Where am I coming from?

My home is very near to seashore. One day me and my family and few other relatives went to the beach in the evening. The sky was dark bluish in color. The full moon looked so near yet so far in the center of the sky spreading a silver mat on the sea. And we were sitting exactly in the path of moonlight. Suddenly, the sound and sight of tides stopped and the sea looked calm. The view of the sea at that moment is still there in my mind. Suddenly, the sea got disturbed. It looked as if someone was moving like a snake under the silver mat on the sea. It bulged and soon emerged like a big dinosaur or something of that sort and was fast approaching us from the sea.

The place, the mood and the ambience made me believe that all that was a dream. I told myself that this is a dream where we are sitting together in a pleasant ambience and watching the Tsunami coming. I said to others, “Don’t worry, when it hits us, we all will wake up from our bed to realize that we were dreaming about Tsunami”. But how stupid I was, how could all of them have the same dream at the same time.

Few seconds passed, I started doubting whether it is a dream or reality but before I could decide, I started to run leaving my family and relatives there and entered our home without looking back. I felt like the waves are fast approaching me and I increased my running speed to get inside a big apartment that I could see in the possible distance of reach. I ran and stepped inside the apartment and climbed the stairs but there was no one running along with me. The steps were very unusual. It looked like a square in which we have steps on all four sides and with a very low degree of the inclination. So I had to climb more steps to go up by one floor. I thought that any time, Tsunami might hit this apartment. But there was no other way. I climbed the stairs as fast as I can. I hugged a big cylindrical iron column. I let my hands into some handles in that column so that I won’t loose the grip when the wave hits. And I was waiting.

After few minutes of silence, slightly I was able to hear the sound of water approaching in the direction of the apartment. Within a fraction of second, the wave hit the building and from the top I could see water running under me like a stream of river but thank god, the level didn’t reach the top. But I doubted that the building might collapse soon. Even that didn’t happen. Then I think I slept there standing but for few seconds or minutes or hours or days, I don’t know.

Finally, I woke up and came down. The streets were wet but the buildings were as it was and I couldn’t see any damages at all. People were running here and there but except that I couldn’t see anyone crying or mourning. I was confused, did the Tsunami really hit. “Was it all a dream? Where am I coming from?” Then I came to my house. All my relatives and my brother were sitting silently with no one speaking to anyone else. They all looked quite normal. There was no sign of any big disaster like Tsunami happened. But my parents were not there. Immediately I thought the Tsunami might have pulled my parents into the sea and I started crying and hugged my brother. Everyone around was shocked to see my strange action.

Suddenly one of them came and dragged me from my brother. She asked, “Why are you crying?” I said, “Where are my parents? How you all escaped from Tsunami”. She said, “What the hell are you talking about?(in Tamil)”. I explained whatever has happened until now. And everyone there started to laugh. My parents came from outside. I was so happy to see them again. Then I asked was it all a dream. They said, “Of course yes, you were sleeping in your room for past 3 hours and just now you are coming out of your bed”. Everyone laughed again but my brother couldn’t control his tears, as he couldn’t stop laughing.

I felt the pain of running a long distance, I heard the sound of Tsunami approaching, and I saw the blue sky with a full moon at the center of sky. Was it all a dream? Of course, in my dream itself I had this doubt but the pace with which everything happened stopped me from thinking further and made me believe it was real.

Suddenly, I heard Beethoven’s Fur Elise. It is the alarm ring tone in my mobile. I saw the time in the mobile. It is 15.00 hours. I was sleeping alone in my flat in Thiruvanmiyur. My roommates have gone to our native place to celebrate Pongal. Now, I realize that all that was a dream, even those conversations with relatives, laughing, crying were all in the dream. But I am not sure, when this place, which I believe to be real, will vanish as a dream. Also I don’t know whether I am writing this in my dream. Until then, let me believe what I believed as reality for all these 22 years. When I realize I may again ask the same question, “Was it all a dream? Where am I coming from? ”.

For a few seconds, I was thinking about, “Why this Tsunami came in my dream today?”. Everyday I use to jog in Besant Nagar beach. And today also I went there for Jog but today as it was a holiday, I went near the shore and sat there watching the beautiful sunrise, which slowly turned the sea into Gold. I kept watching the waves for a long time. The waves were slightly higher than usual. I started thinking about Tsunami that hit Tamilnadu in December 2004. As my eyes were watching the golden waves trying tirelessly to reach my stretched legs, my mind thinking about the disaster it caused a year ago, it got registered in my subconscious mind and so the dream.