And The Dream Came True

Few years ago, I used to get a dream very often. I even told this to my wife and we both used to wonder about this, why such a dream.

The dream was:

After finishing my shopping or meeting with someone, I return to my car which is parked in the nearby parking. I open the door, sit on the driver’s seat and close the door. Meanwhile, some local guy has opened the passenger side front door, comes inside and occupies the seat. I do not have a clue, who that man is and why is he there?

When I try to talk to him, without answering anything he just tells me “move”. I just do not know, what exactly he wants. I try to tell him to get out of the car, but he simply refuses. He does not move out of the car. I am totally confused and bit scared too. He is only talking in his local language, which I do not understand. At the same time, I try to talk in English and also in Hindi, my native language, which I think he understands a little but does not show, and keeps on saying something in his local language. I am completely lost and then suddenly awake.

And it happened:

It was 6th October 2008 Monday night. My wife was coming from USA. Her flight was scheduled to land at around 22.40 hrs. I left home at around 22.20 hrs, to reach airport latest by about 23.00 hrs. I knew that passport control and collecting luggage etc will take atleast another 30 to 40 minutes. That was just fine to pick her up well in time. While driving, I was thinking about her, how she could have managed at Detroit and then Amsterdam airports. Specially, how bad was her knee joints pain, as she has severe arthritis. With all these thoughts, I braked my car on one of the round about as signal light was red. My car was first in the row and in centre lane.

As usual, many people were hurriedly crossing the road. And then in this crowd, I saw a local man walking along bit slowly and little shaky too. However, instead of crossing the road, he approached my car. Before I could realise what was happening, without even the eye contact, he simply opened the passenger seat front door, came inside and sat down. I was stunned. I had no clue, who that man was and why was he there? He casually told me “move”.

As soon as he opened his mouth to say move, a strong liquor smell came out from his mouth. The guy was drunk. I tried to explain to him that I had no time to go anywhere else. I must reach airport urgently as my wife’s flight was expected to land in 10 minutes. She would be waiting at airport and looking for me. But all in vain and the guy would not listen anything. He kept on repeating “move”. I tried to convince him few times that I was not able to help him out, but no use.

I realised that the guy was drunk but still he could talk and he could walk. He was in reasonable shape to catch a taxi. Probably, he was just trying to use his local power, as he was wearing local robe. Finally I had to tell him, I am sorry for not being of any help to you, but leave my car and look for a taxi. I even hinted to open the car door. He did not like this and started shouting in his own language. He even started to throw his hands around and in the process dislodged my Ganesha statue, which I had fixed on dashboard. And then, suddenly he opened the car door and got down.

I was really praying hard for signal light to turn green, but felt like it was taking ages. After getting down, the guy closed the car door with all the force, he could muster. He repeatedly kept on saying “I don’t like you”. He was very angry. However, he then slowly walked to the other end of the road and kept on saying something in his language. For a second I thought, probably the agony was over.

No way. There was more to follow.

The signal light was still red. The guy kept on staring at me and then he came again. Firstly he banged the car bonnet with his fist and then he banged the windshield. I was completely shaken up and really scared to hell. What was he trying to do? The car might get damaged but the worst if he hurt himself. Certainly police will get involved and then court case etc. Luckily he was unhurt and also no damage to the car. But really the whole thing was too scary.

All the people either crossing the road or sitting in nearby cars were looking at this fully stunned. No one even dared to come nearby and tell him to stop all this nonsense. I knew it very well that only external help could come from that almighty. Otherwise, because of a local guy involvement, no one would like to get into police hassle etc. The guy opened the car door again and closed with a big bang.

Once again, the guy slowly walked to the other end of the road mumbling something. For few seconds he stood there and then he turned back once more. This time he came and stood in front of the car. I expected the traffic signal to go green anytime but how to move. This guy stood there and kept on mumbling something in his language.

And then, the signal went green. Nearby vehicles started moving. The vehicles behind me started honking. This movement disturbed the guy’s mood and he moved a little to side. Finally my prayers were heard. Without waiting even for a second, I pressed the accelerator and zoomed ahead to airport. I just wanted to run away as early as possible from this place. After picking up my wife from airport, when I told her about my ordeal, she was also shocked.

Even now, whenever I have to cross that spot for something or other, the whole incident comes in front of my eyes.