Mandi, on Alert Again

“Sarva sadharan ko ye suchit kiya jata hai ki bhari barish ki vajah se….bla bla bla………. alert zari kiya gaya hai. Kripaya Beas nadi ke pas na jaye”

Possibly meant “everybody is informed that Mandi is declared on alert due to heavy rainfall ….bla bla.. Please don’t go to the Beas river banks (probably water was being released from Larji Dam), it can be dangerous.”

While detecting this unforeseeable sound in my half asleep and half awake mode last night, I was reminded of last year’s accident related to Larji hydroelectric project (Mandi) causing the death of 24 engineering students from Hyderabad by negligence. Eyewitnesses claimed that the hooter was not sounded before increasing water flow into the river. It is extremely painful that those students were put to death because of inefficient administrative actions. Inadequate measures to manage disaster and calamities are undoubtedly responsible for such causalities. I was in Delhi at that time. Since then I had nightmares about myself being in their situation but couldn’t feel in reality what they felt at that time. Now I am in Mandi (Himachal Pradesh) and gratified to hear such kind of alert from authorities though it was declared at midnight when most of the people remained in their dreams.

Demons in dreams!

Mandi is in the foothills of Himalaya. It’s common to hear news about many disasters taking place in mountainous regions like one in Kaidarnath. The people from other parts of country in general are more afraid of such fatalities and so I am. Many times, I like many others, also think about a range of global problems, from terrorism to conversion, from black hole to catastrophes, from Ebola to Swine flu etc. Somehow people are always afraid of losing their loved ones and a thought of insecurity invariably remain in their minds.

 I know it’s not good enough to think too much about what would have happened to you if you were in this or that trouble. This thing unnecessarily puts you on a halt of vacuum where you no longer can breathe properly. It seems that you are buried in mud and not able to come out. It feels like your heart beat counts are going down and you are revolving around the infinite loop of death and life! A sense of fear takes the shape of nightmares…. The horrible dreams!!

Since last few days I’ve been suffering from such nightmares that vanished my bed times. It is off course because of my habit of thinking too much about some unpleasant situations that I could have faced. The situations that can arise causing harms to my loved ones.

One night I felt that some people (possibly terrorists) with their faces covered with black clothes had put my house on fire. And we (me and my husband) were badly trying to escape but not succeeded.

In one another dream I saw that there was a huge earthquake and my husband was lying on a small land (not exactly land but a small detached part of floor of my house) submerged and surrounded by water. He was about to sink. The earth was trembling severely and soon there was water everywhere.

On some other day I saw that all wild animals had come out of their habitat and were ready to feast on us. It was really horrible! I know it seem very funny but truly they have disturbed me a lot.

And so on…

When Nightmares Came True!

What happens if your nightmares come to true in physical world. Three things happened to me that forced me to realize that what all I would see in bad dreams would become reality and I must leave Mandi as soon as possible and shift to some other place like my home state Rajasthan.

1.    There was a small dispute with our neighbor because of some trivial issue. One day, he with his friend, fully drunk, tried to capture and beat us while we were on an evening walk.  I felt as if they were those people who had come to my dream with half covered faces to kill us. I know its little bit exaggerated but its true what I felt that time. Somehow we managed to get rid of them and taught them a lesson by filing a police complain that how they should behave. But yeah on my part the bad dream came true!

2.    Second incident happened to me was really scary. It was the day when I dreamt about earth quake. A large wall of our garden fell down due to heavy rainfall next day and I felt as if it was an earthquake of magnitude 6 (but it was not actually!) I suddenly realized that if I were about to stay there for two more minutes, I would have been crushed to death under those stones at all. I thanked god for saving me.

3.    Another incident is partly ambiguous (actually it had happened on last Saturday). While I and my friend were coming back to home after a refreshing evening walk, my land lord (I call her Aunty) was screaming “Sher! Sher!” (Leopard! Leopard! In the garden). We were scared of it and rushed inside home and stayed in till morning. I called my husband to be careful while coming back to home as the wild animal was wandering in our garden. But we could not see any sign of a leopard next morning. The third nightmare came true.

It’s all about perception!

While all these things were happening to me one after another, a second thought came to my mind. I somehow tried to make myself to think positive about these incidents, like it’s good that we were able to escape on time and informed police; or I was lucky enough to not to be crushed by falling stones; or believing that there was no leopard in our garden as I had not seen it at all! So it’s all depends upon the way you think about the things. We, in general, make our lives so complicated by simply judging situations and making them so unfavorable that we can’t afford to come out of them. It’s good to be positive but it’s best to remain positive till the end of the story as life is full of uncertainty. After all, at the end of the day we all need to have a sound sleep.

Coffee with the Mother Nature!

Hey don’t compare it with “coffee with Karan” or “Chai pe Charcha with PM Modi” or “coffee with Muffler Man”. It’s simply coffee with Mother Nature in my courtyard in every dawn and dim. It’s an event that galvanizes me enough to stay here in the foot hills of Himalayas away from temporal life. This event occurs without any discussion, without any argument, without any expectations, without any counter attacks and without any disagreements! It involves self analysis by thoroughly examining the problems and their solution. Here self discussion involves no counter argument from third person. Here I have a chance to debate with myself. The Mother Nature is calm and self sustained, it helps me to improve, reform, cultivate myself, my thoughts and lift my conscience. It gives me inner strength to resolve my conflicts at my own. If a cup of coffee can resolve big anxiety then there is no need to urge for delight. The lap of nature is sufficient to soothe you.    

View of Mandi from courtyard at my home.

Despite all those nightmares, it’s the beauty of nature that inspires me to stay here forever and ever. Isn't it enough to rejoice!