senior because my father addressed him as "sir". Strangely enough he told him that I was from the batch of '97 or perhaps he was talking about someone else but he was definitely talking about some defense force academy student. I recalled that I did my 10th in year 2003 and 12th in year 2005 and am in college. Near death experience does make one remember one's past really quickly!
It was dusk. My father took me outside in the backyard which was covered with grass and had a high hedge, strangely covered with the certificates of many cadets. I wanted to ask my father about reason of his presence there but didn't. I took him into a dark corner, away from the sight of that other man and started telling him about the situation. After what I experienced, I couldn't trust any stranger anymore!
A few minutes later, after all the explanations, my father promised me that he'd find help for me and others but as we turned and started walking back into the house, I saw one of the older men walking out of the house and turning at us, pointing a pistol/revolver at us. I was in front, so I turned back, took my father and ducked back in the darkness. After a few seconds, I plunged out of the darkness, kicked his arm holding the revolver with my knee and then knocked him out. At that moment itself, it was the other older man who was standing in front of us, pointing his revolver at us. This time, either my father or I got shot in the arm. This man was physically stronger than the previous one and I found it hard to hold his arm with the revolver and struggle with him. My father joined in and we disarmed him.
Funny thing happened after that. The man inside the house and I were comparing our biceps and arm size, in front of a mirror and clearly his were far more superior, and reminded me of Bob's (from That 70s Show) thick arms. I was smiling into the mirror and at my relatively fragile physique.

3rd June 2010 Early Morning

2010-06-02T22:20:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends, batchmates and some strangers were beating me, hitting me. I didn't understand why, but I do know that whenever I went outside my house, they attacked me. Later they started attacking me even in my lawn! And eventually inside the house too. Apparently I had been staying alone because my parents and sister were probably somewhere else. Hence, I had to sneak into my own house most of the times! Eventually I started staying in someone else's house, a friend's house I think. They came there as well, so I had to escape so that they follow me and not harm my friend.
I did see that I was not the only one being beaten up. After being beaten, I felt tired but didn't feel much of pain. After a few beatings, I decided to train myself and beat them back when I'm ready. Their beatings made me stronger, and I exercised and practiced. At a grand party/ceremony, all the people who beat me were sitting on either side of me in a long row at a long table. We were having dinner. They started hitting me now and then, I was feeling angry and I decided to retaliate. Within a few minutes, all those guys were lying on the floor, groaning in pain!

26th May 2010 Early Morning

2010-05-26T00:17:00.000-07:00

I saw myself at my uncle's house. I saw myself meeting Renu aunty in the kitchen. I touched her feet and she hugged me and seemed happy to have me at her house. I didn't meet uncle I think. I am certain my father was there but not sure about my mother and sister, even though I feel they were there! I saw daadi sitting in a chair in front of a table. I guess her walking stick was standing beside her. I didn't know how to meet her as I was surprised to find here there. Initially we just nodded our face and smiled at each other but finally I went to her, touched her feet and I think she was happy to see me.
I remember getting out of a military convoy vehicle. There were fold-able thin set of steps to be used while getting down and out of the vehicle. I got down from it, then offered my father a hand but he said he was alright, then some other man got down after him, I guess he was a friend or a relative. My father beckoned me to help him get down. I offered to hold his two hands, he put his hands into mine and I tried to take all his weight on me while he stepped down those shaky set of steps.
At a railway station, I got into an argument with some railway workers. I could see the yellow stone board which has name of the railway station but couldn't see the name. Those people were praising some guy who called himself 'Warren Buffet' and said they respect him a lot and are willing to die for him. I told them that the guy they met was probably a phony as the real Warren Buffet was probably somewhere else. They became furious and threatened to kill me if I said another word. I left.
Later I saw that phony guy in common man's clothes on the asbestos rooftop of railway platform. It was early morning or late evening. I realized he had a plan. He appeared in front of the railway workers and started abusing/accusing that 'Warren Buffet'. Those railway workers got angry and were about to hit him when he revealed that it was him, he was the phony 'Warren Buffet' but wearing neat and classy upper class suit and tie. Feeling cheated, those workers ran after him, few managed to hurt him from a distance. I didn't involve myself in his business but observed the event.
Later, I saw myself at a hospital. I could smell the anesthesia. I saw that phony guy there, waiting for his turn to get treated for the wounds. As soon as he entered the room, he saw another patient, who was probably a railway worker because he struggled to get up but because of severe wounds couldn't. It was as if he was tied to the bed with thin threads/strands that he could break but doesn't feel strong enough to. He probably wasn't there at the station when this guy revealed the truth, but others might have informed him about it when they came to meet him. This phony guy, sensing danger, just left the hospital. Looking at that event through an ajar door made me forgot why I was in the hospital!

30th April 2010 Late Morning

2010-04-30T00:36:00.000-07:00

I saw myself at a conference with almost all my friends and batchmates. The talks and presentations were being held at a grand hall. We were given the conference program and details at the start of the conference at the registration desk. We were sitting in the front rows of the second set of seats from the stage.
Some person had created his own self in a machine. I saw them carry the lookalike of that person which was sitting in a cardboard box and the box was being carried. The lookalike machine was programmed so that it could make a conversation and keep it up. It gave exactly the same responses (verbatim) which the researcher would have given.
I might have gone to wash my face or to the loo but when I came back, I saw none of my friends at our sitting place but others. I looked around, then at the stage where the speaker was. There, around a big table, on the chairs, were sitting all my friends and batchmates. I saw them talking and chatting with that machine. I felt rather left out and neglected. In a sulky mood, I sat on one of the chairs in the second set of seats and stared at the screens which showed the action on stage to people sitting rather away from the stage to hear anything.
That night, we were moving around the town in a jeep. We all had stuffed ourselves in the jeep. The town closed early everyday and had many unfinished or broken shops, narrow streets through which the jeep barely came through. Yeah, daddu was driving the jeep! Although dood fought hard to take the control of the wheel!
Next morning while walking the corridor of our place of stay to leave for the conference, I met an acquaintance on the way. She told me about the dream she had last night and asked me if I had such dreams. I said, her dream was quite interesting and that I had such dreams many times.

29th April 2010 Late Morning

2010-04-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

I saw myself with my parents and sister, all dressed up for a party and walking into this large hall with few long tables neatly covered with red cloth, in the center and chairs all around the hall, by the walls. Few families were there but clearly all the men were higher officials. Although I felt out of place among them, I did feel after a while that I was smarter than many there.
The ambiance was great. The grand hall was well lit; there was a chandelier in the center, I guess. The big silver wares for each food dish and the cutlery felt upper class. One side of the hall had a small door that led straight to the kitchen, the other door led to the bar. The opposite side of the hall had a small lobby which faced the glass door that led straight to a green and well lit park, with fountain and grass and flowers and shrubs, and benches to sit on. All the kids were playing outside in the park when we entered the grand hall.

While in line for dinner, I filled my plate completely. For some more space, I took another plate, a smaller one and put the dessert, gulab jamun, into it. I smiled as I managed to put the gulab jamun into the smaller plate I was holding with my left hand. I then thought, how's this possible. I looked behind my back at others who were staring at me. I looked down and saw the main plate with all the food fallen on the carpeted floor. I was expecting lots of food on the carpet and my shoes but there wasn't food at all, only that big white plate, unbroken. I silently had my dessert, then helped serve the other dessert, which looked like gulab jamuns, but were oblong in shape.
Later at home, I was frustrated for not being able to even take care of my plate of food. My mother consoled me and said she'd make something for me, but I asked her not to bother.

26th April 2010 Late Morning

2010-04-26T03:25:00.000-07:00

I saw myself traveling in train but this time I was responsible for all the others traveling with me. Almost all of them were my juniors from college. We just managed to get in the train before it left. Some were sitting on their luggage, some where standing. It looked as if we were in the general compartment but the compartment wasn't really crowded. The train and the platforms etc. looked like in the times before our national independence (early 20th century). Roughage, chaff etc. was lying on the other side of the compartment. We were chatting and laughing.
We got ready to get down. We were at that place for some reason. While keeping our luggage at the entrance of the bogie, we found one of our suitcases missing. I couldn't remember if we had that suitcase with us in the first place. I called one of my juniors (either Akshat or Neeraj) back in college to ask him if we had taken that suitcase for the journey. He said how could I expect him to know that! Of course, stupid of me! I made a few more calls but all in vain. Later I saw myself alone at the station, late at night, waiting for a passenger train to come.

I saw my parents, sister and me outside a temple. We had traveled in a jeep to visit that temple. We had a lot of luggage in the jeep and jeep's backdoor wouldn't close. So my father took the wheel, applied the reverse gear and parked the jeep touching the outer wall of the temple. He did it so smoothly that the backlights were unaffected.

23rd April 2010 Late Morning

2010-04-23T01:30:00.001-07:00

I saw myself at the wrong residence. I opened the door, realized my mistake but before I could close it back and leave, the one sitting on the bed called me in. I went in.
The truth is, I was supposed to keep tabs on them and update my friend with the information. My friend and I were working for the government, collecting information on such people. They had committed many cold blooded murders. I knew I had to think of an excuse for mistakenly barging into their one room house which looked like hut from outside but had a lot of room inside. It was among the many hut looking houses in that row, and I opened one door sooner.
I went in, greeted them and sat on the bed, pretending that I was their ally. I began giving them some information on my friend's progress in the case. But before I could tell them much, he stopped me and asked me, "Naam kya hai tera?" (what's your name?). He caught me off guard. I wasn't prepared for that question. At any cost I was not to reveal my real name, or any Indian or American fake name. I spoke some Afghan name. He looked at me and gave me clear signs that he didn't trust my lies.
The style in which he killed the impostors played over and over again in my mind as we sat to eat. I remember fighting few men with rods emitting electric current, and the dead lady officer hanging from the great wall on that roadside. I was hoping to rescue her, so that if she may still be breathing, we could revive her, but those men stopped me and eventually I had to save myself when I saw the lady was no more alive.

My friend was living in the adjacent hut. If only I could switch roles with him because he was more experienced, he could find a way out of this situation. I couldn't just run away from this place, if I did they'd track me down and kill me. We were in their country, so they had the upper hand. The shrieks of the lady, who was an agent from our agency, they killed at the roadside by hanging her on a wall and throwing stones and sharp objects at her.
It was a dream, I told myself. Crap! I thought, why couldn't I opt for the other character, instead of the current character I was in? I thought I had a choice, maybe I didn't. I imagined how it'd feel to die, and since I would die, I wouldn't be able to see how it all ends, which made me sad.
They started threatening me to tell the truth. I was really scared and tried to disguise my heavy breathing with sneezing and coughing. I laughed at their accusations and spoke most of the times in native language of Afghanistan. I knew this mission was hanging on my little shoulders and I could not, at any cost, give in even if it means death. We needed to catch the whole organization, not just those two men, who commit atrocities and cold blooded murder in the name of God and law.
Alas, I was made a bait and my team was asked to show up, else I'd be killed the way the lady officer was. Before they taped my mouth, I kept on laughing hysterically and telling them they had weird sense of humor, putting their own man on the line, pretending he belonged to the enemy and expecting the enemies to surrender. The information I gave them about my friend and our team's plan was all true, except for the end game, which is my friend is a world class expert. But the game had changed now. I was going to die, and I wished my friend and our team didn't come trying to save me. I wanted those savages killed in cold blood, which would only happen when my friend executed his plan (plan B, since I have been captured) as decided.
Alas, I won't be there to see the end.

22nd April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

I saw myself (from above) in an ocean with many others floating/swimming nearby and far. I remember talking to a lady about it who told me that I was in a much smaller water-body, and she told me that there's an even bigger water-body in which many more people swim. I remember myself planning for swimming in this water-body for quite some time.
I remember myself surrounded by many people in that ocean size water-body. Initially I was surprised to see myself there; I look around. I saw the nearest shore, so I started swimming towards it.

21st April 2010 Late Morning

2010-04-21T00:20:00.000-07:00

I saw myself at a fort like place. I had to wait at diff. places, then climb stairs through thin paths with stone walls on both sides. The small rooms where others and I waited were spacious but the stair steps were big and the stairs path was very thin, hence only one person could climb up or go down. I felt a little claustrophobic thinking of a scenario when people have to escape the place, they all will fight to go through that thin stairs path, it was horrifying. BTW, among others, I saw aunties with their little kids sitting in a row of chairs, which means that that place was not just a center for karate exam but had other things going on in it as well.
I was probably at that place to take the exam for first belt of karate. While waiting in one of the rooms on the way, I saw many books lying in that room. I started reading those books and became really interested in them. Those books consisted knowledge of fighting as well as various sciences including physics and medicine. So I guess instead of taking the exam, I left that place with those books. I obsessively read for days and days with very little breaks. I was scared as to what would happen if I couldn't finish reading those books. I had to finish reading those books asap.

I saw the guy I met at the center for the exam. We exchanged smiles. I saw him looking around but he didn't tell me reason for his business there. He said he was just visiting our campus. I resumed my reading. Later Asrar came to my room; that guy saw him from a distance. He came to me and asked me if Asrar was my friend. I answered in affirmative and he said that my friend would die tonight. I was astonished as to what he said.
Later I caught that guy and made him understand that it wasn't worth it, that he should go back and think on it. He said he hated my friend and people like him, he hated all such people. I told him to think if his hatred was worth taking someone's life, I told him that if next time he saw my friend and felt the same way, he may kill him. But that guy wouldn't listen. He called his ally and both stood in the line for the food at our mess. Surprisingly, our mess was bigger and quite spacious. They had firm grip on their daggers but had placed them in a hidden position.
I was confused as to what to do. I went to Dhingra who was near the start of the line and told him everything. Dhingra, in his regular jolly mood said we'd handle them, that I shouldn't worry. Dhingra asked me where they were, I pointed at their direction, but then one person extended his height to hide others behind him and had two window handles snugged in his night-pants. Dhingra said that I told him they had daggers but that guy had window handles, a court case is also not registered for window handles. Akshay was also standing nearby, so I agreed and asked Akshay for his confirmation for participation. Akshay agreed. I said, great, we're four, they're two. But I was still scared because I saw him at that place, which means he knew karate and definitely better karate than me. I told Asrar about it, but he laughed it off and said my sense of humor was strange today.

Had Asrar accepted his fate and felt helpless, or did Asrar and his allies suspect this for sometime now? Did Asrar also know martial arts?

Before I could find out answers to any of these questions, my prof. called me, asking on PAKDD registration status, hence waking me up!

