The Dream……

Surendra was scared. It’s not that he got scared today. He has been living in fear for the past one week. It’s this dream that is bothering him. He wants to forget the dream, but that is not possible because it’s a recurring dream. The worst part is, the dream is an incomplete one. He has not got a message as yet. He waits to hear a message but that has not happened so far. He is unable to focus in his work. He is unable to sleep. He has not slept in ages, because of this silly dream. Navratri celebrations began. The entire household is busy in preparation, but Surendra could not make himself feel happy. Usually he is a happy guy. Well, there is a secret behind his feeling happy every day. However, these days, he could not even make himself forget all the worries and focus on that ‘happy thing’ in his life. What’s going on, he had no clue.

Navratri started. The dream continued. The first night of Navratri, he shivered in his dream. His wife felt something strange and woke up. She was shocked to find Surendra sweating. She immediately poured water from the jug in a glass and sprinkled some on Surendra. Surendra woke up with a start. Surekha, Surendra’s wife, gave him the glass of water and said, ‘ What happened? Are you okay? Shall we go to a doctor? Is your chest hurting or are you feeling sick? Drink water. Please.’ Surendra gulped the entire glass of water at one go and sat there. He then said, ‘Surekha, I am fine. It’s just this dream that is troubling me for a long time now. I want to forget this dream and get some sleep, but I can’t sleep.’ Surekha listened to him patiently and said, ‘ What dream? Tell me.’ Surendra said, ‘ Well, it is an incomplete dream. Everyday I see a strange structure. I just get a glimpse. I feel it wants to tell me something and warn me of something. But then, it disappears. I need to know what it wants to tell me. I don’t want to die. Does it want to tell me that I will die soon? I don’t know Surekha. I am so scared.’ Surekha patted Surendra’s back and said, ‘ Now now, don’t think anything negative. It’s just a dream. Dreams never come true. By the way, can you tell me something about the image that you see in your dream? I mean how does it look like?’ Surendra shivered and said, ‘ It’s vague. Hazy picture. But, it’s huge. I don’t know, but, the shape of that image is weird. I mean the top portion seems huge, tapering towards the feet. The image wants to warn about something. If only I knew what.’ Surekha got off the bed, went to the closet and got a towel. She then soaked it in cold water and dabbed Surendra’s face. She said, ‘See, this is the season for pious festivals. We have Navratri going on. Then we have Vijaya Dashami/Dussehra. I am sure, whatever you are dreaming of has something nice to do with your life. If that image is warning you of something, in these days itself, you will get to know. Maybe that image wants to save you from something. I am sure you will get to know soon. I have faith in my God. My husband will never suffer. I will pray to my Almighty so that very soon you get to know the reason behind your scary dream.’ Surendra listened quietly, drank one more glass of water and tried to get back to sleep.

Days passed. Surendra was still unable to sleep because of that scary dream. Today it is Maha Navami and tomorrow Dussehra. Surendra made up his mind. Since it is Dussehra tomorrow, today he will find out the meaning of this scary dream and tomorrow he will kill the devil and he must do it.

Before going to sleep, he prayed to Almighty and said, ‘Whoever has been coming to my dream, please show me the real image and let me know the real message.Tomorrow, I will put an end to that Devil.’ Surendra then drifted off to sleep. After couple of hours, the dream started.The strange image came. In his dream, Surendra yelled, ‘Who are you? Why are you troubling me? What do you want?’ The image replied, ‘ I want you to be safe. I don’t want you to be in pain. Hence, I come here every day to warn you.’ Surendra shouted, ‘ Then why don’t you make yourself visible. Who are you? What warning? What is it that you want to save me from?’. The image said, ‘Wait, I will make myself visible. See me.’ The image made itself perfectly visible. Surendra was shocked. The image continued, ‘ Whatever fate I had to go through, I don’t want you to go through the same fate. Raghav is back. You know he is a boxing champion. He won the Gold Medal in the olympics. Stay safe Surendra. I had faced the consequences once. You know what it is. I won’t trouble you again. I hope you understood what I wanted to say.’ Surendra was speechless. The image vanished. He understood every word of the image. It is Dussehra tomorrow. If the image had not warned him, maybe he would have had to bear the consequences. But, now, he knows he had to get things right. Yes, he will. He does not want to bear the same fate as the image of his scary dreams.

Today was Dussehra. Surendra, even for once did not go the balcony of their house. Otherwise, Surendra used to spend most of his valuable time there. Because, from there, he could stare at something that made him happy. His ‘Happy thing’. His gorgeous neighbour Mithila. From today he promised himself never to do that because the image in his dream had warned him that messing with someone else’s wife can lead to death. The image was none other than ‘Ravana’ who was killed by Rama for messing with Sita. Mithila’s husband was Raghav, who is a boxing champion. Surendra did not want to die for he knew if Raghav knew that Surendra left no stone unturned to look at Mithila from the balcony, Raghav would definitely kill Surendra.