Dream or Nightmare – You Decide



Last night I dreamt I was getting married again. I saw myself in a bridegroom attire sitting with my friends who were all thumping my back and congratulating me. The qazi recited the nikah and I was thrilled to have another wife. Dinner was served and then gradually the party was over and I went to the bedroom to celebrate the wedding night.



I was eager to see who my new wife was. When I entered the bedroom, I saw her sitting coyly on the bed. Her head was bent and a big ghunghat covered her face. She was wearing a red sharara and smelt of roses and peaches. I inhaled the aroma and felt as if I was high on some heavenly drink. ‘Hello’ I said. ‘Thank you for being my wife. I am one hell of a lucky fellow.’



I was dying to see her face. I felt like Guru Dutt and imagined my new wife to be Waheeda Rehman. I hummed chaudvin ka chaand ho ya aftaab ho…and then lifted her ghunghat. When I saw her face, I was shocked. She looked so familiar – just like my present wife. ‘Darling you look so much like my first wife.’



‘Darling I don’t look like your first wife. I am your first wife,’ she said.



‘But how is it possible? I remarried.’



‘You remarry hundred times also; I don’t care, because every time I only will be your wife.’



 ‘Then I’ll have a harem.’ I said.



‘I don’t mind,’ she said.



Flashing a smile, I said, ‘Well, I’ll have as many women as I can in my harem.’



‘And all that women will be me only,’ she said.



Defeated, I looked at the calendar on the wall in which Lord Krishna was playing the flute and the gopis were surrounding him.



‘Now, don’t get ideas,’ my wife warned. ‘If you think by being Lord Krishna you can get away with it, remember, all the gopis around you will be me only.’



Then she threw back her head, shook her hair loose, and laughed.



I woke up with a start, rubbed my eyes, and wondered if it was a dream or a nightmare.



-          NZ

26.9.2019

BN: 139

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