20th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-20T21:59:00.000-07:00

I saw Pradeep aunty laughing a lot, laughing with delight, but more with the satisfaction akin to being proved right and making fool out of someone. She laughed out loud when I told her about the colonel/brigadier who turns out to be the bad guy. She paused in between her laughter just to tell me that she had known from the start that the head of the team was the bad guy.
I saw the brigadier/colonel, and few of the other officers serving under him, one of them being a lady officer. One of the officer and the lady officer started having an affair. The head didn't like/approve of that for some reason unknown. The two officers broke up, only had the professional relationship. But the few days' affair had served its purpose and the head started making wonky decisions and the team started suffering defeats. On being questioned, the head dared them to question his judgment and authority. The two officers, who were good friends before their short lived affair, went to the head to discuss the seriousness of his misplaced decisions.
The last thing I see, is the male officer asks the head, who stands a little away from them, his back to them, his hands clasped behind him. He then turns back to look at the male officer, then the female officer. It was then I noticed the head's mustache.

19th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

I saw a drugged/drunk girl lying on my bed in my bedroom, and the guy who had brought her home. I hated that guy, I hated his guts, but I didn't have a reason to.
The girl lying on the bed was someone I loved a lot, perhaps my sister or a very good friend. Her habits did hint towards such an outcome, but I could never have foreseen the present moment. She did get drunk once in a while but drugs...
The guy standing in front of me, I interrogated him severely, and his prompt answers to all my questions did suggest I should thank him for bringing her home to me. I only wish I knew who did that, how all that happened.
That guy and I did, and still resent each other. But he was ready to help in whatever way possible. I wanted to appreciate his help, but was too perturbed at the moment.

18th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I couldn't believe it myself. Do I remember it correctly? I questioned myself.
I saw the grand casino of Las Vegas. The building was glittering in yellow light. I saw myself lying in a black SUV. I saw my father rushing towards us from the casino, he takes the wheel, my mother closes the door and we nearly escaped them. I guess I was shot, but I felt sick rather than in pain. There wasn't much chase and we reached home safely.

17th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

I saw myself at this hotel which had this vast circular area with elevators or turning door at its circumference. I entered the hotel at one end and saw people coming in and out of those elevators and turning doors. I got a call from my father. He asked me when I'd be home. I told him I'd be home the day after tomorrow. The signal was bad so I had to put my mouth just on the mouthpiece and whisper loudly. The call was cut eventually. I saw her leaving through one of the turning door on the other side.
I had not planned on coming to that place but I was following her who came to that place. I lost her when I walked out of the turning door to the other side.
I was with my friends. We were looking for some place to play, some card games I guess, gamble I guess. I was reluctant at first, but then later we all played, me and many of my batch friends. It was a gala time for us.

I saw myself in a seminar hall with steps type seating arrangement for audience. I saw someone giving a lecture on some topic of social science/sociology and I saw many of my batchmates, including Atul, attending that. And they were really enjoying it !!

16th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-16T00:39:00.000-07:00

I saw myself sitting at some neighbor of ours. They had those village kind of wooden cots. My parents, especially my mother was concerned because they had arranged for their daughter's marriage but their daughter already liked/loved someone else. My mother, with all her wisdom gained by watching India TV and other stupid news channels said that children commit suicide if parents force them to do anything. She tried to convince the neighbors, don't know how far she succeeded.

I remember climbing down some curvy flight of stairs. I saw my parents and some other couple who had just bought a puppy because I remembered that they didn't have one before. It was amusing to see that puppy trying to climb the stairs on its own. It put one leg on a stair, then tried to heave itself. I saw my father using a stick to support the puppy from behind and raise it horizontal. The puppy pushed itself ahead and reached the next stair.

I saw myself, among others, doing a series of events, which included writing, performing, reciting etc. in front of a large audience. I remember being nervous and the environment wasn't very hostile. Later I saw myself looking at my answer sheet. I was writing an exam and things like performance, recitation, large audience etc. was my imagination. :D I was surprised to have got one of the highest marks. I saw the answers I had written and the teacher told me that most of them were just perfect! The subject was English. Many of my classmates congratulated me, including the girl I had crush on. It felt good but I was so happy about getting highest marks in English that I wanted to think about English and marvel my own work more than thinking about her or talking to her.

I heard people talking about research and development in our country, India. They saw me, asked me to join the conversation and told me that my country needs me for R&D, and I agreed. :)

15th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

I saw a local don walking towards me with his minions closely walking behind him, in a corridor of some building that looked like the building of Imperial College of Engineering in 3 idiots! I was feeling a little uncomfortable, but then he saw me and patted me, then wrapped his arm around my shoulders from behind and hinted me to walk with him. He was there to attend some meeting with his associates. They had a meeting in some classroom, as I could see the green board on one side. That classroom was in the league with the best office conference rooms, with AC and good furnishing.
The meeting commenced. After few minutes, I saw a sexy lady, of my age group come and sit on the chair beside me. Most of my attention was now diverted to her hair, her scent and those cursory glances I gave her. In a while, I noticed don's khaas aadmi (right hand man), who had long hair and beard and looked stupid with his sunglasses on, frequently looking at her, so I stopped glancing at her.
Later that night, the don called me. I never wanted to be his friend but he seems to like me and trust me as a friend, and can't say no to a don! His mansion was like the ones shown in Bollywood movies! I climbed up to his room and saw him in a pathetic situation. He looked sick, and scared. He wouldn't tell on being asked, but after some cajoling and reminding him that he can tell me anything, he realized he could trust me and told me all about it.
"But you never killed a woman in your lifetime, you promised yourself you wouldn't."
"Yes, but that's not the complete truth. I did kill a woman, unintentionally. She was bent on exposing me. I got a little violent and her death was an accident."
"Oh crap! That's really bad. But that must have been long time ago. Why today?"
"Because I saw her today."
"The woman you killed? What? Seriously? Are you drunk? High?"
"Don't be stupid! I'm sober now. I saw her walking towards me. She didn't say anything though. But that's not all."
The idea of the mansion being haunted scared me. I saw a ghost walking through the walls of the mansion, then out of the mansion and towards me, standing in front of it. I didn't want to die with that don because of something I wasn't involved in. But he never looked more scared. I was a little concerned.
"I saw many woman's ghosts. I know they were ghosts because they were walking in air, just like the woman I killed walked."
"Did you kill all of them?"
"No! I didn't. I need your help. I'm scared."
He walked to the bar, made himself a drink, gulped it immediately and turned towards me.
"I don't want to die. I am really sorry for whatever I had done with that woman."
I did think that was coming. But I was puzzled as to why he saw other woman's ghosts he didn't kill. Could it be that his minions killed those women?
"I think that's a sign that I should give up my evil ways and become a good person. I'll do anything to reduce the damage I've done, as long as I live in peace."
A don confessing, I was amused. I wanted to smile but couldn't. I didn't feel scared or nervous of him anymore, but started feeling better in his company. Finally he might become one of the good guys.
"I think the only way to nullify the effects of your bad deeds, is to start doing good deeds. You've to become one of the good guys. Sir, I'm with you. You must become a good person and use all your capabilities and resources towards it. The ghosts of all the woman would feel satisfied to see you do good work and would leave."
I encouraged his desire to survive the spirits. Alas, the right hand man thought the don had gone crazy and decided to take over.
I don't remember what happened after that, but I do hope the don became one of the good guys!

9th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-08T23:47:00.000-07:00

I saw myself at some get-together in some dim lighted big room. It looked like some seminar hall of a 5 star. Few of my immediate juniors had this list of marks and grades for a course I was TA of. Those were a year old records. One of them said that I had the authority to make changes in those records and since they were old records, others won't bother verifying it. He said I was the TA, so I would have the password which would still be valid! He wrote something which looked like 'm' and 'n' in his ow writing, but sideways. He explained those were the current marks and marks to be updated (which were fake of course!). I looked at them for sometime to figure out the numerical figure they resembled.
I remember Kamal sir addressing all of us after that. Perhaps we all were at Dean's Dinner. He said if we could all promise him that we would stop drinking from that moment onwards!

I happen to meet two students of Police Academy sitting at a table, in a small room/back of a big vehicle. I met them for the first time but they seemed friendly. Some other friend of their walked in and sat on the third chair and then some other came in and stood beside me. One of them already sitting there asks the ones who just came in about their training and if the gun was issued to them. The one sitting said that he'd be issued the gun next week/month. The table had a plate with some confectionary stuff but I can only remember brown muffins. They offered me the whole pack of big brown fresh muffins. I took it, hesitatingly.

Later that night, I had to struggle to recall the name of my destination. I started taking names of all the stops in between till I could say "Gachibowli" after which the 7-seater driver said that the 7-seater would turn from the Gachibowli bus stop to the right.

7th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-07T23:45:00.000-07:00

Underwater temple and paper piano

I saw a couple jumping into the water and from inside the water I saw them kissing each other once, then swimming deeper towards the Sri Ram temple at the bottom of the lake. I swam to the temple and visited it. I saw a hawker distributing prasad so I accepted a packet. I opened it and ate a little boondi from it. I realized I couldn't stay without breath under water for a long time so I started going back upwards. I called my sister and asked her to leave with me. She was puzzled but she did. I pushed her upwards, then started swimming towards the surface. I had to go through a thin opening which had stairs below it. I then realized that the temple was submerged in the lake but wasn't when was originally built. Sensing that I might be out of breath, I left the packet of prasad at the start of the opening for better comfort in swimming.
On reaching the surface, I started feeling hungry and regretted leaving prasad back at the lake. I looked around for vendors selling prasad but didn't find anyone selling the same prasad. Finally I asked one of them for 3 out of 5 diff. kinds of prasads that he was selling but he refused, as he sold them all as a set and not individually and I didn't have enough money to buy the whole set.
My sister and I were to wait for a vehicle to take us home but we waited for sometime and it didn't come. Coincidentally I saw Alok, Sachin and other IIIT-H friends who are currently working and staying in Bangalore leaving the temple in their car. Alok looked out of the window and in his usual style greeted me.
Apparently some of the guys in that car were to be dropped somewhere so it would take more time than usual for us to reach home. We made a few minutes stop at their place. I told them that it reminded me of my school and the place looked like a part of Army cantonment area. It did have small rooms arranged in a circle, a TV room, a playground and a large area for exercises. I saw a playroom with a paper piano in it. My sister went there and started playing the piano. I was astonished to see that piano make music. My friends and I walked around the place and talked for a few minutes. I asked them if there was anything available to eat and although I had a biriyani and something else, still I was hungry. My sister came to us from the other room and said that the paper piano was dismantled. I saw the broken into pieces piano and got a little worried. My friends said it can be fixed easily and that I should not worry.

I was at a marketplace (sadar bazar, Jalandhar, lookalike) with my father and some friend of his. My father left me with him to buy something from some shop a little far. My father's friend asked me if I would like to have something. I said, and he brought me a large hot-dog and something else in packing. My father called us outside so that we may leave. While leaving the shop, I forgot to take my half-eaten hot-dog and the something else in packing. Halfway out of the marketplace, I remembered that I had left my stuff at that shop. My father and his friend looked at each other, concerned. "Never mind, it'll not take long," my father's friend said and we went back. It was closing time for all the shops. Initially we were not sure if we were at the same shop because the place looked like an abandoned patch, as if nothing ever existed there! There was a man taking rounds of the street, asking everyone to close down their shops. He wore a uniform similar to the security guards' at IIIT-H. On watching us enter the abandoned shop, he walked to us and said we were not allowed to enter that place because it was past closing time for shops. We tried reasoning with him that we'd left our stuff inside the shop but he wouldn't listen. Finally we had to give him a little something, which my father and his friend debated upon, and went into the abandoned shop, only to find my stuff lying there, untouched, among the emptiness.
Later, we walked the empty streets of the city. There was enough lighting, both natural and artificial to confuse a brightly lit night to a cloudy daytime. I saw a big banner of indibloggers on our way back and got excited about it. I pointed to it, saying that they'd have their meeting in the same building which hosted the banner. My father asked me "What do you guys really do in such meetings?" not convinced those meetings and get-together serve any purpose.

I saw myself in a long table conference type of meeting, sitting close to the head of the meeting. Somebody, I think it was Mux, greeted him, "Konbanwa" which the boss interrupted saying it was morning time. The boss asked others if they knew the Japanese greeting for "good morning". Many, including me and Mux said "Oya sumi masen" with a little hesitation. He repeated the greeting with better intonation and pronunciation. He finally asked who knew basic Japanese. Many hands shot up, and it was then I saw Mohit sitting in the meeting, a couple of chairs away from me.

6th April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-06T23:54:00.000-07:00

It must be 8 or 9 am, we were trekking, me and few others. Among others I remember a couple of families, some other middle aged people, and few of my friends. We were walking through a posh colony, akin to an army cantonment colony. We looked around and saw only few people around. One of my friends pointed to a house and said, "This is house of Rocky, Sylvestor Stallone." I thought he was kidding but when I looked at him, I knew he wasn't.
I slipped away from the group, walked up to his apartment on the first floor. I knocked at his door. He came out in his night clothes. He stared at me for a few seconds. "What is it that you want, kid?"
OMG, Sylvestor Stallone talking to me !!
I introduced myself and said that I really wanted to meet him, since forever. He invited me in. :)
His apartment was really huge from inside. It looked as if he lived alone but there was a lot of stuff at his house that suggested otherwise. I saw collections of bollywood movies/songs from the 70s, especially Shammi Kapoor's. I saw a big poster of Shammi Kapoor at one corner of his living room, below which was his big stereo music system.
I went to his verandah, and peeped below. I was surprised to see Ruhela sir. I asked him what he was doing there. He said he was waiting for someone, and that I should leave at once and suggested an escape route, other than the front door. But I went back inside.
I was surprised to see my mother come to his house. I asked her what she was doing there. She didn't reply. My mother was with others on trekking, how come she was there as well? Maybe she was some other woman of my mother's age, and not my mother. She started making something in the kitchen. Mr. Stallone had prepared something snacks so we ate that and talked for sometime.
I saw Ruhela sir from the window beside me, he was beckoning me to urgently leave that place. I said I had to leave, and asked that woman who looked like my mother, if she wanted to come too, but Mr. Stallone said she'll leave after she was done with her work. I left from the front door, with Mr. Stallone closing it behind me.

2nd April 2010 Early Morning

2010-04-02T22:27:00.001-07:00

I saw myself at a mansion. I was alone. I remembered looking at a pack of hounds tearing apart an alive human body from a window while standing over the fireplace stand. He was an acquaintance, but I was too scared to go out to help him, I was too scared to move. I ate cold food, didn't leave the mansion for the fear of those hounds. I couldn't contact anyone. I was cold, had a blanket to keep me warm. I wanted to get rid of those hounds, preferably destroy all of them.

