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Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Memories of a night


The sun had gone down giving twilight its way…the birds were flying back post a tire-some day. I was returning home after an overdose of play, tired and tottered in my own thoughts, I chose to take the shorter and more obscure route to home this time.

Trudging down the railway tracks filled me with a weird sense of joy and after all trains and its entire paraphernalia form a part of a child’s memories atleast back here in India. But there was one thing that I have always hated in life…so much so that till date I have never come to terms with it….An eerie silence and an unnatural loneliness.

Nevertheless, the thought that the station lay ahead, made me take the road less travelled.

On my way I saw a dog walking on the tracks along side me…Not minding it at all and considering it as a company I chose to walk with even more aplomb…..and suddenly the signal on the post ahead changed….this re-arranged the railway tracks and the dog’s leg got stuck between the two. To our (mine and the dog’s) dismay the change in the signal was for a train to pass and within no time both of us saw a train approaching us with full vigour. The dog was helplessly pushing itself trying to get its feet out and when it failed consistently, it submitted itself to me. Now the creature was helplessly looking at me and something in the nature told the dog that I was the bigger and the smarter creature around and so I could save it. I tried everything under me to help him take his feet out…even shouted for help but nothing would change the fate that had already been written for the dog…The train came closer and closer and the dog was looking at me for mercy….I tried the last time to no result and then had to move back to save myself…..The train blew the thing away into pieces!!!!!

The train had passed but the sound of the horn still reverberated in my ears and the smoke was still visible even from a considerable distance.

I did not have the guts to look back and was startled in fact bemused and stunned at the way the things unfolded before me….Although it was a dog but had been my companion even for a couple of minutes and after all I had seen a death….and the fact that hit me even more harder was how we human beings become a victim to our own desires and how at times we are as helpless as other creatures around.
I mustered some courage and held my posture back and started walking…this time faster to reach the station so as to counter the thoughts with people around. But I could hear faint footsteps walking alongside me. I dare not look anywhere but straight and walked even faster…..The sound of the footsteps became even stronger and I had no choice but to look towards my right……It was the same dog who had been walking along side me……

I was surprised to see the dog again especially after having seen it being brittled into pieces in front of my own eyes.

In all this confusion I never realized that I had myself been walking on the tracks this time and when I did realize, the signal on the post had already changed to make way for another passing-by train, thereby re-arranging the tracks and locking my feet this time.

The train was nearing me with all its speed and I was doing everything under the sun to pull the feet out….The dog was looking at me and I was numb now….knowing that death was certain…I didn’t know what to do….The train was within a few metres now….and the dog moved back…..I closed my eyes….and it was complete darkness thereof……The last thing I could remember was how the train thrust itself upon me.

I opened my eyes and it was still dark…..I wanted to know whether it was hell or heaven……None: was the realization. I was still in my own world….on my own bed.

Never realized why this weird dream happened to me…..first the dog undergoing a sequence of events only to realize that I too will undergo the events in the same fashion…may be to highlight the value of life and the way we spend it.

Nevertheless it was a chilly winter night and I preferred to think less and continue my tryst with my sleep.

P.S: The above mentioned account bears resemblance to a piece that I had read somewhere and happened to me a few days back in my dream….So today while deciding what to blog on, I took this as a matter. Writing everything according to what I had read somewhere loooong back (forgotten where) and it was in my subconscious mind and so re-appeared as a night-mare a couple of days back.