Dreaming the truth

“Ok bye Aditi. Have a great weekend & happy Diwali.” I bid goodbye to my office mate as I was leaving office early to visit my home town for Diwali celebrations. I had also taken a few days leave to attend to few pending things there.

I reached home in about 15 mins where Nidhi, my wife had already finished packing and was waiting for me. I hit the bed after freshening up to straighten my back to get ready for the 6 hour drive. It took about an hour for us to hit the highway. Being the weekend just before Diwali, the roads were crowded like anything. Everybody seem to be heading home. People were taking whatever ride they could find. The buses were uniformly crowded inside and above the roof. Cars, Jeeps, Buses and autos- every vehicle seemed to be on the road that day. I couldn’t cross the 40 kmph on the 6 lane highway to Jaipur even 20 kms out from the city. This was making me a bit restless which Nidhi could make out from my gestures.  “Don’t panic dear, just go with the flow. Don’t Jump. We are in no hurry” Nidhi said.

As we crossed the first toll booth and entered my home state, the roads started getting clear. I was touching 60 kmph now but I wanted to quickly make up for the time we lost initially while wading through the huge crowd. So I started to accelerate. I was hitting 90 kmph in no time. The clean and clear highway was also in my favor.

Me and Nidhi were listening to our favorite Pakistani band and enjoying the drive when suddenly I saw an old villager crossing the highway wearing a red turban and white dhoti kurta with a lamb in his hand.  I was cruising at 95 kmph and I knew it was impossible to stop the vehicle. You have very little to do at such speed. The impact was unavoidable.  He was too close to apply sudden breaks and braking may could also make the car roll over. I just hoped him to pass through the road before the hit. I could feel the drops of sweat running down my spine. I geared down and was decelerating continuously but that wasn’t enough. It was doomed to happen. I hit him right from front of the car and he was thrown to other side of the road by the impact. The sheep wasn’t hurt much and ran into the fields but the old man was lying there beside the road crying for help. I didn’t know what to do. The highway was clean and clear with no vehicles visible. I first thought of running away but something didn’t let me and I stopped the car and went near the man. He was bleeding from mouth and moaning. I offered him water and apologised.  He drank some water and then stopped moving. I shouted, “Baba, jyada lagi kya?” But no reply. He was perhaps no more. It just took a split second and I started running towards my car.  I fired the engine and hit the road. Nidhi was crying during the whole drama and I was not in a position to console her. I drove like a dragster for about 50 kms before we took a halt for tea. She went to the loo and I was sitting with my head lying on the table and I didn’t realize when I got asleep.

“Wake up Honey. Its 6 in the morning. We need to leave for Jaipur. Yesterday evening also you slept and we couldn’t go”, Nidhi said in her sweet loving voice. I was in my bed in my Delhi home. Yes I was dreaming all that. I didn’t wake up after coming from office and Nidhi didn’t wake me up thinking that I was too tired to drive. I was all in sweat. She asked me what happened and I told her everything. She kissed me and softly dragged me out of the bed.

I got ready quickly, had a light breakfast and we hit the road at around 7 in the morning. The highway was clean and clear but I didn’t go beyond 80kmph. I was a bit skeptical and cautious. After driving for about 40 kms off the city I suddenly saw an old villager wearing a red turban with a baby sheep in his hand crossing the road. The one in my dream. The entire dream went through my eyes like a movie and my limbs felt jammed. I was dumbstruck and couldn’t move my hands. I lost all control over the car…

 

AnujShailGupt

PS: All kinds of feedback/comments are welcome.

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