31st March 2010 Late Morning

2010-03-31T02:12:00.000-07:00

There was a little girl who went missing. It was Mahaveer who first asked me to search for her. There were two other things also that I had to search but the little girl worried me the most. Her absence haunted me in my dreams too. I knew I had to find her!
Once something got stuck in my throat and I was trying hard to push it out but in vain. I felt as if the little girl was telling me that I'd left her in the dark and she was scared. I tried harder to push out the thing stuck in my throat. I didn't come out, so I swallowed it with force.
I had late breakfast as usual and was carrying a glass of milk to drink after sometime. I saw Kapil, Atul, Parashar, Pankaj, Alok, Mahaveer and others playing some stupid game in which they'd hold anyone and push that person very hard and run with that person, then eventually releasing him/her from their grip. I tried to tell them that I had a full big glass of milk in my hand and that the milk would fall and that would make me angry. They didn't bother and the group, like a group of bees surrounded me from behind and pushed me randomly left, right, front. I got angry and spilled all my milk on the person on my right because I was holding the milk in my right hand. Sadly the person was Atul! After that I did throw the remaining drops at Parashar as well but the damage had been done. I went to mess to refill the glass with some milk. On the wall clock above the entrance to the stairs that led to Yuktahaar mess, I saw the time, 12:13 pm. It was way past the breakfast time, so I had to do without milk.
There was some guy who came to me asking for Sushanta. I said I didn't know where he was at the moment. He asked me what bothered me and I said a little girl was missing and he said if I had investigated it thoroughly. I said I didn't ask the girls of the college. He said Sushanta was incharge of ice-creams and that girls would definitely come to him for ice-creams and we could ask them at that time. I looked at him, he seemed to be quite interested in meeting the girls. Then Sashidhar came along and I asked him, "hey how would you suggest a missing person could be found?"
Sashidhar thought for a few seconds and suggested that we could trace her by the IP address. He then explained that the last number would be the person's ID, second last number would be the person's batch, third last number... Finally I asked him, could this method be used at present? Sashidhar, who was sitting on the sidewalk divider, looked up at me, I looked at the other guy. Both of them nodded in negative.
Nobody seemed to be bothered about the missing little girl. Was I the only one who knew about it? Did I imagine Mahaveer telling me about the little girl? Have I been doing too much detective work, as in searching for lost things that I've started hallucinating?
I looked at Sashidhar and the other guy, both lost in their own thoughts, I looked to my right, a little ahead and all my friends were still playing that silly game. I felt the dusk giving way to the night as the darkness slowly spread itself around us.

16th March 2010, Early Morning

2010-03-16T03:36:00.000-07:00

I was to go to some place, somewhere far. Perhaps Andaman and Nicobar. I had to get myself registered for the trip, some days prior to the day of travel. I called in a travel agent. I heard a knock at my door. I saw myself walking in an old, perhaps 1 BHK flat towards the door. I asked the agent to come in but he seemed rather perturbed and wanted me to quickly sign the papers confirming my journey. I signed but his uneasiness made me doubtful as to what was bothering him. I didn't ask. I offered him a beverage but he left in haste without a word. I concluded that maybe he wanted to cover maximum customers for a bonus or promotion.

It rained heavily on the day of the journey. The heavy rain reminded me that for some reason I had been to Andaman and Nicobar some months before, and had a miserable experience. I decided to quit and was about to go to the office to cancel my journey when that agent crossed my mind. I picked up my bag, put on my hat, took my umbrella in my arm, looked back at my flat which only had a study table by the window and no other furniture, and only one bulb to light the room, I left for Andaman and Nicobar.

14th March 2010, Early Morning

2010-03-13T21:00:00.000-08:00

I was at a party at a rich person's house. The living room was almost packed with guests. It was an invitation only party and I had been invited because of something I was or something I had done, so I was there. The lights were dim and people were slow dancing on the music playing in the background. I felt isolated in the party because I knew limited number of people, all of whom were busy chit-chatting with others, slow dancing, and eating. I stood at a corner with my drink, looking at others.
Next thing, I saw my high school friend at the party !! I was looking at her after many years but could recognize her because she looked quite the same. In that dress she was wearing, and under the dim bluish lighting and slow music, I found her beautiful. I saw her chatting with a married couple and smiling pleasantly. I had always liked her more than a friend. We met like old buddies meet after years. She was a joyous sense of relief in that boring party. We talked for sometime, then she suddenly left me and went to talk to others. She said she would be back in a bit but she wasn't. I felt isolated again. I went to refill my drink (which was non-alcoholic, btw) when I met the hostess. She asked me for a favor and I agreed to do it. But while doing it I realized my mistake. Doing that favor was more boring than standing alone like a statue in that party. Two ladies whom I had seen standing at a corner, just like me, joined me at what I was doing, as if they were looking for something to do. None of the two would speak, only stare at me, at what I was doing. They looked like twin sisters, only they didn't look alike.
Some idiot in a leather jacket, started chit-chatting with the hostess who was standing beside me and the twin ladies. Before she could ask him for the same favor, he offered his services, probably to have a good impression on her. Either he had a crush on that lady, or his mommy must have told him to do so, because the favor wasn't worth any good impression or riches! Thank you, I said to him and left my work to him.
I saw my friend standing in isolation with her drink at the spot I stood for most of the party, aloof in her thoughts. I went to her and in our casual conversation, told her my feelings about her. She gave me the exact reaction I had expected. She said it was very sweet of me and that she also liked me but some things had changed in past few months that at the moment she wasn't ready for any such commitment. I persisted, because I had fell in love with her all over again in the moment I saw her for the first time after many years.
"Why didn't you tell me before?" she said, that tenderness in her voice that almost convinced me she would agree.
"I am telling you now!" I said with all the sincerity in my heart.
She turned to face me and we kissed gently. As we slow danced, holding each other close, I also fell in love with the slow music and the dim blue lighting.

I saw myself at a check post while leaving for home. There was some commotion because somebody said a terrorist had been caught. I got down from my jeep and went to check when I saw Ragunathan sir talking to other policemen or some other security agency personnel. He was their senior, I learned, and was congratulating them on their success and motivating them to keep up the good work. I saw a person looking at all of them with a disgust on his face. I could guess he was the terrorist. He offered me Rs. 90 if I allowed him to walk away and not tell the police that he was running away. He said he only had that much money with him. I refused. He reduced the offer to Rs. 50 and I asked him, "Do you even know how to count?"
I told him, traffic police in India also doesn't agree at Rs. 90, how could I, that too when risk was so high!
He was taken away. I rode back to home in my gypsy. My mother wasn't feeling well so we had to leave. My sister, mother and some friend was sitting behind in the gypsy. My father was staying at some other place. I saw us driving my the streets of Persia, as shown in the game, 'Prince of Persia'. I thought of my work and that there were some people I didn't like at my department, but due to joining of some new people, that dislike had been lessened, as if the new people act like neutralizers. I started thinking of numerology and also trying to find a relation between first alphabet of names of people I keep away from in my department and the new people in my department. While such thoughts occupied my mind, I saw kids playing on the street as we took a turn to the right. Most of the city was stone floored and each road had either houses or a wall on either side.
I get a phone call from the same terrorist even before we are able to drive out of the city. He threatens me that since I didn't help him escape, he'll make my life miserable. He started telling me what all damage he could possibly do and I start feeling scared. His voice and mannerism of speaking made me laugh but I controlled myself, lest I'd offend him even more. My mother wasn't feeling well, my sister was with me, I had a girlfriend now and we were still away from home, driving on strange roads.
Suddenly I see myself doing push-ups, and then I see another self of mine jogging on the streets of the city, as shown in 'Prince of Persia'. Could that be my alter-ego? Or my own self preparing for the future?

11th Feb 2010 Early Morning

2010-02-10T22:49:00.000-08:00

Atul was sick, so I took him to a hospital where a girl worked as a nurse who used to be in my school, one year junior to me. She was so pretty and I had a big time crush on her. On reaching the hospital, with atul hanging on my shoulder with his arm, I realized the hospital was a military hospital and Atul would have a hard time there. Atul screamed like a baby when he got injections and whenever I visited him, he begged me to take him to some other hospital!

I did meet the girl from my school. She had come to check on Atul. I saw her in her group of nurses giggling in the corridor for some stupid reason. I wanted to say "hi" when our eyes met but refrained from doing so. She was still so pretty, the only beautiful thing (like sunshine) in the morose ambiance of the hospital. Since her first visit, Atul had stopped complaining about the hospital. :)

I saw myself with my sister walking into a colony we had lived in, few years ago. The first house to the left, in the row of houses as one entered the colony looked familiar to us, perhaps because one of our friends lived there. The door was locked from inside but nobody replied to our bell ring. We walked around the house and entered through the backdoor. Most of the house was marooned but for a pizza box that I found lying on the floor in one empty room close to the main door. I looked at it, then found it open but untouched. I looked at the date, more than a year old but the pizza didn't smell stale.

I had this English assignment due next month. I was at home, because somebody had died in the family and everybody was very sad about it. I managed to write some pages, almost half the assignment, till my last day at home. With a few days to spare before submission day, I stood outside in the train, planning my strategy to complete the assignment. When I reached hostel I realized I had left my assignment at home. :(

Later, I saw myself with a lady in white saree, who had some awesome gadgets. She helped me get my assignment transferred from home to college. My sister thought I had lost my head when I told her the instructions. Sadly the first half of the assignment that I had done wasn't on paper but in a liquid form. That lady further showed off her findings/inventions by rolling the first sheet of paper of second half of my assignment and immersing it in a big jug filled with liquid. The sheet of paper that came out was a blank sheet. She drank that liquid and narrated the whole content verbatim! Now I was curious and suggested her that she could make a similar device that could absorb the content in a liquid and read it out aloud. She smiled, then asked for the second sheet of my second half of assignment, immersed it in the liquid in the jug. The liquid in the jug was then boiled. As the vapors of the liquid came out, the jug started speaking out the content verbatim.

Wacky Dreams Collection Volume 1

2010-02-09T12:40:00.000-08:00

1. I saw myself pleading to Atul and Prashant that they teach me for an exam. I did so for a few hours till 8 am. When I started to study for the exam, I looked at my watch and the time is 8:20 am, 10 minutes before exam. I lost my temper, and started hitting Atul. Atul hit back, playfully at first but when he saw that I wasn't fooling around, he got serious too. Meanwhile, Prashant slips away for exam I guess. We sparred for few minutes, landed few blows on each other and finally we were on the floor, bleeding. I then saw us on the hospital bed. My plan worked... we gave the exam later. :D :P

2. This was during morning time in bus from Pune to Hyderabad: I saw them transfer some plants to main field. One of the plants couldn't stand in its water filled space and its shoot got submerged in water. In my attempt to help, I pulled it out and put it straight when no one else dared to touch it. Something from the plant stuck to my fingertips and it had teeth. It bit me. :( (although I think I did wake up because of the bite, not sure though!)

3. 3rd Feb 2010 early morning: I saw a lady sitting in front of her dressing table looking in the tall oval mirror. Suddenly her groom comes into the room who looks like a zombie. The zombie attacks her and after initial struggle, tears off her left hand and part of her right hand. She bleeds and shrieks in pain. Her would be mother-in-law comes into the tent room. The groom zombie rushes out of the tent room and into the woods. The bride goes after him, concerned. The would be mother-in-law goes after them, then stops the bride and says, "Oh, you look so beautiful for the wedding!"

4. 20th March 2010 early morning: I was dying. I had a disease that the doctor did know about but he said he could never understand the nature of that disease and that disease always puzzled him. He said that a cure does exist, he gives me a prescription for the medicine but says that medicine would take few months to arrive, and I might be dead before the medicine arrived. I saw myself sitting alone in my house and prescription in my hand, with dim natural light streaming in from the open door on my left side.

One of my female friends asked me about my perturbed state of mind. I told her everything. She asked me to be hopeful and that everything would be alright. I wanted to believe her, but couldn't.

8th February 2010 Late Morning

2010-02-08T03:42:00.000-08:00

I saw myself making a trip to some weird city. They had spacious toilet space like big halls. Some relative of mine, an uncle or a cousin, and I with backpacks on them, traveled to that city on foot, on bike, and train or some public transport. I also saw us jumping from one floating (in air) particle to other during last few hundred meters away from the city. We got very strange reception from the city and its people. The people talked rudely to us and to each other even when they didn't seem so. I observed that the city was mostly deserted and I remember mostly finding the cleaners in the city, cleaning I wonder what!

I remember packing for the same trip, a week later, deciding on clothes and accessories. The second trip was also to be a two day stay there. I saw my father talking to me about the trip and how he appreciated that I was helping out the family! (This dream was probably inspired by Arrested Development, a TV show whose finale I finished watching yesterday night.)

7th Feb 2010 Early Morning

2010-02-07T00:34:00.000-08:00

I saw myself as a warrior from a different era because many men dressed as warriors from Spartan's era visited me and convinced me to return, realize my roots and destiny. I remember one of the men saying, "You are destined to be a warrior, what are you even doing here?" looking down upon the work I did.

I was an employee in a corporation. :D On insistence of my colleagues, I tried drinking and smoking after initial hesitation. I didn't feel any beginner's discomfort. The first puff of smoke from my lungs was liberating and whiskey was so smooth! Everyone was surprised!

Later at home, I heard my father talking about whiskey. I realized that my parents had asked me never to drink or smoke. Innocently, I asked father more about whiskey and how it tastes. He seemed to like whiskey and praised it, but didn't offer me a chance to drink! :P

I saw myself as a kid, in a large area surrounded by net. My friends and I were waiting for the boxing training when we all got an option to do attend something else instead, which was something silly and quite boring, but harmless! I just got up and walked out of the net and joined the queue for the other activity. My good friend looked at me, surprised (Arpit Khasgiwala, I think). Some distance from the net, I looked back and saw my friends and others sitting on the sand area lighted from top and surrounded by net. I realized I was leaving behind my great chance of learning how to fight and endure pain. I left the queue, jogged back to the net. My friend saw me, knew my concerns, punched me hard in the face. I fell back on the sand, my nose bleeding a little and my head still confused.

