This one plays out like a scene out of a movie made by an action director like Michael Bay meeting a surrealist like David Lynch.
By the way, although this has got nothing to do with my dream, I love David Lynch's Mullholland Dr. An amazingly surreal movie that plays out ..... like a dream !!!
My Dream..
I see a lone building, huge and rock-solid , in the middle of nowhere. It looks and feels like the US Govt's Area 51 .... a secret location that's.. well.. top secret(hehe)!! I see a long approach road leading upto the building. The building is 6 storeyed... and each floor looks really tall.... around 20-25 ft in height. It looks more like a fortress, and surrounding it is nothing.... as far as the eye can see, there's just barren land and strong dusty winds.
The strange thing is.. it turns out to be some kind of a hostel... I am apparently living there...The inside of the building is more like a shopping mall.. with 2 or 3 escalators and flights of strairs connecting each floor. There are around 5-6 flats on each floor, each having 3 spacious rooms.
As I enter the 6th floor , I turn to the right and turn the key of the 2nd room from the stairs. It looks like I live here. I see the 3 huge rooms with minimal furniture.. typical of a bachelor's pad. I share the flat with 5 guys.. 2 each in one room. I do not know whom I am living with . One lean and almost emancipated-looking guy walks up to me from the neighbouring room and asks me .. 'What do I have to do to make this room look nice and neat?? Will I get beaten up by the big guys I do not keep it clean!!? ' .... I remember smiling at the way the guy said it.. when I was recollecting this dream.. :)
What I remember most is the terrace.... or the lack of it.
The scene suddenly shifts to me sitting on what looks like an extended windowsill. In front of me are clear blue skies and the wind blowing hard at my face. I am thrilled and scared at the same time. What I am sitting on is a small horizontal concrete extention, right above the top floor. The way to get there is through a small window-like opening at the top of the one of the building's four boundary walls. It looks like a bunch of guys , including me, sneak out each day to the 'terrace sit-out' and freak out in thrill and fear. We are about 180 ft from the ground... and its quite scary to think that one wrong step would send us free-falling down to the harsh ground.
Stranger things were in store..
I am on the top floor... in one of the flats.. where some kind of a crazy rave-party is going on. I see men and women dressed in strange attire on a stage... it looks like some kind of fashion show. These men and women walk around in circles on the stage, robotic in their demeanour... I see myself observing the proceedings, and a few other recognizable faces too in the crowd..
I am sure that unlike most of my other dreams which span over a time period just a few minutes (in the timezone of my 'dream-world') or perhaps 2-3 hrs in some cases, this one spans over a few days, or perhaps a few months.. Its like the account of my life during my stay in that building.
Another day, another 'event'...
I am in my room , lazing around, not doing much , when suddenly one guys whizzes past my flat. As he runs , he shouts aloud ...' Aren't you running ,mate?' !! I am confused. I wonder what's going on and in my curiosity, look out of the window. I see a large gathering of people downstairs. I recognize one or two of them as being guys from my office. They too, were a part of my life in that building , I remembered meeting them on different ocassions.
I run out of my flat and hear a sound that I'd rather not hear. The 'Evacuation' alarm had gone off!! I could not hear it in my room.. apparently, due to faulty wiring. I remember attending one of the sessions during my stay in the building where they 'demo-ed' the 'evacuation plan' , and explained that the alarm would go -off only in case of a bio-chemical attack on the building, via the use of the plumbing infrastructure of the building. ( This really took me back to some of the mock fire-drills they had in Infosys, which was more of a fun-time for everyone than a serious exercise!! ) I see that very few people are yet to leave the building, almost everyone has been evacuated.
I feel the bile rise in my throat as anger and fear grips me.. anger at the faulty wiring and no one thinking that I am 'important' enough to be the priority during evacuation , and fear of having to outrun the deadly gas that may have been pumped through the pipes! I rush down the flights of stairs, I am horrified to see that the escalators have stopped working. I remember running down the stairs at full speed, and the image of the poisonous gas rising up the pipes looming large in my head.
I manage to reach the ground floor and out of the building ... I see a couple of faces I the crowd that I think should have helped me... I feel dejected at the thought, but feel elated to have made it out safe...
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