Dream

The time is ten am. There is no one in the house. Ravi is all alone. His mind is wandering here and there. All through the previous night he couldn’t sleep a wink. His mind is busy thinking thoughts that can get him lynched if, by mistake also, he ends up sharing with anyone.

He is restless. He is helpless. He is powerless and has no clue as to how he should get rid of those ideas that have been tormenting him since past twelve hours.

Deepa is someone whom he cannot put out of his mind. Deepa is always in his thoughts no matter where he is and what he is doing. She has become such an infatuation that has, of late, begun to border on the obsession.

She is a sweet girl of twenty-five with an extraordinary smile that can light up the entire world. Her sparkling eyes are so beautiful that they can make you forget all your worries in an instant. Her voice is so sweet that it can heal any wounds without applying any ointment. She has all that a young guy like Ravi expects a modern girl to possess.

Killer looks with intelligence. Sense of humour with innocence. Sense of fashion with a touch of modernity. And much more.

The only unfortunate part of Ravi-Deepa saga is Deepa has no feelings for Ravi whatsoever. However, she is aware of Ravi’s feelings for her who, once upon a time, had tried his best to bring her around in vain.

The entire episode had ended up with a lot of heart burns and there is no way Ravi can seek redemption from whatever his persuasive skills had inflicted in a distant past.

Though Ravi pretends to have forgotten her, in his heart of hearts he still thinks her thoughts and firmly believes that the day is not far when Deepa is going to be in his arms. How that turn around can happen is one question the answer to which Ravi hopes to get through some mysterious way while he is fast asleep.

He has a firm belief whereas Deepa has stubborn nature.

After five years, previous evening Ravi and Deepa come face to face with each other in the most unexpected way. At a shopping mall, Ravi has gone to pick up some grocery items. To her surprise, he finds Deepa also there whom he fails to recognise initially as she has gained a little weight.

Ravi thinks that his memory is playing tricks on his mind and tries to dismiss the thought from his mind when Deepa’s phone blares out the ring tone “Mere mun yeah bata de tu, kis aur chala hai tu…”, she presses the answer button and whispers a sweet hello into her cell phone. Both the ring tone and that hello convince him that it is indeed Deepa whom he is seeing. The moment he realizes who is inches away from him, he loses the sense of time and place.

Ravi cannot recall what else she speaks into the phone as the sound of her soft hello transports him to a dream land where only Deepa and he live and for a living they do nothing. To while away their time they make love round the clock. And to quench their hunger and thirst they eat fruits and drink water from a stream flowing in their garden. When they grow bored, Ravi writes poems and romantic stories and reads them out to her. This is all they do in that dream land.

The dream lasts only a few minutes as he soon relises that he is in the way blocking movement of shoppers in the grocery section.

From the toiletry shelves, Deepa picks up soaps and shampoo bottle and heads to the billing counter. While walking past Ravi – whom she has noticed at last and is showing no signs of recognition let alone surprise – she hums sweetly “Thoda sa pyaar hua hai… thoda hai baaki……”

Ravi is losing his mind. He cannot believe what he hears. Is the song a covert message that she is ready for him now? Ravi gets a dull ache in his forehead and presses it with his fingers. He gets so overcome by what has happened just then that without shopping for anything he saunters out of the mall hoping to catch a glimpse of Deepa who too may be on her way out after paying.

There is no such thing waiting to happen as Ravi throws nervous glances around desperately searching for Deepa who is nowhere to be seen.

He gives up and goes home unable to get rid of the mini storm that unexpected run-in with Deepa rages on in his mind. She has changed completely. She has become more dignified with the passage of time. She is dressed up also so fashionably. Those white leggings and printed frock are making her look that way or has she really gained weight? All these thoughts keep racing across his mind as “thoda sa pyaar hua hai..thoda hai baaki” keeps reverberating in his head.