"Welcome back!" he said, offered his hand. I grabbed it and he pulled me up. Maybe he was my friend who later convinced me to return and embrace my destiny of a warrior! :D

25th September 2009 Early Morning

2009-09-25T05:43:00.000-07:00

I think I was a pirate, or a merchant/sailor, I can't seem to recall what!
But I remember myself on the deck and sailing... long months at the sea, sailing, partying, confronting minor glitches etc. and occasional fights with another team. I returned home after almost a year and loved my welcome! My parents were so affectionate I was loving every moment of it.
I saw myself wake up in my room (was the previous paragraph a description of a dream in a dream?) and see bright daylight glisten my glass windows. I look at the time, 3 am. I walk out of the room and witness broad daylight. Surprisingly it was so bright that shadows were not clearly visible. I saw Asrar walking towards his room, the room adjacent to mine, and I asked him what time it was, and he said 3 am. He had no clue about the broad daylight phenomenon and suggested I not get perturbed by it. I saw the janitors and others walking in the corridor, asking for money on the occasion of a festival, Eid or Dussehra, don't remember. I took out a Rs. 50/- note and said I didn't have change (cheap, I know. :( ). They replied that it was alright and left. :(
To my biggest surprise, after few minutes the brightness disappeared and it was dark again. It was like the anti solar eclipse phenomenon, or it could have been a supernova!

17th August 2009, Early Morning

2009-08-17T00:15:00.001-07:00

I saw myself in a train, a train that won't stop. Everyone was afraid, certain that the end of life was close now. I was one of them, uncertain, and helpless. All I remember was someone calling me while I sat among others, doing nothing. I simply got up, followed him, and it was like, "I came, I saw and I conquered" type situation. I saw the problem (had been eyeing it from a distance for sometime now but was even unable to figure out the nature of the problem), and voila, I could see the problem clearly for the first time. I made a few suggestions which were reluctantly tried and, they worked!
While the people celebrated as the train slowed and stopped eventually, I walked away to the back end of the train, then got down as the train stopped. The tracks ran through a barren region with plain lands and wild vegetation, and hillocks scattered here and there.

I saw myself walking into an old stone cave which extended underneath. Glad to see a teenager from the train, and he recognized me, we exchanged greetings and I walked beside him and his parents as we entered the cave. They somehow knew the way into the cave and the way out, and after a few minutes into the cave, I saw many other people, men and women (weird looking though), some with their children, coming from somewhere inside while we walked further into the cave. The cave seemed to expand in space the more we went inside. The center of the cave had some old architectural place akin a temple and I saw people giving away offerings and touching the walls of the temple.
I felt scared for a moment, which aggravated as I looked at the men and women coming from the temple... they looked scary. I turned the other way and walked briskly towards the cave opening, which was still in sight. Only a few steps away from the gate, I stopped. I turned back and wondered, would I always let my fears control me, inhibit me from exploring what could be larger than life experience? I realized that I was an adult now, all my childhood my fear stopped me, not anymore. And I didn't want to die in regret, so with a resolved will, I walked back to the temple.
Back in city, my friend Atul and others attended some seminar or talk or something (probably their convocation!) and Atul exclaimed he wish he had done MBA, or he had done this or that, instead of his current job. I was surprised to hear that because he has a comfortable income.

31st July 2009

2009-07-31T00:34:00.000-07:00

I saw myself in a possession of a treasure which had been hidden since very long ago. I had just returned from a long trip to a place with snow-clad mountains and cable-car rides. The cold didn't seem to bother me the way it usually does. I did feel lazy and didn't want to go out in the cold.
The guest house had glass windows and the scenery outside was completely white. The instance that scared me was the cable-car ride on a descending wire. The cable-car caught up so much speed that I screamed my lungs out when I saw the destination place, and it turned before a possible collision could take place. My father scolded the cable-car guy on the other side.

I decided to auction the items in the box I discovered buried in the snow at the tourist spot. It contained some day to day items used a couple of generations ago. I heard the bully brothers presence outside and hid the box. I was sitting in a small room with a desk, a thatched asbestos roof, brick walls and rusted window sill. They must have seen the light on in this rented room as the younger brother who was more impulsive burst open the ajar door, banged the table with his heavy hands, and asked me for hafta(weekly wage to be given to a bully). As always I could pee in my pants but this time, like few other times in the past, I collected some courage, and refused. I knew what was to come... I was ready to get few blows on myself. But he saw the wooden box, pushed me aside, bent inside the desk and took it out, opened it and started going through the contents. In vain I tried stopping me which made him think it must be something important. He asked me why I was collecting such shit stuff... small rusted medals, rusted blunt blades, few bits of cloth, few worn out keys, few badges, few nuts and bolts etc. His anger elevated to a newer level and I realized my final time had come. But his elder brother called him back, saying they should be near their father. Apparently something worried them.
Next scene, I saw the elder brother talking to his father in his father's room. His father was getting ready to go jogging. Son argues that his father shouldn't put so much physical stress on his body since he was aging, but his father asked him not to be ridiculous and suggested he do some constructive physical exercises himself. The elder son was wise after all, but I guess he failed to realize that his father didn't feel any fatigue no matter how much exercise he did. His father did look surprisingly young to be a father of two 20+ year old sons.
I took the treasure box home, something about it fascinated me. I started searching about the significance of the medals and badges...
Next day the younger bully came to little room, riding on his usual aggression but no anger this time. I couldn't believe his behavior and what he said. He asked me to give the box to him as it belonged to his family. I didn't believe him and refused. He was about to hit me but the elder one asked him to bring me along with the box. I visited their house, met their father. He was a pleasant man, complete contrast to his younger son. He seemed overjoyed to see the box. He said it was their family possession, his father and his brothers who were champions in some game they played, similar to soccer and they were the champions. One season a landslide caused them to loose the game and their father. They lost this box as well. The bully's father then took me indoors and showed me a gigantic machine, cylindrical with many big holes for thick wires to plug-in. Bully's father said to me that they were physically and technically superior species from different planet and played their sport on different terrains of different planets to make the game more interesting and challenging. Their source of energy and strength was destroyed, bully's grandfather tried to save the source but was sucked in himself in the landslide. Bully's father said he still felt guilty of being the one standing closest to father and yet not being able to save him.
The father then faced his elder son, asked him, do you still wonder why, or for that matter you two don't feel tired or fatigue?! He then turned to me and said, "Thank you. You've given me hope. I can now resume my search." For some reason I felt like start of something exciting with people I least expected with.

25th July Morning and Afternoon

2009-07-25T01:41:00.000-07:00

Tension could be felt in the corridors of OBH as all the students were busy preparing for their exam. (In reality I have got into this habit of studying with music on, and last night I slept with I-pod still running and earphones in my ears, and when I got sleep, I couldn't feel music entering my ears, and when I woke up, I could feel music entering my ears again, as if music was shut out and brain was resting, or maybe the music was ignored by the brain, as it does to other things happening in the background, except, of course for something loud maybe. My head does feel heavy though!) I saw myself studying with earphones plugged in my ears, but then I saw I was reading lyrics of the song I was listening, only to realize that the exam was on music and songs, and in my college, students have a huge collection of songs, which they do share through DC++ and FTPs. I was quite scared as I had to listen to so many songs and remember their tune, their words etc. I love listening to songs but under such situations, its a punishment. Besides, some students tried old school methods and asked one of their batchmates or coursemates to teach them the songs, which is stupid, one's supposed to listen to the songs, learn the lyrics and give the exam... anyways that coursemate was Himanshu and I saw a top view of his room and him aggressively listening to songs, his hunched back posture in front of his laptop, and also chatting with others, explaining them about the songs and telling them which songs were important !!
At another instance I saw myself with my friends at some city as tourists, though one of my friends had a small wooden house there, by the lakeside. We hung out there during afternoons and strolled on the streets of the city during morning and evening. My father met us after few days and I left with him. While in the process of leaving the city, we took a break and sat a some place, and saw there was some shooting in progress of some TV show. (probably inspired by discussion on Sach Ka Saamna at canteen last night.) I had this desire to be a part of it. Suddenly, and neither my father nor I had observed him coming, came a cameraman and another guy with a mike and asked me a question in Hindi. I asked him to repeat the question once, but I couldn't answer it, my mind went blank. Two minutes before I knew answers to all the questions being asked to the contestants during the shooting. He then asked me another question, then another, all in Hindi and I couldn't answer a single one. I felt dejected.
I patted a dog, a big reddish violet dog, with less fluffy hair. It generally followed me around when I was in my friend's house, he was my friend's dog. That day he didn't come around me in his usual style, but just came to me and stood there with its head down in a dejected manner. I felt like patting it and this time I did... I touched it on its face and then at the back of his head. "Attaboy !!"

24th July 2009 Afternoon

2009-07-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

There was a certain family, I would call them, "transformers". Interestingly, one member of the family could transform into his/her younger/older self and also into each other but only in front of a cupboard mirror, which was their family heritage and also only if two members stood in front of the mirror, one behind the other with taller one at the back, and wrapping arms around each other. The transformation happened instantly and painlessly and would wear off after a certain period of time.
This family of transformers were peace loving people and had lived successfully among the other humans for many generations.
One day the police breaks in transformers family's home and arrests some of them. The others seek people's help. At one instance, a young lady tries convincing a senior police officer while the officer tries to confront his subordinate on the baseless charges on the transformers family members. Finally the young lady whispers to the senior officer from the other side of the door and the senior officer says, "we'll fight", takes the court case papers and leaves.

In another dream, I saw my mother explaining me the reason she kept my name starting with the alphabet 'A'. She said during a certain age group, a kid with name starting with 'A' is best to have, and said that 'P' and maybe 'R' were the worst choices to have as starting letters for a name. Perhaps the age group she was referring was teenage but I couldn't understand why she said that, but I was quite surprised to notice that as many other things, I could see the evidence in behavior of some kids. Suddenly, my mind went back to my childhood and I saw myself dressed in a denim jacket and ready to go somewhere but my mother forbids me to. Next instant I see myself studying, like a bookworm. Maybe my friend whose name starts with P had his influence over me so I dressed like that and made plans, but innately I was a bookworm... does one's name starting with A makes one a bookworm during that age group of teenage, is that what my mother was glad about?! Surely there had to be a better explanation...

There was this instance that I saw in which Atul, Ajay and one more guy of UG2K5 were trying horse riding. They mounted a horse and stood beside each other, each facing the gate of the ranch. People were watching from behind them and media was covering the news. Possibly they were from the same company and this was for a publicity stunt or something. So, all the three together try to turn the horse to face the audience. The guy on extreme right does it slowly but with few glitches, Ajay's horse turns but only half and he turns his upper body the other half to correctly face the camera and Atul's horse doesn't budge at all !!! BTW all the three were dressed as traditional cowboys.

3rd July 2009 Early Morning

2009-07-02T23:45:00.000-07:00

I saw myself on the run. There was this lady and she was running from some guy. She had something with her that she was trying to protect from him. I sat behind her on a bike that we managed to get while on the run. I held the thing with me while sitting behind. She suddenly got excited and accelerated to some impossibly high speed at which everything looks blurred. I got scared a few times as I was worried about the thing in my arms. She took dangerous turns, the bike skidded a few times but we finally managed to get that guy off our back. Then we reached a tall cliff like wall and a road above it which she intend to reach. I was petrified at her idea, how stupid of her !! She then suddenly accelerated to the highest possible speed the bike could offer and took it on the cliffy wall. We almost reached the top but the bike could take us no further. The bike then retraced its own path and we were back at the bottom. She tried reaching the top again, and this time he caught up with us on a scooter and drove his scooter to the top like us and fell short of it like us. We then retraced our path together. The she tried to take the right turn through the check post, but he stopped her by holding her arm. Then we sat in an auto rickshaw and they talked, resolved their problem. She asked me to give him whatever I was carrying. He took it in his arms and embraced it. It was probably their little infant, hence I was afraid for its safety and this women was driving the bike like crazy! :D
Next I saw myself sitting in a classroom and was doing an assignment on sketching a comic page based on a scenario. Saw many of my batchmates sitting in that room. My mind was totally blank on what to do. The teacher kept on blabbering on the fact that the person who has creative mind would do good in this assignment and that we've only been training our minds on technical knowledge and have forgotten to be creative. My neighbor and batchmate Bhanukiran made an impressive one page comic. I asked him if I could borrow the idea and he said, sure go ahead Sainu Bhai. I took a peek into it, I could as I was hidden by few other students in the class and I also bent my head a little to get away from her sight. I started sketching on similar lines. I was amazed that within few minutes I could generate a colorful comic square among the many pages that make up a page. It looked quite similar to Bhanukiran's piece of comic. Besides her continuous blabbering on and glorification of creativity (especially the innate one) got on my nerves, and I submitted the incomplete comic page.
I got out and away from the classroom as fast as I could. Bhanukiran called me from behind but I didn't pay attention. I saw few men in suits, looking like agents standing in corridors and between flight of stairs. At the foot of the last flight of steps, I saw a hole smashed through and short thick green snakes coming out of it as soon as I started walking down that flight of stairs. I got scared and the agents alert. They started shooting out of the hole here and there, many slithered, few flew... I ducked, skipped a few flights, jumped to the other side and ran out. I decided to take the cemented the path to the hostel, avoiding the short cut through the wild grass area which surrounded the classroom building. My laziness did suggest me to take the beaten path through the wild but my fear won and I took the cemented path around the wild grass area towards the hostel building on the other side of the campus, covered by tall trees at a distance.

1st July 2009 Early Morning

2009-07-01T08:12:00.001-07:00

I saw myself in a tricky situation this time. I was getting weird assignments as a part of some coursework. One of them was to swim in an ocean. I know swimming so I knew I could do it, but the conditions was severe. Moreover I had to swim extra for a friend of mine, as one of my batchmate was doing for his.
The day had come. I was standing at the dock with my coursemates, looking at the wild angry waves and feeling the hard push of the cool wind on my face and shoulders.
I saw myself swimming. I kept on swimming. I could not see anything in front of me but agitated motion of waves pushing me sideways. I wanted to come out of water as I was tired but I didn't feel tired. I felt uncomfortable with the thought of swimming so much, while I could only see the turbulent layer of water and the Grey sky above. It was thundering.
Next thing I remember was standing at the dock with others, the assignment had not started yet. I had been thinking. I felt embarrassed and ashamed of myself.

