Wednesday, August 23, 2023

A dream and an incident I want to record for life

People talk of miracles and surreal experiences. I haven't have any. But there have been two things I would like to remember in my life. when I was pregnant in year 2002-2003, I don't remember the month though, we used to live in our flat in Prasanth Nagar, West Fort, Trivandrum. My husband's salary was not huge then and I practically did not get anything from my family at the time of wedding. My in-laws had renovated the flat and furnished the house for us to live. starting from a spoon to a Television set Amma had bought everything for us. Except for a cot. That's because I insisted on sleeping on the floor on the a mattress and had convinced my husband about it. We eventually made a cot for ourselves towards the end of my pregnancy when it became difficult for me to sit down and get up from floor. As it happens during pregnancy, I used to get up during night to relieve myself several times. One night, soon after we went to bed, I felt the need for urination. I opened the door and saw a pair of shining eyes moving in the dining space, which was only a few feet from our bedroom. I closed the door and called Manu to come and see. Through the half open door we saw those shining eyes. "It's a marapatti (a civic cat)". Manu whishpered. " Must have come to eat fruits". We switched on the light. There was no trace of any animal in the dining area. As far as I remember (it happened 20 years back!) there was no fruit on the dining table and all the doors and windows were closed. The only possibility was to enter through the ventilator opening. That seemed unlikely as it was very small in size. We kept wondering about the possibility. But there was no other explanation. How did it come? It did not happen again. At least nobody saw a civic cat again in that house. It did occur to me a couple of time whether it was an omen, good or a bad whatsoever, to see a black civic cat during pregnancy. ----------------- I had a dream one night. Next morning when I woke up, I clearly remembered what I saw in my dream. I still remember to this day. I saw a temple on the road side. There was a gate and it was wide open. The floor was rough and cement plastered and dust coloured. burning earthen lamps were kept on the floor. The deity was Kali, blue in colour and red tongue out. She was standing inside a cave like niche 10-12 feet above the floor. it was like the temple was part of a hill. One side of the hill was cut to make a temple for the goddess. In the dream, Manu and I have gone to this temple. I saw Manu wearing Nana's tussar matha-panji and praying to the goddess. I tell him to be carefull and not to stamp on the burning lamps. Then I see Nana in stead of Manu. I woke up the next morning and thought about my dream. I vividly remembered what I saw. I had another dream the next day. I saw myself in Pondicherry sitting with Jayanti Apa. I was telling her about my dream. Once again I went through the same sequence and scenes as I was narrating the dream to her. It was like having the same dream twice. The place in my dream seemed familiar. But I can't remember where it exactly is. If I have gone to such a place, I don't remember. The temple is at a bend on a road. one has to climb a set of steps to reach the deity. As we enter, there is a place to keep our sleepers and a place where lamps are sold. People buy and light lamps on the left side of the stair case.