I had a strange dream

I had a strange dream.

In fact I think dreams play a significant role in my life. Not sure if it's special to have spiritual dreams, but I feel different whenever I have these spiritual dreams. What is even stranger is the fact that I clearly remember each and every aspect, as is, whenever I have such dreams.

I recently had a strange spiritual dream. Back in school, I was participating in this event wherein a few of us had to come forth and narrate a few lines of this prayer. I was the first to go...dressed in white, I was frantically mugging up, from my notebook, the few lines I had to narrate. We were then called upon to queue up as our performance was to start. And it did...I walked up to the stage and stood in the middle, with the spotlight on myself, completely blank. I had forgotten my lines! What should I do...I was thinking fast. Should I just make up something and say it. Just when I was racing my thoughts to the best escape route, Mrs. Manhorahan, our principal who was late for the event walked in with the Chief Guest and told us to restart. I sighed and rushed backstage, where my mom was waiting. I urgently asked her to get me the notebook where I had jotted the prayer. She rushed and got it. We quickly scanned each page and no prayer. We looked again...nothing. I asked others but they just had their own few lines, which they had to narrate. Mrs. Manhorahan walked in backstage. I tried to put a brave smile so she couldn't sense the panic. She sat down and wrote a few lines...she handed over the paper to me then and asked me to narrate those lines after I had narrated the prayer.

I looked at what she handed me. It said...

Hey bhagwaan, mujhe shakti, shukti, tripti aur mukti pradaan karein.

And I woke up with these lines echoing in my mind. I wonder what significance do these lines hold. I am intrigued and bewildered.

Strange, very strange.

Alka Singh Chauhan

As heavy duty the name might sound, I always remembered and will remember her as the tiny, chirpy and extremely adorable AND huggable girl (even though I hate pdoa, she is just so adorable).

When I saw her after 12 years in her diva avatar, one thing was just the same...she was still sitting small and meek in the corner like in the classroom. In school, she was always the short, cute little girl who no teacher even dared to scold as she came across as so vulnerable. Even though we were not the best of buddies(or wait we were not even buddies) in school but here we are and this is us. We landed in the same team after so many years to become the best of chums. But those golden days lasted but a few months till her team was changed. Gosh! It felt like they changed my best friend's class section...

Nevertheless,our breaks are always together. The day starts with an ode to each other to be followed with a frothy, steaming and lovely cappuccino seducing us with its fresh bean aroma (ok, this isn't about cappuccino but both of us just love it). It's never any other way and the day when it is, our mood is completely spoilt. Chittering chattering, the coffee breaks are over soon too soon and followed by gossip on messenger or even animated conversations on office extension (a lot of times about school). A day in office is never complete without her. She makes me feel connected to the past long gone and brings back that girlie sparkle.
As life rolls by, I hope we keep in touch. But all in all, my piece of advice. Never burn your bridges because you never know who might turn to be your closest buddy tomorrow. So here's to Alka Singh Chauhan ;)