30th June 2009 Late Morning

2009-06-30T12:17:00.000-07:00

The scene opens with a space shuttle nearing a satellite somewhere far in space. I saw a few astronauts (or space walkers) come out of their space shuttle, each tied with a connector to the space shuttle. They slowly and cautiously moved towards the satellite, probably for doing some repairs in the satellite. A few seconds later, while they were yet to reach the satellite, I saw the space shuttle blow up in a huge blast, and the powerful flames engulfed all the space walkers in it. I saw their body char and evaporate, and one person's head separated from his body and the two charred and evaporated separately.
Next I saw myself on the roof of a tall building, walking around, thinking on what else to add to an essay (the topic I don't remember) I had been asked to write by my father. It was early morning, dawn I guess. I was quite engrossed thinking about the essay and finally came up with the exact content and structure of the essay. Quite excited, I left the rooftop, only to find myself in a railway station on the first floor. I climbed down a helix flight of stairs, boarded a train and left.
I reached a housing complex and as I entered it, I saw a girl of my age jogging in the same direction. I recognized her as my classmate from some class in school. We shook hands, she was not surprised to see me and I wished her happy birthday!
I was surprised to find my parents to be in her house, as I was asked to meet them in this address. Before I could speak about the essay, I found myself getting married with that girl and her father showering flower petals on us. I saw my parents happily smiling. The idea of getting married was quite a shock and I couldn't remember anymore.
I liked the girl, that's what I thought in my dream. But getting married to her, I don't think so! :D

23rd June 2009 Early Afternoon

2009-06-23T01:43:00.000-07:00

I saw Sylvestor Stallone moving in the same corridor as mine. I saw the door open and went inside, into the untidy room, thinking that room to be of the person who had asked me to pay his room rent. He had given me a cheque, which was good because I couldn't find it anymore but it troubled me nevertheless. I entered the room from the left door, the rooms had two doors, mine too, and by the time I realized that the room was that guy's and turned to leave, I saw Sylvestor enter the room through the left door with a bowl of something in his hand and spoon in his mouth, eating something. I acted normally, not showing my excitement. To my surprise, nobody else showed any excitement either. I told him about my sudden intrusion and he said he was fine with it. He was quite a sport, behaved like a college guy. I told him about my problem while we walked outside his room and in the corridor. He cheered me up and said that he would help me find that guy. Then suddenly got hyperactive and started sparring with me, I ran to save myself but he overtook me and then ran towards me from front and gently pushed me. I skidded a few metres and my motion was broken by a pillar. Suddenly I saw Mridul sitting at the pillar on the other side and moaning about something. He refused to tell me about his problem, then after insisting one more time he started blabbering it out non-stop. I told him about Sylvestor Stallone staying in the same corridor as mine and it didn't seem to cheer him up or bother him in any way.

I met few other guys before leaving for home. A group of my immediate juniors were playing some game and they called me, asked me for a favor, asked me to do a rolling on my back on a slope inclined at almost 70 degrees. I agreed, thinking it would be easy, but when I started doing it, with the referee shouting the time left, I couldn't do it. I didn't feel tired or stressed at any part of my body but I didn't seem to have the energy to push myself up. "Time's up", the referee, another junior, but I kept on doing and others watched. Finally in two minutes, time limit was one minute, I did it. The juniors who had asked for this favor said that they'd expected me to do it and I said, I did it but took a little more time. While I was leaving I met few other juniors who said, abhi toh aap yaheen ho kum se kum ek saal, milte rahenge, have great vacation.
What I couldn't understand is, the huge palace also would be accommodating naval cadets too.

I saw Britney Spears too, according to the scenario, I think I had chatted with her online and now I had forgotten my online alias. She was standing in front of me, chatting with some other people, I wanted to talk to her so I introduced myself and talked, but like a stranger. We had become good friend online and if only I could remember the alias she'd remember who I am. :D

It was a huge gathering and all the professors and even my school teachers were present, although everyone was scattered around the corridors of the palace. I was under some stress because my parents were waiting for me outside the gate of the area of the palace, which is a tourist place. My father had to leave at the earliest in a separate direction and meet us later at home.
There was a new teacher who sang almost everytime and she sensed my tension and sang me a beautiful song, said all the best to me and left me feeling better, then my school's english teacher came and said, "isn't she wonderful", and I agreed.

Since for 5th year we had to stay in this place, me and Mohit went for a stroll. Few spots including the lake which everyone used as a swimming pool had to be paid for, we paid for it but we saw the filth floating on the surface of the lake and decided not to swim.

Sometime back at home, I compared the tummy of my cousin to my sister and said to my grandmother (naani) that my sister had correct weight as per her age but my cousin doesn't and is thin for her age. Naani seemed to disagree.

I had gone on a tour with my parents and sister, traveling in an army truck, with lots of luggage and proper beds in it, like in a room and backside of the truck open so enjoy the view as the sides and roof is covered. On our way I asked them to stop at the palace so that I could collect few things.

10thMay2009EarlyMorning

2009-05-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today I saw a dream in which there's a Mr. Curious. He's running, running in the woods, through the gaps between the trees, towards his hut. He's being chased by someone and is killed before he could reach his hut. A team starts investigating the murder of Mr. Curious.
What mesmerized me most about Mr. Curious is that he was actually smiling when he was being chased, when he was running away from them. I saw him running in slow motion, he looked back time and again, or sideways and I all the time saw smile on his face. Actually along with Mr. Curious two other cartoons were also killed.
Some lady was killed, made bare and blood sucked out from her neck. She was the love of the person leading the investigating on the murder. The lady who was killed she was loved by none other than the younger version of Sunny da, Sunny Deol! :D
So now he's totally mad and he wants to kill the murderer in the same way as his love was killed by him. So, he bites his neck like a dracula just like the murderer did to his love. Murderer knows he's going to die but he doesn't. Somehow Sunny da leaves him alive but kind of handicapped, sucks up quite a lot of blood out of him into a plastic bag to find out others by studying that blood, as if blood had memory!! He sucked up blood from his mouth and automatically the plastic bag was filled with blood :D
Meanwhile I was attending some classes maybe martial arts classes. I was gifted a long rod by my master, a wooden rod, much longer and thicker than a bo.
He asked me not to shorten it or give it any shape. He asked me to practice with the whole rod itself. It was not cylindrical but had edges. Interestingly, the part of the building, which was a broken flat with broken walls and partial roof etc. was the same building in which the Sunny Da's love was killed and that murderer's blood was sucked out. :)

8th May 2009 Early Morning

2009-05-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

I saw myself taking part in one of the most amazing geeky + adventurous (dangerous) events in the world. This was all because of attending the classes of a lady teacher very attentively and doing class participation. In one of the classes when I couldn't control my urge of having maggi which was in my lunch box, I lowered my head at the bench and took a little bite. I did that a few times, carefully lest the teacher would find out. I felt part relieved and part amused when I saw others also having their food from their lunch boxes. Occasionally teacher did give a accusing look in the direction of those eating food while she was teaching, but I was safe because I was participating in class, discussing and answering questions!
It happened so that she did punish few students for having food in her class, and she also walked up to my desk and asked me if I was having my lunch while bending a little to see if I was hiding anything inside my desk. I replied in negative. When the class was over she called me while I was walking out of the room and asked me which teacher I was working under. I said I was working under prof. P K Reddy. She ignored my reply and said that some of the faculty members were planning to send their students to some international level geeky+adventurous competition. We walked out of the class and she told me all about it, people from various parts of the world competing in almost all kinds of competition, be it mathematical problems, or adventure sports or social events/dances etc. I could see people of various nationalities dancing in a circle. I was flabbergasted about existence of such a competition yet quite interested. Before I could say anything, I was in the competition! :D
The only event I remember was the final one in which a person would be given any number of chances as he/she may desire but the final trophy has to be taken by climbing on a pile of oval shaped stones which were quite slippery and out of balance. Only the daring ones attempted it. I saw myself standing at almost the top of the pile and stretching my arm to catch the trophy. I did curl my fingers around it but at that instant the stones lost balance and I fell on the slimy muddy water below, and wounded myself. I decided it wasn't worth another try. I was supposed to gracefully come down that pile with the trophy in my hand but I fell so I failed.
I traveled back by train and stayed at place of a fellow IIITian for few hours to clean up my wounds when suddenly I heard a doorbell ring. I went to attend it and saw my sister at the door. I was surprised. Actually my fellow IIITian's house and my house were in the New Offrs colony in Dhrangadhra cantonment area, my house being at the same place as it was and his being Gautam Shahi's house, my friend. So, I asked her to come in but she wanted me to come home as soon as possible and that I had promised I would come home. The wounds still hurt and I got frustrated, asked her to give me some space and some independence from her and others. She started sobbing and then started running back towards our home. I shouted after her that I didn't really mean whatever I had said, went after her and stopped her. We stood at the playground between the row of two sets of houses, my being on the other side of the playground. I said I loved her and loved them. I lit a cigarette and was joined by that fellow IIITian of mine, after he heard the commotion. After a few minutes my sister saw father coming out into the playground and she shrieked at me, I dropped my cigarette on the soil in the ground, didn't bother to extinguish it. She urged me
to come home, tried pulling me. I said to her that I'd be coming in a few minutes and that she should go first.
Next thing I remember my father was very sad that I had promised I would come home and I didn't. He didn't mention the cigarette thing but I knew that he saw me smoking a cigarette. He didn't look at me while talking. I felt so guilty about the cigarette thing that I didn't tell him about the fact that I had reached the final round in one of the newest and most exciting events in the world.

5th April 2009 Early Morning

2009-04-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

I saw myself in an AC compartment of a train. I was supposed to get down at some station and appear for an exam at 9 pm. I was sitting near the wash basin, feeling bit cold and studying hard with the help of the dim yellow light over the wash basin. At one instance my eyes shut for a few seconds and I realized that I was drowsy. I decided on getting off the train at 10 pm instead and take some nap before studying for the exam and taking the exam. But where sleep is concerned, no chance can be taken because one never knows how much time ... finally I woke up at 5 am the next day. I went at the door, opened it slightly and saw the snow covered landscapes outside.
I was supposed to visit someone in an old mansion, and deliver some package. I reached the mansion, parked my two-wheeler and looked at the huge mansion standing in front of me. It was night time dark. I pushed at the huge gates and walked in as they slided backwards. Next thing I remember myself sitting in a TV game show, inside the mansion, with a team mate who had a morose expression on his face most of the time. The audience cheered at every correct answer! :D Three other teams sat on our right side. Also, the participant giving correct answer is given something tasty to eat, like a pie or some pudding. :D I gave many correct answers and had many pies. I used to shout out the answer sometimes as I couldn't contain my excitement, and I got a frowny look from my team mate everytime I did that but I smiled at him broadly and ate more pies. :D
Next thing I remember running in the corridors, hallways and lobby of this huge mansion. I was running away from a madman in a wheelchair but he was a ghost I think because he used to catch up with me and was present before me in whichever direction I ran. Finally I reached the main door, opened it and rushed outside. It was still dark outside. As I walked away from the mansion towards the gate, I saw few stray dogs, some lying, some moving lazily about the pavement on the other side of the road. As soon as I opened the gate and stepped to the other side, they turned wild and started barking at me. They didn't give me time to start my vehicle and rushed towards me. I left the vehicle and started running as fast as I could.
Next thing I remember is running near a railway track at the break of dawn. I found a small pathway away from the rail track towards a small settlement, so I ran on that pathway, and reached the settlement. I ran on the streets of the settlement colony and while taking a left turn, I passed from outside an old house that looked like my grandmother's (naani's). I stopped and peeped inside, panting vigorously. I saw both my grandparents inside. My grandfathers were lying on the two cots that could fit in the small room that I could see through the bar opening in the upper part of the door. My grandmothers were sitting beside them. Only my maternal grandmother spoke, which makes sense as the other three grandparents have been dead for a long time. She told me something important about myself and about our family but I forgot what she said. Her voice was cautious so as not to tell everything but also sounded as a warning. I got goosebumps and I jogged away.

20thJan2009LateMorning

2009-01-21T07:47:00.000-08:00

saw myself in the main building of my college campus, walking towards the office of the dean. I saw Asrar sitting there, across the table, in front of the Dean. Actually the Dean offered a course and Asrar and I had taken that course. I and Asrar visited his office to submit some course work he had given. His office was a small room in a long corridor, which looked nothing like any part of real campus of my college. It looked more like a underground research lab. The lighting was also quite dim in the corridor and in his office. I was to go home as our holidays had begun. I left for home, feeling happy. I met my mother and sister at home. My mother said that father was busy. I understood that better when we had to leave our house when evacuation orders came. Apparently a large number of terrorists had infiltrated many parts of India, dressed in Indian uniforms of commandoes and other defence officers. I wanted to help, but my mother wanted to keep me close to herself to ensure my safety. We went to Raj Bhavan to ask for help, but before we could enter the gates, we heard a bomb blast inside the Raj Bhavan, done from a helicopter hovering over it. Now we went to the safest possible place, my Naani's home.
Naani's (maternal grandmother) house was like Ayodhya during time of Lord Rama. It was peaceful, safe and many people stayed there. Half of the area was jungle, the other half was houses, temples etc. It was a sunny afternoon and I saw myself, my sister and my mother, along with few other women sitting below a big tree, with branches spread widely to cover a large area of ground for casting shadow. My Naani was talking to all of us, saying that we all should stay together in this place so that we be safe and also contact others who are outside, though secretly so that enemies don't come to know about this place. She and other women, including my mother and sister were cutting vegetables and salad for lunch. I offered my assistance but my naani said that I'm a guy so I'm not supposed to do all this stuff!
I said I'd be safe in my college and left for my college after the end of holidays. I did constantly worry about my mother and sister and others. The terrorists had occupied many parts of India and Indian soldiers were fighting bravely against them was the only news I heard everyday. I felt helpless but all I could do was to stay low and hope that the soldiers come victorious from the battle against the terrorists.
Quite unexpectedly, and I wouldn't have wanted this to happen ever, but my sister came to find me till my college campus. She met Asrar. He said he knew me and both of them were walking towards the lab in which I worked when suddenly some commandoes came from behind and ceased them. They tried to fight but the commandoes outnumbered them and knocked out Asrar. One of the commandoes started harrassing my sister. Clearly they were the terrorists in dress of commandoes. After hearing the news of my sister being in the campus, as told to me by Asrar on phone, I had left my lab and was walking towards the main gate when I saw the situation on the way. I felt a sudden surge of anger I had never felt my entire life. I felt as if I was getting transformed into something entirely different. I caught the commando by his neck and flung him away from my sister. I saw that she passed into unconsciousness. Throwing that man high in the air and knocking him down made me more confident and I realized that I could fight. I was too angry to let those bastards affect our lives anymore. I saw few more commando dressed terrorists coming our way. I started fighting them and knocking them down. I went out of the building into the open. I saw a big garden, and realized that I wasn't in my college campus anymore. I was standing in front of Raj Bhavan. I saw few convicts standing in line, chained to each other, and come "real" army commandoes taking them in a vehicle to some other location. Suddenly, a big truck filled with the "fake" commandoes came and shot many of the real commandoes. Some commandoes fought back and shot some "fake" commandoes. The "fake" commandoes gave guns to the convicts and freed them. I started running towards them and in the blink of an eye, with lightening speed, I reached them and started knocking them out one by one. Then I started fighting the "fake" commandoes. I didn't have problem recognizing the fake ones since they themselves came to fight me. I kept on fighting and felt great about it. I never knew I could fight so well, that I was so quick and so powerful. It felt as if I'd found myself.

