Monday 9 September 2013

Dreadful Dream

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I was standing in the middle of the white earth. Everywhere there was snow: the plain unleveled ground was white, the mountains were white and even the sky seemed white. And where were the trees? I have never ever seen a single place without a tree. Come to think of it, I have ever seen a single flake of snow in my life, let alone a snow sphere like this one.






Ah! How bright it is! Where are my sunglasses? I started patting my woolen overcoat and trousers to look for them. Where could I have placed them? Of course I must have them with me given my intense aversion to such blazing daylight. Crap! I don’t seem to have them with me.
There’s nothing in my pockets but some empty chewing gum wrappers. Wait! How did I get those wrappers? I don’t even like chewing gums.


At that very moment I also realized that I was shivering. Even though it seemed I was wearing layers and layers of woolen clothes, I could still feel the cold through my bones. My fingers were shaking, my teeth were chattering and my boot-clad feet were getting numb. I could even see my breath. Oh my God, I need to get out of here before I freeze off. But how? How did I reach here? And what is this God forsaken place? I wanted to scream, I wanted to cry, I wanted to run. Only one thought haunted me: Where am I? Where am I? Where am I? I was shrouded with despair and gloom. Despite being at large in the vast open white cosmos, I felt suffocated and stifled. I couldn’t breathe properly. I felt as if my chest was bounded tightly.


I don’t want to die! I am too young to die like this! I still have to do so many things. I have to tell my family how much I care for them, how much I love them! I have to tell my friends how much I cherish them! Damn it, I am NOT going to die here shivering and sniveling like a dog. I will get out of this hell even if it’s the last thing I do.






I started walking toward the East. Somehow it appealed to my sense of direction. I must have walked a mile when I started to see a water body on my right. Looking at the vastness of the water, it seemed like an ocean to me; an ocean full of icebergs as I could see blocks of ice swimming in it. May be I was in Antartica?




As I wasn’t going to get mile stones or direction boards anytime soon, I decided to keep on walking. At least that activity generated enough heat to stop my body from getting ransacked with deathly cold.


“Isha! Isha! Get up! You are getting late. You didn’t even hear the alarm going off.”


“Yes Mom! I am up.”


Even after getting up, I couldn't shake off the feeling of despair and dejection. Thank God it was a dream. But if that was the dream, why do I still feel cold? Why are my hands still shaking?

Feeling numb and exhausted from my dream, I decided to take off from the office. I wasn’t sure if I would have been able to concentrate on work today even if my life depended on it. Better stay at home and read something nice. Maybe then I will get rid of melancholy hovering over me like a black thundering cloud.

Just when I was savoring my favorite breakfast of mango pancakes, I got a courier. I won 2 tickets to Antartica in a lucky draw that I had participated in couple of months back. The brochure mirrored my dream: the flat land of snow and ice, the mountains covered in white and an ocean littered with icebergs.

Only one question hounds me now: Was my dream just a dream?




This post was written for the contest held by Yatra.com on IndiBlogger.in.

Photo Courtesy: usahitman.com,www.steppestravel.co.uk, and waittfoundation.org

8 comments:

  1. Antarctica Voyage..I wish you win the contest and your dream come true.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice imagination, Pankti. We surely love to visit such places! Such a beautiful dream...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loved the narration, so different. I could feel the cold :P. And you wrote about my dream..I would love to travel to Antarctica...may be lets go together?

    ReplyDelete
  4. you mom calls you Isha??? :-D
    btw, were those travel tickets sent by yatra dot com... who knows they might have started special package trips to the frozen earth :-O

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would love to go to Antartica. Either by winning tickets or by saving enough to buy tickets :D

      Delete