He cannot sleep however hard he tries. His mind keeps going back and forth to Deepa and her song. What does it mean? Who called her? Why that ring tone? Is she into some relationship? Has she found someone nice at last? Is she going to be happy  with him? What will happen to him? What will happen to his dreams? Will they remain merely dreams?

He keeps raking up his brains thinking all such torturous thoughts. He doesn’t know when he falls asleep.

In his sleep, he sees a dream. The ocean waves are rising and falling. The sun is burning into the sea. The beach is deserted. But somewhere far away there is a ship that looks like a tiny dot from the distance. Deepa and he are walking slowly in the direction where the ship is anchored.

She is wearing pink leggings with a black embroidered top. They are walking hand in hand. Their fingers are intertwined. The sweat beads keep appearing on Deepa’s forehead. From time to time Ravi wipes them with his handkerchief and kisses her forehead as they keep walking. In the background, “thoda sa pyaar hua hai….thoda hai baaki” is playing as the ocean waves rise and fall in perfect synchrony.

They both look content and perfectly at peach with each other. They are going away somewhere. The ship is waiting to take them on board. Once they climb into the ship, it will set sailing and transport them to a land where the pure love gets celebrated day in and day out.

Finally they reach where the ship is anchored. They look into each others’  eyes before climbing up into the ship. They smile and say I love you simultaneously to each other. When they realize what has happened, they laugh and start kissing each others’ lips. Now “thoda sa pyaar hua hai… thoda hai baaki…”. is playing at full volume.

At this juncture, Ravi’s dream comes to an end as he wakes up from the sleep sweating profusely. He looks at the time on his cell phone. It is four am. What is she doing right now? Is she also seeing the same dream as I saw just now? Has she also woken up sweating the way I did? He has no answers and only questions. Feeling frustrated he types out an email on his cell phone addressed to Deepa. It reads.

 Hello Deepa,

     I am extremely sorry for what happened five years ago. Can we bury the past and start talking once again? I promise to behave respectfully with you. Please trust me.

     Ravi.

He doesn’t have the courage to send that email so he discards the draft.  He tries to return to sleep.

Next day it is five minutes past ten am as he sits at a plastic chair in the living room staring at the TV screen that is not turned on. He doesn’t know how to get rid of that mental state. He hopes secretly that it will leave him alone soon so that he can get up and go to the duty.

He has lost appetite. He just wants to sit in silence as the words “thoda sa pyaar hua hai….thoda hai baaki” keep playing somewhere in the background.

The door bell rings. He gets up unwillingly to open the door expecting the milk man. When he opens the door, he cannot believe what he sees.

Deepa is standing and smiling that powerful smile capable of melting the whole snow mountain. Before Ravi can pull himself together, she says, “Hello, good morning. Can I step in for a minute?”

Ravi steps aside to let her in without speaking a word. The same brand of perfume from five years ago she is wearing. Her choice has remained unchanged.

Ravi closes the door behind and turns around to see Deepa already seated on his plastic chair. He walks past her to the refrigerator to fetch her water. While pouring the water into a glass from the bottle, he nervously looks in the direction of Deepa who is staring at the screen of the switched off TV with a remote in her hand. She is wearing those pink leggings and black embroidered top from the dream.

Ravi’s heart is beating fast. The whole situation feels surreal.

Finally he is standing in front of her holding the glass of water. He wants to smile at her but cannot bring himself to smile. He is way too nervous for that.

She holds his hand that is holding the glass of water and says, “Ravi, now I realize that how much you love me.” She goes on after blinking at him naughtily,  “I cannot live without you. I want to be your friend, soul-mate and take a long walk down some sunny beach. You can text message and call me any time and become my friend on FB. You can even talk to me in private. I won’t breathe one word about it to anyone. Now come on. Stop having that far away look on your face and smile at me.”

The time comes to a standstill as these words strike against Ravi’s ear drums and then go on to reverberate in his head. She takes the glass from his hand, gulps the water down. While handing him back the glass, she closes his eyes and starts singing softly, “Thoda sa pyaar hua hai….. thoda hai baaki…..”

The End.