17thJan2009LateMorning

2009-01-17T10:53:00.000-08:00

The starting of the dream was quite dramatic. I saw myself against a powerful rival whom I was supposed to stop. We matched equal in strength and wit, but opposite poles as far as morality is concerned. I was the good guy, of course! :D
We got into conflicts, fights, competition and it was our destiny to go against each other. For some reason I started failing and he started winning. At one instance I was lying on the floor, exhausted and drained out of energy. I saw someone wearing a hood in his/her head kissing my cheeks and suddenly I felt a surge of energy through me. I felt as if waking up from a long and undisturbed sleep. The hooded person vanished out of sight. My rival couldn't help but stare at whatever had happened. Next incident was even more interesting. Me and my rival teamed up against a greater enemy. This time, the healer in hood healed my rival. I saw him/her kiss the rival on the forehead. As his/her lips met his forehead, I saw a tiny spark shine as a result of the touch. Within few seconds he was up and kicking. Again, the healer disappeared. I became curious to know who this healer was, who healed by touch of his/her lips. He/She also did some other incredible things like in one instance while I was losing against my rival, the healer came and transferred my rival's energy into me. At another instance, she teleported my rival into some other space coordinates. I couldn't understand why she was helping me.
Next thing I remember was closing a book, as if I had finished reading it. Was it that whatever I saw before was something I was reading in a book? Could be. I started looking at the other books. A couple of books I had were from my college library which I had to read. I saw the due date for return and freaked out. I was 2 weeks late! I thought it wasn't a big deal and started reading some other book when my sister walked in and said, "This is my school's library, you can't stay here whole day. We have to leave now."
"Sure." I said and grabbed some books, and we left the library. As we walked in a corridor towards the exit of the building, I saw some rooms on either side, and it looks like a hostel. A lot of laughter and shouting sound was coming from one room. We went to that room and I saw some people watching something on a projector. Among everything else, I saw Mohit smiling, with a badge hanging from his neck. Someone said, "He got his paper published this year. Isn't that great?" I thought, "Sure it is." and then remembered that Mohit indeed had got a paper published and I was still to get a publication. I felt bit low but since I wasn't in college I didn't want to think of all that. All those people watching the projected things started leaving. Few of them saw me and smiled. I smiled back. An old man among them said something about me, and an old lady standing beside him complimented me about something. I smiled back and felt better. I looked at my sister with a look, do-these-people-teach-you-because-they're-awesome, and my sister gave me a look, unfortunately-they-don't-teach-me-anything. I saw the group of old teachers walk into a room in the other wing in front of this room. It looked as if those old teachers lived in that building. As me and my sister started to leave, I saw a young lady in that room, looking at us. I looked at her and stopped. My sister looked at me in surprise. I looked at her asking, what-is-she-doing-with-older-crowd? She gave me a look, how-would-i-know-but-she-also-teaches-in-my-school. The lady walked out of the room and greeted us.
Apparently she knew my sister and vice versa. The lady and I talked for sometime. I learnt she was a new teacher and had just completed her graduation. My sister and I started walking out when suddenly the lady teacher called us. We turned and walked back. She came to me and kissed me on lips. A deep gentle peck. I felt a tingling sensation. She walked back to the room to all the older teachers, smilingly said bye at the entrace to us, waving her hand and we left. While walking back, I could feel her lips on my lips when I thought of the kiss. I thought that I had kissed in dreams but this one's different, maybe this is how the real kiss is. I was too happy that day! Gosh, I even thought of meeting her again. My sister was also quite surprised and looked excited, as if ready to tell anyone she can find about what happened.
Now, few things are still not clear.
1. Why would a school teacher kiss me, a student's brother in front of the student?
2. What's more important is, why would she kiss me? I don't think I look so awesome that ladies die to kiss me.
Pondering over these questions, I got a simple answer... she is the healer with a kiss. Everything can be explained in this way. She saw me good and alive, so she couldn't contain her emotions and she kissed me. Her kissed felt different which means it had the healing touch, I felt awesome after that and I was healed of all my problems and worries. Also, it was just a peck.
Does this mean, the story of healer and me and my rival wasn't a story but something that actually happened and I had forgotten about it for sometime. The book I closed in the starting of the dream was just any other book.

14thJan2009LateAfternoon

2009-01-14T11:51:00.000-08:00

I saw myself sitting in a train. It was late night and weather was cool. I looked ahead on the platform from the window and was surprised to see my parents and sister and some of my relatives and friends waiting for me on that platform. I collected the luggage and without thinking jumped out of the train. Luckily the train had slowed its pace and I landed safely on the platform. I walked to them and said that they were supposed to meet me few stations later. They said some things which I don't remember but I was really happy to see them. Suddenly, one of them from the group shrieked in excitement. I turned just in time to see the train which I just jumped off from, was taking a U-turn on a rail-track which was bent in a U-shape. The train had to suddenly increase its speed manifold, something like an infinite acceleration. I was mesmerized by the spectacle. The train, in a few seconds, zoomed on the U-shape of that rail track, back in the direction from which it had come.
I saw myself in bed with a girl of my age, probably my girlfriend. She was really pretty and we were lying under the bedsheet, probably undressed. Early morning's sun's rays were lighting the room. She got up and got ready for the day. In this scene, I saw myself and her as a third person. She called my name to wake me up. I was reluctant to wake up but looking at her getting ready I remembered that I also had to be some place that morning. She started discussing her plan for the day. I said that I had to be at some carnival with a friend. She said she didn't require her car (which was a big car like Scorpio) and that I could take it to the carnival, and she threw the key at me. I thanked her, got out of the bed and went to get ready.
I was excited about driving her car, probably because she always drove it. I also felt responsible for taking care of the car. But I wasn't very sure if I would be able to drive the car. I stood in the garage beside the car when she came from inside the house, kissed me and left. I watched her go and disappear out of sight, then got into the car and started it. I had driven smaller cars before, this car felt bigger. I started at a slow pace, slowly taking it out of the garage, then I let it slide till the road, which was deserted. I turned the vehicle carefully to the right, and felt sense of relief after taking the turn. I reached the carnival somehow.
Now I see everything as first person. I was sitting at some stall, eating something, samosa probably when my friend turned up and asked me something about something we had to do. I said I had my girlfriend's car and that we could drive in that. We sat in the vehicle and started driving. At one instance I had to take a U-turn, i.e., change the lane and move in the opposite direction. I started moving the car on a wider arc than required. I saw some smaller vehicles approaching, on the other lane. I saw this in slow motion. Next thing I remember was standing in front of a mechanic store, probably because of some damage done to the car by me, during that turn! I don't remember what happened after that! :(
She would have probably freaked out! :D

13thJan2009LateMorning

2009-01-13T15:27:00.000-08:00

Things are rather cloudy in my mind about this one. I don't really remember what happened. Only flashes of images remain in my mind.
It was a rainy afternoon. Sky was covered with dark grey clouds and it was mildly drizzling. I was walking on a road inside the campus of my college. I was surprised to see two girls sitting beside the road near the construction site for our new college building. I walked to them and asked about a girl and her younger friend, a guy. They said they had not seen any of them when I gave them the descriptions. I then asked about the man whom I saw torturing the guy for information about the girl and others like her. One of the girls said she wasn't sure but hearing my description she said he might be someone, and they named him, and said that he might be working in one of the research labs in my college, either CVIT or LTRC, and they had heard that there was a conference so he'd have gone there to present his paper since he wasn't seen around since sometime now. I could hardly get any leads from my investigation. I didn't ask anymore question, thanked them and walked away on that wet road, with the drizzling water soaking into my clothes and wetting me gradually in the process.
I remembered going out on a family tour with my parents and sister. But for now I only remember the presence of my father being more dominant than the other two.
I remember shifting my locations of stay, moving from one place to the other, from hotel suites to students hostels, all decent places, but I changed my place of stay a few times.
I remember sitting in a cinema hall, watching a movie when suddenly the lights were on and few rowdies walked into the cinema hall, shouting that they were looking for someone. They had some weapons in their hands, like hockey sticks, metal chains, etc. which is usually seen in movies and comic books! I was shocked and bit scared, but what surprised me even more followed this spectacle. A group of people, more in number than those rowdies, but weaker looking, rose from their seats from beside and behind my seat, and one of them said that they were expecting this thing to happen, by looking at me and then they stormed out to fight them. I quickly left that place. That was one instance I changed my place of stay from a hotel suite to a hostel room.
At some instances I had my parents and sister with me, while in some other, I found myself alone, and some or the other person helping me out or saving me was a stranger. It looked as if it was their duty.
There was another family, the daughter was my acquaintance. I guess we were classmates in high school. Her friend had also come along with the family to that town. I saw a clean shaved neat looking tall man torturing her friend for some information on the daughter and her whereabouts. The boy was confused but sensed danger and didn't tell them anything. Meanwhile, the family tried searching for the kid, but left eventually without him. I saw them climbing the train. The daughter wasn't very upset, which surprised me. This boy then went missing for a very long time.
A few days later, something happened in town, some incident, a few deaths. Little investigation helped me find out that it were those men who were responsible for kidnapping that kid who went missing. The boss however was still safe and breathing. I didn't know who did it, nor did anyone else. But surprisingly, during the next killing, I happened to be at that place and saw the daughter of that family killing that man. Her dress and everything else had totally changed, as if she was a completely new person. I understood she did it for revenge, but the way she had been murdering those men showed it wasn't her first time. She said, "You won't understand, nor do I expect you to, or want you to". I was totally astouned and she quickly escaped before I could stop her.
I didn't know what to expect anymore. I was a visitor for this town and I encountered strange things happening since the day I arrived. People living double lives and fighting against each other in hiding, as if two secret groups or secret societies were in fierce enmity.
But the most surprising thing is, why didn't anyone hurt me?
why were they treating me as a VIP?
That rainy afternoon in the college campus, I tried to remember any other bits of details I could, but this is all I could recall. Does that town have some kind of memory wiping thing that the visitors don't remember a thing after they leave the town, but if that's so then how could I remember some bits of my life in that town?

11thJan2009EarlyMorning

2009-01-11T03:39:00.000-08:00

I saw myself and Akshay walking inside some ancient building undergoing renovation. Most of the building looked like caves of Ajanta, with some traces of paintings on them. I saw archeologists and workers trying to mend the cracking walls and roofs which might cave in anytime! Most of the area was restricted.
I heard a sound, turned and saw a man on a motorbike riding inside the building, towards my direction. I gave him a side and saw Akshay walking towards an isolated part of the building campus. I followed him, trying to call him back occasionally but he didn't stop. We both reached the entrance of the tiny mansion beside the main building (which was under renovation).
Akshay started looking around and was quite happy and impressed by the architecture and the carvings on the wall. We couldn't go inside because the entrace was locked. We started to leave when Akshay called me from behind. I turned and saw him rubbing his palm on the wall of the mansion. He said, "This is not an 8th century mansion. It can't be."
Now I know Akshay is no archaeologist so I didn't believe him. I said that since the board here says that its made in 8th century so it must be made in 8th century. Akshay replied, "the architecture and the carvings are still convincing, but look at the stones that make this mansion, touch these stones, these wouldn't be used in those times."
I said, "What do you mean wouldn't be used?"
Akshay replied, "People in those days could do better than this."
I didn't know how to react.

10thJan2009EarlyMorning

2009-01-11T01:47:00.000-08:00

Late morning at around 11 am, I saw myself standing inside the building of MH (Military Hospital) beside my father. I was sick, probably the most familiar sickness of bronchial asthma. We already had an appointment, so doctor's assistant came out of doctor's office and took us to a room where I was to be given treatment with nebulizer. I was feeling weak and could hardly walk because I was unable to breathe properly due to my ailment. I had earlier taken treatment of nebulizer so I knew the procedure and had the experience. But when we entered the nebulizer room, some other guy, of same age as me, was lying on the hospital bed. He was on nebulizer treatment. I looked at him and was reminded of my previous experience. He looked at me and my father, his pale face and eyes showed his weakness due to lack of oxygen in his body.
Suddenly he started choking and shaking, as if in pain. He couldn't even remove the mouth cover (oxygen mask) of the nebulizer from his mouth. He seemed paralyzed and then he coughed blood into the oxygen mask. I stared in shock, as my father called for the assistant of the doctor who handled those instruments. The guy was stablized and put to sleep, in another room. Now was my chance to use the nebulizer but my father was skeptical about the safety of that equipment, after looking at the condition of the other guy. He suspected something wrong in the nebulizer and asked the assistant of the doctor and few others to investigate. I sat at one corner of the room, looking at them while they checked the machine. They said the machine was in perfect working condition.
A couple of minutes later the medical report for that other guy came, which said that he had sudden internal bleeding in his lungs due to which he choked. The reason was still unknown but they confirmed the fact that it was not because of the nebulizer. Learning this I wondered, what if the things he inhaled through the nebulizer made his condition worse. Ultimately my father got me some medicines and avoided the nebulizer treatment. The hospital staff was worried about the speculation my father had and that he'd report it to the higher authorities. My father kept his silence on this.
Later that evening I went to a birthday party. After the cake cutting ceremony and the feasting, I saw the birthday girl laughing and standing beside a guy (is he the same guy from the hospital? I don't really remember... what if he really is! How could he be here then?) behind a round table and got their photos taken. Her brother and his girlfriend also joined them. Then the guy and her brother shook hands in bro style and that guy took the birthday girl by her hand and both left. The birthday girl looked really happy and excited. While leaving the guy greeted me good bye and left. I am still not sure he was the same guy whom I had seen in the hospital.
Looking at those two together made me realize that maybe I also should be in a relationship. Looking at the birthday girl I thought that I should also have a girlfriend like her, not her in particular. While my mind was occupied with such thoughts, the scene suddenly changed and I saw a forest with a big lake in between surrounded by trees and mountains partially covered with snow, which reminded me of the movie Chronicles of Narnia. I then discovered the truth about the birthday girl. A voice told me that she is the protector of the creatures who live in this forest and she must protect them during winter season when these small/weak creatures have to come out of their hidden homes to fetch food. During winters, most of the wilder/strong creatures become active and search for food as well, and sometimes this search leads to fight over food, which might hurt the weaker creatures. During summers all the creatures remain dormant in their hidden homes (like burrows, caves etc.). Also, some super powerful beings also stay in those forests and their fights could also hurt the weaker creatures which must be protected to maintain balance of nature in that forest, and in general. So she must return every winter to help them, to protect them. I saw all these things as a movie, by being inside the movie, and saw those creatures fighting and these weaker creatures dying unnecessarily. I saw the birthday girl, spreading her arms and soaring in the sky, wearing white dress and protecting the weaker creatures.
I found it unbelievable but after I decided to believe in this part of the truth about her I realized the reason for her happiness... winters were approaching, the change of weather made me sick with bronchitis, the other guy was dying of internal bleeding but was now enjoying the party. I also didn't feel the sickness while at the party. She was happy because her boyfriend was healthy and well again, not realizing that she made him healthy and well, and her happiness emanated her powers that corrected everything around her, including my bronchitis. She didn't know the truth about her and I learned the truth, so maybe I am supposed to tell her the truth.
She is only an acquaintance so I am not sure that she'd believe me, but maybe I am the best person to tell her, that's why I was the one who was chosen for this task.

