Darjeeling relived after 25 years

Family trips are always very special; this time around we went somewhere nearby. Darjeeling is only an overnight journey by train from Kolkata and it’s always so beautiful and enigmatic. 

The cold misty weather, the Kanchandzonga, the sudden appearance of clouds from nowhere to envelope the surroundings and then in an instant clearing up to the bluest of skies...Darjeeling is always beautiful! 

Relived some of the best memories with my folks after 25 years... yes, we had been to Darjeeling together when My brother and I were little guys 😊

I have no copyrights to the music being used here, only the video clips are shot and arranged by me.

Cheers!

Illogical Dreams part 4

Another one of my illogical dreams

I am at a resort with office acquaintances. I have my own room. I have my laptop open, and I am trying to complete some work that I have been assigned. It’s evening time, the scene has an orange and yellowish tinge with lots of soft shadows. The lights are not too bright and it’s a peaceful setting, but there is something unsettled within me. I am not happy being there I feel.

I need some photos that we took at the resort or maybe of somewhere else, and one of my colleagues have them on his tablet. He has uploaded them on some cloud platform and is asking me to download from there. I am not convinced that he has uploaded the pics properly and ask him to check and re-upload.

Cut to some other scene- may have been a different dream, but I remember them in sequence

I am at an underground place with lots of shops and eateries. It’s not dark and lonely, but filled with people. It doesn’t look like an underground metro station or an underground market like Delhi’s Palika Bazaar, and the place is not suffocating me. It is not too dimly lit and I am not scared of being there. I have a sense of restlessness when I am usually in confined places or dark and underground places. I need some fresh air and light to feel comfortable. But this place is not making me restless or caged.

I am with some of my cousins or friends, I don’t remember anyone though. I go to a shop and buy a couple of guavas. They are medium sized guavas and I take them and start to eat them. I ask the shopkeeper how much they are for. He replies- 400 rupees. I feel the price is too absurd. I ask him again “bhaiya sahi sahi bolo, kinte hue?” he smiles and says “ok, 280 rupees dijiye.” I am still not sure why is he asking for so much. The last time I bought guavas they came for 6-10 rupees each.

I am not willing to get duped by a silly shopkeeper. I feel that he thinks I am new to the place and also don’t have any idea of how expensive things have become of late. But I am not that naïve I feel. I always go out to buy groceries and definitively have an idea of how much things could cost these days! But somehow, I am unable to recall the cost of a kg of guavas.

I ask him how much the guavas weighed and he said they were 200gms. So I start back calculating how much a kilo will cost. And I am embarrassed to say this, but it took me a long time to do that math (1400 rupees per kilo).

I am now arguing with the shopkeeper that he should tell me the correct price, or else I won’t pay and return the half eaten guavas and leave. He is also not ready to listen to me and is shouting back.
So eventually I don’t pay him and leave the guavas with him and walk away. I am feeling terribly sorry for the poor guy as well, because it may not have been his fault completely, maybe the guavas were costly. So I go back and try to make my peace with him by paying him for the guavas.
Don’t remember what happens next.

The shooting Eagle and the Soldier

Another one of my bizarre dreams

I am in my school (CBS). Not in uniform, so don’t know if it is a dream depicting my past. Also, I am not younger looking, so most probably the dream is in the present.

There are a few people in the classroom; I don’t remember anyone I know. The classroom has big windows overlooking the school playing ground.

It is a calm and pleasant afternoon and everyone is going about their business.

The next thing I see is we are invaded by some eagles (kites maybe). They are coming near the window and flying by aggressively. The calmness of the classroom suddenly transforms into fear, screams and helter skelter. I, on the other hand, am more intrigued by the fact that we never had so many eagles (or kites) in the city.

I look more closely and find there is a huge eagle rising up beside a tree near the playground, holding two revolvers/pistols in each of its wings. The wings are like its hands. And then it starts firing.

Some of the bullets smash the windowpanes and injure a few people. I don’t get injured somehow.

Cut to a totally different location- A terrace top

Most probably I am on the terrace of my old residence, a 6 storey building. I remember this place because I have vivid memories of flying kites from this place when I was little.

There are no eagles, but I am still searching for the eagles. The two scenes are connected in a very weird way. Even though the set and the mise-en-scene is different, the fear and the desperation is making my pulse race.

I see that I am the only survivor of a brutal attack by some soldiers.

The soldiers killed everyone who was there with me in the class room.

I duck and scamper for cover. There are sounds of firing and now I am fearing for my dear life.

I see a soldier pitched on top of the water tank on the terrace looking the opposite direction from where I am taking cover.

There are some stones and small concrete rocks near me. I knew for sure sooner or later the soldier will spot me and shoot me. So I decide to do something dramatic.

I pick up a rock and throw it at the soldier as he turn towards my direction, aiming at his face. He is hit. I see a gush of blood on his face.

The soldier spots me and fires a round at me. The bullet pierces my neck and there is a burning sensation in my neck and the back of my head. I succumb. The pain is not too much now- but I die.

There are more bullets fired, but no pain this time. I have passed on from the living to the dead.

Fade to black