My Dream last night
The world had been put together in a hurry. Curtains and circuits. Planks and pipes. Disorganised and functional. A Mega-event was coming up and I was one of the main organisers. Everything was a mess. Posters had to painted and put up and Jenny and Malu were not being much of a help. They were just giggling around. Finally I tore up the To-Do list and gave up on that bit of the job and went off to the next area where I drew the curtain and turned a knob to turn on the shower and take a bath. Sanghamitra Bannerji, a fellow student at school who I have never given a thought to since, was also there under another shower.
In another part of the dream, Ruchira and I were supposed to perform a dance in front of a large audience. It was the event that we had been preparing for. She and I were in costume-like pink Apsara dresses with golden borders and lots of stiff pleats. I was with my SGPGI friends, far at the back in the audience, when I had to run onstage and start performing. With miserable co-ordination and the typical Bollywood dance steps, we were somehow getting through the performance; suddenly there was a commotion in the audience. Soon it was a riot scene and we ran backstage, backstage being a few wooden planks put together to build a shack.
In the next scene in my dream, it was morning after the night of the dance and the riot. I awoke, stumbled over something and walked to a chink in the wall. I looked outside and it was all deserted and desolate. Dead bodies lay around, smoke arose from quietening fires. I went to the door to step outside. Two people with rifles approached the door from the other side and I dropped immediately, pretending that I was dead. When they were gone, I stepped outside.
On stepping outside I found it a cold morning. There was a large lake. The sky and the lake were blue and grey. Many boats with colourful flowers in them went by with boatmen wearing caps, pepper-coloured beards, kind and light eyes, lined faces and huge phirans/kaftans. I was in a grey sweater with a red collar (Yes, I remember!) and had black hair with big curls. My arms were crossed to keep me from feeling cold. I went on a little further and asked one of the boatmen if I could take a ride.
I sat on the nose of the boat and felt the wind, peace and serenity blow across my face and over the flowers in the boat behind me. It was still early morning and I was in Kashmir.
Crash Dream
One day ago I had a dream. It was a long one - at least 2 hours if we estimate dream lengths correctly.
There was a huge crowd. I was with my sister. And I looked up to see an aeroplane crash. Just like that. That was the horror of it, that it should happen so simply, in one go. It was one plane made up of two planes. It carried lots and lots of passengers. Even that wing area joining the two blue parts of the plane was a square seating area.
The plane crashed very close by, behind the building. Just close enough for us to be safe from the emissions. Not many people saw it happen. They only realized it when it did. I happened to look up and see the whole thing. I wanted to scream and say STOP! but what difference would that have made? The rest of the nightmare was about running and hiding in places - I dont know why.
And then I woke up. Sadly, with no one close by and a lot of silence, the dream did not get out of me until I went down to the cafetaria an hour later. Students were laughing and talking. Lots of jelly and heaps of pasta were being worked through. The dream got out of me finally. Phew!
And the next day I saw a helicopter flying low, near the Toronto skyscrapers and i decided to set my eyes back on the paperwork I was at.