3rdNov2008EarlyMorning

2008-11-02T23:40:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

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 normal 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

2008-10-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-09T12:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-26T06:23:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-15T14:40:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-02T12:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-02T05:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-04T10:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-05T02:50:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-23T05:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-02-01T23:24:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T00:51:00.000-08:00

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.

2008-01-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

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.

6thOct, 2007 Morning

2007-10-06T12:42:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

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

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

2ndOct.2007, Early Morning

2007-10-01T22:46:00.000-07:00

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

ALARM WENT OFF !!!

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

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

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

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

1stOctober2007_Early_Morning.

2007-10-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

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

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

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

11th Sept. 2007, Early Morning.

2007-09-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Of my first dream, the last thing I remember is telling someone that the lady whom I'd be for the rest of my life need not be pretty, but should be beautiful. Someone who'd be honest with me and vice versa, there'd be trust and affection and blah blah... and I saw her face, and she wasn't pretty but indeed looked beautiful. Can't recall how she looked. I felt her presence and walked towards her, when I was woken up by a knock at my door! :(
Within a minute, I lied down on my bed and tried to sleep again, in an effort to recall what I'd seen, but had a different experience this time.

I saw myself lying on my stomach (sleeping) on some carpet, in front of the throne of the emperor, on which the queen was sitting. I suddenly woke up, raised my head a little, looked around and saw a few members of parliament, dressed in nice shiny robs all staring at me. I felt like sleeping again, when suddenly I caught sight of the paintings/pictures on the walls just behind the members of the parliament. I saw myself in some of the pictures, and it wasn't me, of course! That surprised me to an extent that I decided to sacrifice my sleep and I woke up. I realized that I was sleeping on the foot of the throne of the queen.
I got up a little and moved backwards, looked around, still trying to figure out the situation and then looked at the paintings/pictures again... I saw standing with the queen and a few others in the pictures.
Next thing I saw, I was travelling with queen and her daughter. I was sitting beside her (the daughter). Something got over me and moved forward and we kissed each other on lips. It was an awesome feeling. Then again I kissed her and she obliged. The third time, I had to move back since she got bored and irritated by it! :D Then I hugged her and dozed off (seriously I have no idea what was going on! I'm typing whatever I can recall.) Yeah, her mom was watching all the time. The daughter was of my age! :p I found myself falling for her, she was so adorable!
Next I'm standing in some kind of hospital and I visit this hospital because my sister has some work, either she has to be admitted or she wants to go there to help, I don't know! The hospital is inside a big building (and the princess is standing beside me during all this) and my sister says good bye to me and enters a huge blue colored tent, which looked like the ICU. Some old women accompanied her, I don't know if it was the queen or someone else!
It almost looked like the situation of 'Don'. I become the prince and save the empire while the queen helps my sister by either getting her treated or helping in fulfiling her dream of treating others, being a doctor and blah blah...
Next I find myself again in that hospital building in front of the blue tent. I stand just outside the tent and find my sister severely sick with blood coming out of her lips, red eyes etc.! (shouldn't have watched Dr. House episodes!) Next second I find my father sitting beside her and I try to stop him from doing anything. He says, "Trust me, I can treat her. you have to trust me this time!" and I allow him to do the necessary. He draws all the blood out of her body, cleanses it and again repumps the blood back into her body. She recovers! :D

Of the third dream that I saw, I remember nothing except that, I survived death and was a nice changed person and look at things in a more positive and happy way. In general my life is happy and I shed my shyness and without worrying about what people think, do things which I think is right. I inspired many people in this way, but I don't remember anything specific about this dream.

The last two paragraphs are the result of me watching two episodes of Dr. House yesterday!

19th August 2007 Early Morning

2007-08-19T06:27:00.000-07:00

I saw myself as a school student and me and a few friends (didn't see them or meet them) decided to do something. We had a plan and we had to do something important. I saw myself at some place, and I was there to protect/save/look after something. Before that I saw myself driving a car and I was disgusting at it! I drove real slow with lack of control on the steering.
Actually I was at my home, and the stuff I was to save/protect/look after was with me at my home. I was on a holiday from school and suddenly I was attacked by some people. They broke in. I just managed to grab the stuff and left in a hurry. I drove my father's car and tried to get as far away as possible!
I reached an old ruined building and hid there, waiting. In a matter of few minutes, they located me (I had hidden the car well off the road!). I saw bulldozers and giant drillers breaking into the building and breaking it down. I was cornered and I saw what I least expected. The "stuff" was taken by them and the cops instead of doing something to them, arrested me! I was just 19 years old!
I lost the stuff to them and was further taken aback when I got arrested. I was sentenced 2 years imprisonment. I never expected to be arrested for such a thing, I thought I was doing something good!
I was to be taken to prison the next day. So I slept at home that night. There wasn't much talking and my father looked more worried than angry. It looked like my mother didn't want to think about it or about anything and my sister unaware of what had happened, was puzzled by everyone's behavior. That night, while sleeping, I realized the importance of home and that I'd be missing the happy moments that I'd spent at home.
Next I saw myself sitting on a bed, reading something. I expected myself to be going to college, but there I was, sitting in confinement. I'd rather call it confinement because the place was in no way like a prison. I had a room to myself, with two beds with beddings, a cupboard, books, ceiling fan, attached bathroom, toilet. A door and a window which faced huge farmlands. Sunshine poured into the room every morning till late evening. It was like living in a pucca house in a village. I felt ashamed and dejected at first, but the place wasn't bad after all. I started reading as many books as I could. I wanted to use the time I had while living in prison.
Next thing I saw myself standing near the edge of cliff and batman standing at the edge of the cliff. A moment later, I saw myself hanging from the edge of the cliff. A few feet away, batman was also hanging from the edge of the cliff and joker standing at the edge of the cliff and laughing. The next moment, the batman standing at the edge of the cliff, turned towards me and said that injustice was done to me and should be corrected. My first thoughts were that Batman rescued me from the prison but I later realized that perhaps he was the one to help me by arranging for such a pleasant stay during my prison years.
We had to fight for justice and that a lot of things were to be done. My dream was broken by my mobile ringing the alarm!

13thJune2007EarlyMorning.

2007-06-13T01:57:00.000-07:00

Initially I was at my home and I had to go to some award function. Me and my sister were to get ready and my parents were arguing as to what we should be wearing. Finally I wore something (got ready!) :D
Surprisingly I was the host at the function. I was just there to attend it, and now I was the host! I think I was wearing a suit. I was given a nice room before the show. One of my school friend was my co-host. Either it was Naveen or Himanshu. Show went nicely. This show was conducted every year. I still don't understand why I was the host ! I don't remember what happened at the show. But after the show, while sitting in my room, I realized that I possessed some extraordinary abilities and that my co-host had them too. I discovered it by wishing for something difficult and out of my reach and abilities, and yes! it happened! It had to do something with a door!
After the show, me and my co-host were walking back and came across a settlement, which looked like an advanced village. There the villagers talked about mythical powers and supernatural powers and believed that we had such powers. He said that we were supposed to protect something.
I was standing in a shop of that village and buying something when a few of them asked me for money. Apparently, I knew those people and thought that it was my duty to help them, since I was not so poor and had money which could help them. I reached inside my trousers' pockets and felt only a few 100 Rs. notes. They were less. I secretly wished for some more money and gently and slowly moved my fingers in my pocket, in a gesture of feeling some more coins. I just wished for it and imagined I have them, and yes! my pocket was filled with extra notes. I gave them the money they required.
Some people saw me doing this and started attacking us. It started as a bare hand fight and one of them hit me and wounded me real badly. Then I saw myself and my co-host and a few villagers behind a cargo truck (it was an army truck) and having a gun-fight with the bad guys. They also looked like a part of the village. I felt like using my special ability here, but didn't since I had this feeling that either someone from that group or someone else also had such kind of ability and wanted to be the sole owner of this ability. I used my revolver to aim well and injure them. I soon realized that I was the main target! and my guess was confirmed because one of the guys tried to shoot me on my legs first, then when I climbed at the edge of the truck, he shot again in my direction and even came close to kill me! I saw one of the bad guys with some special ability. I could sense and feel it. Finally the fight was over, I don't remember how!
It was my first real fight and I was rather excited and happy about it! Later I realized that I was not the main target but only that I was standing in a vulnerable position and was an easy target that I was their aim. Those bad guys were looking for something else and thought that we (me and my co-host) were bad guys. No one was killed.
Apparently, the village was a soldier's colony and the people I met were soldiers.

I saw an army officer knocking from one house after another, looking for something. His chauffer carried only a chair on his head ! and looked fed up by what his boss was doing. Then the officer and the chauffer drove on some dusty downhill kind of road, and they saw the back of a big lion with wings! walking lazily. They were petrified and the chauffer somehow kept a good speed and they overtook it in no time. But it looked that the creature was in no mood to spring into any kind of action. It had beautiful white wings and was apparently happy with his life.
When the officer and his chauffer were returning on the same road, they saw the animal (lion with wings) in rage and people were trying to control it. The two didn't feel petrified this time, but wanted to help and knew they couldn't, so they left. The wings of lion had become brownish and dirty white and kind of bruised.
As a surprise, the army officer was the actual host and was actually looking for the place! :D I wonder what would have happened if he had got those powers.
I finally conclude that the hosts were randomly chosen, but with a definite random function. The person trying to injure me was in the army, then it was me as a mistake in place of this crazy dumbhead officer! :D
I saw the next host, which was a couple. I think Hrithik was the husband! :D They were happy first but then started arguing on something. Husband accused her of hiding something and confining herself in her own life. Suddenly a wall appears around the lady and she breaks the wall facing her and walks out of the walls.
We were linked... but don't know how! I was destined to be there, but why? I don't know!

25th May Night::

2007-06-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Me and a few of my friends decided to hang out somewhere after our morning classes and afternoon tutorials and lab sessions everyday. I always saw a list (names written on a wooden board floating in front of keane school :D ) of me and my friends who decided to hang out together. In the dream I only saw us watching movie together in some cinema hall ( we went to same cinema hall everytime we went out to watch a movie ). I saw Arjun Chhikara, Prateek G.V. and a few more guys ( I don't remember everyone ).
I had some personal work one day and so I agreed to meet them after sometime. One of my friend suggested a short cut to me, that I could take, to reach that place in less time. He gave me the directions on a wooden board (similar to the one which had list of my friend's) with names of places written on it. He pointed to the name of a place and asked me to take a right turn just before I reach that place and follow the trail, which would directly take me to that place. I agreed and left.
I don't even remember who suggested me the short cut, and that way never took me to our new place of hangout !
When I reached the place later that day, I was not sure if I should be taking the short-cut. I was not even sure if I was at the right place. The bus conductor gave me a strange, surprised look when I asked him to stop at that place. I was now standing alone on the road, with wild weeds and moor on both sides. There was a dusty beaten path and looked like it would take you somewhere, but now I was not sure if I should be taking that path. Nevertheless, I started walking on that path. After a few minutes, I did see some houses at a distance and looked like a colony. I walked enthusiastically towards the colony, relieved since I thought I was lost in the moors. I walked on the streets, stopping people and asking the address of the place I was supposed to be in, for the hangout. Nobody knew the place and surprisingly they didn't even understand the language I spoke ( neither English nor Hindi... no they were not telugu speaking people ). I was perturbed and agitated. My first thought was to return the same way I had come from. But then suddenly, a small child invited me to play his game. It surprised me. He gave me a non-verbal demo of the game with the help of gestures. Perhaps he might have realized that I couldn't understand their language. I was hesitant, but then he caught my arm and gently pulled me into the game. It was a game which included some symbols on the ground and one has to jump and do something with those symbols. After that the child took me to his house's roof and I could view far and wide standing on the roof of his house. What I didn't realize was that nothing but moors and dusty land could be seen and that there was no visible traces of human civilization that could be seen. But what I did notice was the colour of the sky ( pinkish orange ) and that the weather was cool and sun was about to set. I had fun for some more time with the kid till some grown-ups joined us. The kid looked like the kid in 300 and that the closest possible resemblance to this place is the city of Agrabah. So, while I was at the roof with this kid, instead of getting to see the city and the palace, what I could see was dust and moor and wild plants randomly growing here and there.
Next thing I saw I was again sitting in the classroom and attending a lecture. I later told my friends' the reason I couldn't come and that my friend had told me a wrong short-cut. The friend apologizes and I realize that it is Prateek G.V.
Later I see Prateek and I dancing and enjoying on the roof of that kid's house with some kids while the sky dimly glows pinkish orange and the weather is cool.

24th May night ( after 1 o'clock ):

2007-06-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

I saw myself travelling in a vehicle at a neckbreaking speed. I first thought that it was a bullet train. It had two compartment ( as far as I could see ). I was sitting in the second compartment. I tried to go to the other compartment to meet Asrar by jumping to the oter compartment, crossing the emptyness in between the two compartments. Everything looked blue, the lighting inside the bogies were also blue. I met Asrar and he said that he would be asked oral questions and some written ones and he had to present his work. Everyone had to do the same in his compartment and that students from the second compartment had to do something extra, which sounded like some interview ! I was tensed but I said that I've seen a lot of bad things ( in this context, I didn't get things I wanted ! ) happening to me in the past and it didn't matter to me anymore whether I succeed or fail. I was sweating and prepared for this one. I later realized that this vehicle was flying and not levitated.
I felt the vehicle stopping ( nothing could be seen through the windows, or doors and everything looked black outside ). I decided not to go out to have dinner, because they usually stopped at some unknown place. I'm not saying that the place is bad or unhygienic, it's just that I don't generally feel like having food during journeys. But someone told that the food will be served by the caretakers of the bus and so I got down. I looked out and saw a long queue and indeed, the food was laid... it was nice, but I can't remember what... except for ice-cream!
I quickly became a part of the queue. I heard someone shouting for participants for playing the game of balloons. In that game, every participant has to get hold of a balloon after it is left in the air and then hold it without getting it bursted. The person doing so for the longest duration wins. While taking my ice-cream, I caught a balloon and quietly gave it to a girl ( participant ). She wasn't even aware that the game had begun! :D
Since she was the first to get hold of a balloon, she won the first prize. This reminds me of an incident in my real life that once I didn't let a pretty looking girl win a game ( since I won it ! ) and I feel stupid about it ( the game was statue dance ). After helping this girl win this balloon game, I feel nice. :)

Then my sleep breaks, I am reminded that I am still traveling in a bus. I watch a few scenes of some Anil Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia movie and then sleep again....

