Saturday, March 15, 2014

Truth is stranger than fiction

Reality:

Thursday, February 27th 2014. Seattle. I was feeling very tired physically, and stressed out mentally. Life on both professional and personal fronts had been very stressful the past few days and there were no signs of things relenting over the next few days/weeks. Late evening that day, I closed my eyes momentarily. But I was so tired that I fell asleep instantaneously. So instantaneously in fact, that it felt as if I'd been given a bout of anesthesia. 
Like when in a disturbed sleep or when under the effect of anesthesia, it felt as if I was periodically waking up. But did not feel totally conscious in the half asleep mode, and was in a zombie state about what was happening around me.

Then, probably, I had a dream.

Dream:

After having slept tired the previous evening, I woke up totally conscious from my sleep, the next morning .... but guess what, I was no longer in Seattle. In fact I was no longer in the US. I was in India with my parents and family! I glanced at the calendar, it was Saturday the 1st of March. I had somehow skipped one day ... Feb 28th. Was I asleep for more than 24 hours! Surely that can't be true. I pinched myself (as someone had constantly been asking me to :) ), to do a reality check. But heck, this was real .... I was indeed in India, it felt. 

The next one week I was in India. All of a sudden, there was no pressure of work. I was on vacation. Ate great food, watched fun movies, traveled distant places ..... and moreover, met great people! Felt as loved, pampered, cared-for as never before. Life was perfect, a fairy tale, it seriously cannot get better than this I thought. I was having the time of my life. Was turning out to be the best vacation I'd had for a long, long, long time! Way better than even the best of my previous vacations where I would go travelling/sight seeing to different parts of the globe!

But fairy-tales don't last forever. I glanced at the calendar. It was Saturday March the 9th. Overwhelmed by the unexpected happenings of the past one week, I closed my eyes to soak in the moment. And again, I felt asleep. Sometimes you can't get sound sleep when you're too tired. Then there are some other times when you can't sleep in peace because you're just too happy and excited. With me, this time round, it was the later case. I'd fell asleep for sure but it was not a sound sleep. I was periodically getting awake, but again, in a zombie state about what was happening around me.

Then, probably, things got back to reality.

Reality:

My alarm went off. And I woke up totally conscious, but confused. I looked around to figure out where I was and, expectedly, I was not in India. I was at home in Seattle. The dream was over. But it felt like a long night, where a lot of things had happened. I was feeling good and it felt like life was different right now from when I had closed my eyes and gone to sleep the previous evening.

But anyway, I glanced at the clock .... it was 6 in the morning. Was time to get ready and go to work and brace for a hectic day/week/month ahead. Was time to get back to the real world!

Things seemed to be normal after that, I was out of the hangover of the last night and was kind of over the dream and not thinking too much about it. But then, just as I was sipping my morning coffee, my eyes went to the calendar. And I was shell shocked. The calendar showed Monday, March 10! What the heck, I thought, and I pinched myself .... again ... and again .... and again .... and again ..... but yes, it was Monday, March the 10th 2014 after I'd momentarily closed my eyes and fell asleep on Thursday February the 27th 2014!

It was then that I finally came to grips with, and accepted, the situation. The week from March 1 to March 8 in India was not an illusion! Yes, it was fairy-tale-ish. Yes, it was dream like. But it was not a dream. It was a reality. That week had indeed happened in my life! And it was unbelievably unbelievable. It was fantastically fantastic. It was a week that I would never forget in life.

I was amazed at how ridiculously easy it has become to move from one corner of the world to another, and back, in such short time. I then re-thought and re-lived the happenings of the past week for a few moments, laughed at my own disbelief, finished my coffee and started driving to work.  As I was about to reach office, my phone rang. And it gave me yet another reality check that life was indeed starting on a new page now :) .... truth is indeed stranger than fiction, I wondered.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Zinda hoon yaar kaafi hai ....

Mere haathon hua jo kissa shuru, usse poora to karna hai mujhe ....
Kabra par mere, sar utha ke khadi ho zindagi .... aise marna hai mujhe ....
Kuchh maangna baaki nahi, jitna mila kaafi hai ....
Zinda hoon yaar kaafi hai ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWtDLQY_p4Y