Its quite muddled, this small bit. He or she asks us if we came by a bike or a car. Now, we are getting out of the house.Both yer mom and dad are dressed to go out. Mom will be driving our car, to the petrol pump. Dad has to go somewhere, in his car. As she gets into the car, I can feel you creeping up behind me. I know you are behind, I know you know I'm drunk. I'm trying to stay steady and not sway. I think the reason why your mom is taking our car and not us is coz we are too tipsy to drive, still. As she enters the car, I can see our bike inside the car. In the front seat. She doesn't say anything about it. We don't. Elephant in the porch?
She drives away. Now there's three of us. There's conversation. No ill-will. I can't place what the conversation is but after sometime we start getting worried coz we don't hear from your mom. The fear grows, and is unspoken.
Now, I don't know how it reached here. But, I have a backpack and both of you have disappeared along with the entire setting. I'm running. With all earnestness. I love running. I don't know if I'm trying to escape from someone or something, but I love it. I love running. Covering distances in shorter spans of time. I'm running on a railway track. The third one from left. There are a few more to my right, but these are at smaller levels. As in, the track I'm on is slightly above ground level. And the view to either side is nice, not the dingy and cramped city railway track setting. But a more scenic and relaxed countryside-like place.
I keep looking back to make sure there are no trains approaching. Maybe I should run on the last track, the farthest track to the right. Now there's a train on the first track. To the left. I wonder whether running between the tracks is the best option if one were left with no option but to run on a railway track. This approaching train, I want to beat it to the station. The station isn't a passing one. Its the last station. The end station. The trains break abruptly and come to a halt in front of the walls. See Chennai Central. And I run and beat this train, to the station. Once there, I jump atop the wall and onto the platform. I see a ramp. Everyone takes it, I take it. It ascends leftwards, comes to a landing. Then ascends rightwards. Its when I reach halfway through the rightward ascend I realise its not a ramp. They are actually small boats, stacked together to resemble a ramp. Every piece of the ramp has an owner. The small-changaadam owner. Immediately as the ramps are full, we are on a waterway. The station isn't connected to a land. Its on water.
And you need boats to get you to the countryside. And people like the one whose in charge of the boat I'm in, ferry people to the countryside. The boat-man rows fast. Very fast. There's a competition between other boat-men. Its their means of living. Every second they save is money I spose. I turn my head to the right mostly. Its unbelievable. I can draw you the scenes I take in. See Kerala countryside waterway. Its like a semi-tamed forest. The water we are on, is green and opaque. He tells us this is the cleanest form of water and there's nothing to be afraid of, no lurking monsters beneath that is. Actually, the most breathtaking view is when I face him. That's when the entire horizons, the one to my left and the one to my right, merge.
And we reach the end of waterway. Now its funny coz there is a Shamiana. A wedding. Its like he has ferried me to a wedding and not a countryside. A wedding situated in an island surrounded by green water. Perhaps thats where everyone in the station was coming to. A big fat wedding. I go through the shamiana. There is an opening in the tent, at the north-west corner, facing me. Immediately in front of the opening is another opening to another tent. There's perhaps a distance of four people between the tents. I take a right, I don't enter the second tent. I take the small intermediate passageway. And I'm suddenly worried. I miss sandals on one of my leg. I'm worried and look behind only to see its just a few paces behind, in between the openings. As I go to pick it up, I'm worried. Have I lost my backpack or is it with me?
I decide I have the backpack. I decide I kept it close to me when I was on the ferry-boat. When he said those things about the water I was tugging at it, keeping it close to me. And now, I can feel the weight of the bag on my shoulders. Yes, I have it alright. And I walk through the passage, hoping to find an exit. Briefly catches glimpse of some dame attending the wedding. Happy people, busy people. People who aren't holding back anything. Finally, there is a way out, to my right, onto the paradise.
I enter it, hoping to be flanked by green countryside, with coconut trees and the hustle and bustle of a small town. Instead, I enter a dusk. Or a dawn. There is nobody around. The air hangs around, quiet, comfortable and still. To my right, could be a 100 meters after which there is a small wall. More like a small fortress. I can feel I'm on a cliff. Its a big kokka post this fortress. To my left, its the country-side. Dark and quiet though. The forest is a big presence, I can feel the huge dark shadows looking down on me from my left. It could actually be a good set for a TV serial ede, now that I think of it. I keep climbing small flights of steps. First to my left, three. Then walks onwards for a few feet, then another flight to the right, a higher count of steps. I look for a resort I could camp at. There is one I see. Its actually in front, but beneath the steps. Its like the steps are like flyovers. There will be a way to reach there, me-knows.
Anyway, I keep climbing until I reach a landing, the highest. Its not a pedestal, but more like a courtyard. And I see, ede, I see me. I see me, with my backpack, standing at the courtyard. My eyes look at the tiny me, from across the deep valley, from the another mountain. I realise its a dream, perhaps I always knew it was a dream. But I never woke up. I still was in the dream. I knew I was. It was liberating, not having to wake up and yet know you are in a dream. And then, I'm me, the one standing at the courtyard. I levitate, higher and higher. I won't fall. I'm the bloody God of this place. I levitate and see the entire geography. I make the geography. I make more and more dots of houses appear across different mountains and the plains beyond. I make the land inhabited, full of life. I'm the architect, I light up the houses, the farthest ones in view, beyond the mountainous areas, in the plains. I decide there can't be any more sweeter a dream I could have, nor fulfilling. I decide its time to wake up.