I find myself going from one place to another, the place looked wierd. I was walking, but the distances were long ( does that mean I was walking fast or was I a giant ??!! ). I did hire a 7-seater but most of the time, I was moving from one part of some city ( looked like a mixture of Jalandhar and Hyderabad ) to the other part. Same was with my mother. We both moved from one place to another and came home at night. I later realized what I was doing. I was exploring the place. We were new to that place.
After a few days, my father asked for the balance and the amount of money spent. I started telling him, and my mother interrupted occasionally to show that more money was spent. So, I had to mould my words to fit in her ideas.

20th May 2007, a hot summer afternoon

2007-05-20T05:02:00.000-07:00

I struggled to stay awake but sleep won. When I woke up in frustration and sweat I could only recall a few glimpses of my dream.

"I saw that there is a place isolated from any civilized place and is quite far off. I saw a truck coming up a dusty road, between a huge wall(a hill) and a great depression of earth. It moved slowly and I saw it stop in front of some cave like entrance on the road. People... actually they either didn't look like humans or perhaps wore something special, came out of the truck and started unloading stuffs. A man also got out of the truck. He looked like the boss. Suddenly I saw another man sneaking out of the truck, some stuff on his shoulder and trying to move towards the entrance. As he left the shadow of the truck, he was hit by an arrow coming out of nowhere. He fell along with the stuff he was carrying. Then I realized something strange. The ones working for that boss were not hurt since either they were not humans or they took precautions and the big boss was not hurt since maybe the program shooting arrows was programmed not to harm him.
We had to break this system and sneak in, I decided.
Next moment I saw myself with two/three of my friends coming out of the truck. We moved cautiously, and tried not to make any noise or disturbance. Breeze started blowing all of a sudden and the cloth on one of my friends was lifted and her hand was exposed outside. I heard an arrow coming at us and hurriedly took her hand inside the cloth. That cloth made us invisible, so the machine shooting arrows didn't come to know about us! :D
When I entered the place, it looked like a giant research lab with rooms filled with equipments, scientists, students doing research, discussions etc. We decided to split, since we had already entered the place and fooled the security system. I started climbing the flight of stairs going upwards. It was silence all around, not a noise, except for my breath. I couldn't help noticing a giant machine kept at a corner of a huge round space in between surrounded by flight of stairs all around. I saw a scientist taking a class and his students listening intently. The door was left agar and so I quickly crossed the door and hurried upstairs but none of the noise I made seemed to bother them. As I climbed higher and higher, the climb got more difficult. At one point it looked impossible and failing to climb would have meant falling a few 100 meters downwards leading to instant death. I wanted to climb but due to fear, left it. I started walking down the stairs when I saw my batch mates moving and looking around and that giant machine was not there, that round space in the center of this big giant place was not there.
The place had changed. How?
The same big boss asked us to gather around him so that he could guide us about this place of his. The big boss wasn't an old man. He looked like he was in his mid-forties and talked quite nicely. I somehow started liking him. But what about the plan me and my friends had made? I couldn't find my other friends!
We stayed there for a few days, and though I only saw a few of my batch mates, I remember eating in a place that looked like "Yuktahaar mess" of IIIT-Hyderabad and the place where I slept on the ground looked very much like "NBH mess" of IIIT-Hyderabad.
At another instance, I was stopped at a place by a lady and asked to select a ladies' dress. I was taken aback! I said I don't need it. She said it'd be good if you buy one for your wife. I laughed and said that I was still single. She said then maybe for my future wife. I felt disgusted and left.
The place had transformed a lot or was it my mind that was playing games?
I helped in things like food and other household stuff. One day I got upset and decided to go on with completing the task I had in my mind. I had to do it alone and I had lost all my friends. I again started climbing the flight of stairs to reach the top. This time I climbed faster, but after sometime, I saw some of my batch mates coming behind me. First I thought that this would be a disturbance then, realized that it could be a great help!
Finally I got stuck in a place, since the next flight of stairs was missing and was folded and kept on the next flight of stairs. I felt disgusted. Aakash came to help and we tried to get it but couldn't. Finally Vivek came and told that if he was me, he wouldn't be wasting time on that. Aakash added that it was pointless getting that missing part. It was impossible to get it.
As we walked down, Vivek showed us his new i-phone and talked about its' features and how it worked. It was good to hear that.
Meanwhile my other batch mates had started exploring the place and now I was sure, someone would solve the problem of missing link in the long flight of steps."

I am sure I've missed a lot of details in this dream also, but it's always hard to recall what one has seen after one wakes up! I hope you understand! :D

15th May 2007, Afternoon

2007-05-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

I saw this dream after watching 22nd episode of Heroes. Heroes was AWESOME!!

I was somewhere in some island and there was a party or something. People were drinking and having a nice time. I was on vacation but it looked like some people needed my help there. My family went back and I stayed for a few days. I narrowly escaped my death when a guy tried to kill me and fled through the jungles (they were deep jungles with lots of trees and ancient structures and creatures, like in 'age of mythology' and 'age of empires' game) and he couldn't follow me. The guy was not any normal guy and looked like he had special abilities. Somehow I couldn't understand why he left me, was it because something came in his mind that stopped him while he was trying to kill me or was it the jungles which were powerful enough to protect me from any evil powers. The time of attempt of killing was dusk.
There was a death in train, killing of a man in red suit who looked a bad guy and the richest man on the island and I saw him threatening someone I don't know, killing of a lady in some shop with whom I had talked a few hours ago and was talking and looking fine. She was even smiling.
The man killed in the train actually recalled this guy and so this guy appeared and killed him. Surprisingly nobody else saw this guy except the old man in the train and me. People suddenly found the old man drop dead and were shocked. It was just about dusk.
The man in red suit and red pants had called me once earlier and wanted something. I refused to give my services to him. After a few hours, I saw this guy (only a part of his shadow) standing in front of that man in red suit, while the man in red suit was talking on his mobile. I saw this guy killing the man in red suit as soon as the red suit guy turned and looked at him. The man in red suit was a negro and wore a red hat also. It was time, just after twilight.
The lady in the shop was screaming on someone seconds before she died and was acting insane. Was it fear or anger I don't know. I could only see her screaming and not the guy. It was just after sunset, dusk.
Somehow all the people he killed were related to him because they died only when they recalled this guy, especially his name and face. He appeared exactly at that time and killed them. No one else could see him and there was no violence in his killing. People recalled him, looked at him, he did something while standing at a distance and facing them, and they died. Maybe that's why I saw myself lying on the floor while he was staring at me, when someone distracted him and I fled as fast as I could. I was terrified, but not hurt much.

I see this guy with a girl whom he loved and this guy was looking younger now. When he saw his girlfriend dancing with some other guy in an evening party on a beach and smiling and enjoying in his company, he couldn't tolerate it and before he knew it, he had killed him.

I was sitting in my room, doing something on the P.C. when my aunty comes to me and I tell her that i'll go. She says it's not important but I say that my work can be done later also. My mother calls me from the other room. I walk through the corridor(the corridor has barely any lighting in it, it's kind of dark) and reach the other room. I hear her saying that she is unable to do something on the P.C. and that I should be doing that. It's a kind of online competition of a few hours using mouse. It's like covering the maximum distance with the mouse pointer.

I see this guy who is the killer in police uniform walking in the corridor of some police station and would be investigating the same case of murders.

I went out with my parents, sister, uncle and aunty to a fair and there I saw him. He saw me, looked like he wanted to communicate, but with others around he couldn't so he disappeared.
Strange thing, he appeared and disappeared anytime and anywhere he wanted. I think I was present on the spot when people died. Maybe I saw all this in my dream or maybe I am that guy, I don't know. But all this happened after I fled from this guy through the jungle.
Another strange thing is that I meet the people and then after a few hours I see them dying. In this way, I could locate the person he'd kill next. Maybe he kills the people I meet. I don't know!
Maybe I got connected to him after I fled through the forests and so he wanted to meet me, and not kill me this time. Maybe he wanted some help but when I saw him in the fair, he saw me but didn't meet me.
Before I could do anything, I woke up! :D

I am still unable to recall maximum part of my dream. I had slept for 3 hours in the afternoon and there was some fighting and some running and some more exciting scenes which I can feel I'd seen but am not able to recall at present.

8th May 2007, Night.

2007-05-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

Final board exams were 3 days away. We were going to school and I was sitting next to her in the bus. I felt great in her presence. We were good friends and as always, we laughed and chatted. I felt sad that after a couple of weeks, maybe i'll never be able to see her. I looked at her as she laughed and giggled. I would really be missing something in life.
After the school, while I was sitting in the bus, on my favourite seat, the second row seat near the window, I saw her getting her practical workbook signed by the teacher. I was reminded of the fact that I also needed to get my practical workbook checked and signed and so I should complete my work in it.
'Maybe i'll have to come to school early tomorrow, finish my work in the lab and get it signed. That would mean reading a lot tonight. Maybe i'd be sleeping at 2 tonight.' My thoughts were interrupted as she came into the bus and sat beside me.
"Hey what happened? You look dull and sad!" she asked.
"Nothing, it's just that you reminded me of something important that I must do, about this practical workbook" and I poked her bag with my finger.
"Oh! Yeah." and she smiled, with dimples spread on either side of her lips. I really loved her smile!
As the bus started moving, I suddenly got this empty feeling again that maybe after a couple of weeks we may never meet. Somehow I thought I couldn't do without her!

***

We were watching an exhibition of paintings, handicrafts and more importantly, electronics and computer stuffs. I had hard time, hiding my face from my batchmates, seniors, professors, just to be with her and not do some stupid moving around, helping the visitors, answering their queries... My college was organising this exhibition and she had insisted on coming here. I was happy that people were liking the new idea. I had also worked till late last night for this. In short, I was supposed to be a volunteer!
I took her to the basement exhibition rooms, thinking that none of my batchmates would be there (handicrafts exhibition!), but as we moved down the stairs, I saw 'Harsh' coming up the stairs and he saw me!
"Where have you been? Sir is calling you, come fast." he said, gave me a who-is-she kind of look and left in a hurry.
"What is he saying, I don't understand? Is he your friend? Why is he in such a hurry?" she asked me so many questions.
"Yeah he is my friend and I didn't tell you one thing." I said as we entered one of the rooms in the basement section.
"What?" she said it in such a way that I felt like saying, "I think i've fallen in love with you!"
"That my college is organizing this whole exhibition and I should be helping till the event is not over."
"Then you should go and help. I will be fine looking around things, alone." she said and I realised that she was not happy that I had not told her this.
Suddenly, Bhanukiran came from nowhere and said to me, "What are you doing here? You should be..."
"Yeah I know that! I am helping." I said and gestured towards her, "Sorry ma'am I was unable to get your query. Too much interruptions." I said indicating Bhanukiran. I took her outside the room. I thought she would play along, but she pushed me aside, introduced herself and asked for his name.
"He's my batchmate." I said and she was not listening.
"I can't believe it." Suddenly Bhanukiran exclaimed, "I am a big fan of yours! I really like your work." I couldn't understand what was happening.
"I'm glad to hear that." she said and looked at me with disgust.
"What are you people talking about?" I asked in bewilderment, "Bhanu, what's the matter?"
"Don't you know?"
"No." I replied simply.
"She is an artist, an excellent painter." he said, "Her name was on the list of people whose paintings would be displayed."
"Her name was on the list, not her photo." He said and asked her, "Do you know him?"
"We are friends! We have... " I said.
"We were together in school." she interrupted me.
"Hey that's great." And then looking at her, he said, "Ma'am I am a great admirer of yours. Can I talk to you for sometime, just say 5 minutes. I am really excited about this!"
"Hey hey, are you both talking?" I looked at her and got no response. She wore a dirty look on her face for me.
"All right, I'm leaving. Are you guys talking? If yes, then i'm leaving. Are you talking?" I heard a feeble 'No' and she repeated it a few times. I climbed the stairs, crossed the entrance hall and was about to leave the building, when I saw someone in front of me call someone behind me. I turned back and saw her walking towards me. Her friend had come to this exhibition(i donno from where and why?!).
"I've come to pick you up. So, how was the general response? I'm sure you'd be a sensation. People have been talking about you and appreciating your work lately." her friend said.
"It was fine. Seems like some people just don't know what's happening around them." she said and turned to look at me.
I was frustrated at this and turned away. I heard her friend ask, "Do you know him? Is he a friend?"
Something got into me and I ran towards them. Panting, I said, "Yes, I am a friend and I promise I'd bring her back."
Her friend was puzzled and looked at her with inquiring eyes, with a look of what-do-you-want-to-do.
I said, "Please don't go away so early. We are meeting after 2 years and... I'm sorry if I have done something wrong. Please stay with me!"
Her friend had to drive back, alone.
"You never told me you were an artist. I thought you were always into science and more science." I exclaimed and rather excited about it.
"You should have known. I have been exhibiting a lot of my paintings lately and its' also in the news." she said coldly.
"I am new to this place! Today is my second day... and this building you see," I pointed towards the college building where the exhibition was going on. We were standing outside the gate.
"that building is not my college building. I have traveled 300 kms just to meet you, after I came to know that you were here. My college is organizing it, not hosting it. So don't think I never wanted to meet you in the last two years. I always wanted to meet you... and yeah, I hate reading newspapers!"
She wanted to say something but she didn't. Maybe she was feeling guilty for all the misunderstanding. I looked at her and as she turned to look at me, I looked at the trees (what an ass I was) !!
Finally a bus came and I asked him if he could accommodate us.
"Sorry, there's no space!"
"But I travel everyday in this bus?"
"Timings changed! No vacancy."
And so we didn't get any mode of transportation. Meanwhile we started talking about our lives and about past two years. It was great to be with her again.
After an hour, she said, "Would you mind walking?"
"Not at all," I said. It was getting dark and we walked on the pavement. I was surprised to find no vehicle on the road, except for those who had come to see the exhibition. But moving a little away, we did find a few auto-rickshaws and buses, but I guess she just wanted to walk and talk. I've always wanted this, always wanted to meet her again and spend maximum time with her. So we walked and walked and disappeared into the darkness.