Last night was very restive one...for once I remembered my dream...may be it was the exhaustion of staying caffeneited and uptight in the Falk library reading mundane books on Infectious diseases...or maybe the effect of the walk in the Highland park area in the chilly October air ...or for once, let me be straight forward...Yes, it could have been the effect of the tired legs not accustomed to the strain of thinking out aloud!
I was tranported to the realms of Douglas' Hitchhiker's ride to the galaxy and was placed on a ball of fire asking to choose between hitching a ride with my wife or my father. Strangely I chose to ride with my father..and after a bumpy ride, we landed somewhere in the midst of my adolescence on an known territory ( where else, but my almamater, St. Paul's High School, Hyderabad). We were again asked by the ball of fire to choose the roles we each had to play...I chose to be myself for a change and Daddy had to follow suit to be an observer. He was invisible to others and seen only by that eternal flame which guided our journey from 2008 to somewhere in 1988.
Time machines have seldom the habit of staying for us to catch up with them, but, in this case, we could choose to stay on in 1988 or fly back to our current destinations. Dad wanted to see me in his new role of observership and rightfully, I wanted to end this shoddy operation as soon as possible.
Along came the teacher who always used to harass me for being a laid back back bencher etc..( who seldom answers in the class, but who scores well in the examinations). He started to prod me to read me the verse on Panchatantra (the jackal and the drum story, which in a nut shell, talks about fear and the conquer of it by people who investigate and find out the source of fear). The stammering was about to start again, but seeing my Dad stand there in the classroom, I somehow lost my fear and recited the whole verse without any more hurdles. Dad listened to my recitation and immediatley summoned his power to quit when wanted ( remember that the ball of fire gave us those powers)...
Strangely , it took me the whole of 20 waking years ( 1998-2008)to find him waiting just where we took off...he was waiting for me to come to him. The moment I reached him, the ball of flame left and we were left standing and facing the current turmoils. After a moment's hesitation, I asked him as to why he orphaned me and left me alone in that school setting. His benevolent eyes had the answer and the response was just the same. This time he handed me a paper and walked slowly away into the setting sun with the instructions to open the paper just as the sun came out alive the next day...
Well I must have been very sleepy for these 20 years to find the waking sun already up the next day. Bright sunshine, unheard of in Pittsburgh in October was staring at me...I missed the bus again...What must have been in that paper??
I have ask my Dad for the answer...
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