A Dream with Open Eyes

To my surprise, the cool breeze woke me up early in the morning. The pain of leaving a place so heavenly was just so heart breaking that I could not sleep all night. There was something about the place. It felt like the hills, winds, rivers, flowers, trees, everything spoke to me. Like we were friends since a long time.

Though I had been up since long, it felt like I was still dreaming. Dreaming about such a wonderful place. I had been to many beautiful places of the United States and lots of other places scattered all over the globe but somehow I fell in love with Kashmir. I never thought I would see such an awesome place in India.

It was so peaceful there. No worries about deadlines, strict timings, angry and unsatisfied faces, shrill horns, unwanted abuses, fake promises, nothing!

Leaving Rouso behind was even more heart breaking. I still remember how much I had got addicted to playing with him, feeding him and taking care of him. Watching him run around in the T-shirt I made for him out of my purple muffler gave me that satisfaction I had always longed for, but never achieved out of working for my grumpy boss!

“Ian!!” Sarah had stormed out of the Guest House door and shouted, “I am calling you since ten minutes now! Come on, lunch is ready and we have to leave soon. Come fast.”

I hadn’t realized it was time for lunch already. I really had been dreaming. Dreaming with open eyes. The thought of coming back was too gloomy for me to stop being dreamy. As I realized that was the last time I was cuddling Rouso and scratching his belly to put him off to his afternoon nap, I asked him, “Hey little buddy, will you wait for me till I come back again? Or will I be gone so far that you will forget me?”

I thought, “The only way to do justice to the memories of Kashmir is by taking back something. But definitely not the stupid souvenirs.” I am not too fond of materialistic pleasure or happiness. I wanted something that really belonged to Kashmir.

And in no time, we were leaving. At the gate of the Guest House, I cuddled Rouso for one last time. “I will miss him the most, apart from the beautiful hills and nature.” As I walked towards the car, I knew what I wanted to bring back with me. I took out the bottle from my bag and emptied the water. I filled it with some soil and put it back in my bag as Sarah watched me with big red eyes. But she didn’t say anything because she knew I had really lost myself to that place so much that doing something like that was pretty normal.

As I got onto the car, I thought to myself, “This is the best dream I’ve ever had and one that I would remember forever. A dream I dreamt with open eyes.”