23rd August 2013, Morning

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

18th Sept 2013, Late Morning

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

30th June 2013, Late Morning

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

24th April 2013, Late Morning

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

3rd March Late Morning

I saw myself at a shop where I was buying fruits. I was to give a demonstration on how to make fruit salad or some fruit dish. I stood there trying to decide which fruits to buy. I took a lot of things into consideration, like the ease of cutting the fruit and laying it in the assortment, the shape in which I'll cut it will that look good, etc. I saw myself imagining cutting slices of apple, pineapple and pieces of watermelon and other fruits and laying it properly for display.
I think this dream was fusion of two things: first being that I was supposed to present a poster in R&D showcase at IIIT-H the next day, that I didn't do eventually, second being that in Capital IQ in cafetaria floor we get assorted fruits in a plastic bowl for one snacks coupon and all fruits I saw in my dream were amongst those fruits only.
So while I was deciding on which fruits to buy, my friends who had been waiting for me while sitting inside that shop on a bench (atul, rishi, sachin etc.) got irritated and started shouting at me to quickly make my choice. Suddenly I got a call from Lakshman (the DB team manager). It seemed like a conference call. I 'hello'ed a few times but nobody responded while I heard them discussing something amongst themselves. I cut the call. Then I saw my father come to that shop, buy some fruits and without even noticing my presence walked away. It was as if I didn't exist!
Next moment I saw myself faintly waking up in my bed. I heard Rishi, Atul and others walk into the house, and Rishi commenting, "Sainu has become very careless. He bought the fruits but didn't bring it home. I think he needs help. Please take care of him."

1st January 2012 Late Morning

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

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?