The muddled mind

I am at the electricity office to pay the month’s bill and she’s with me. We wait patiently for the queue is long, just like the ATM queues we see and hear about nowadays! It is adjacent to our apartment complex.  I am just two people away from the counter.  A glance at the dusty clock up there gives me a jolt and I shout out, ‘’run along and get ready, it’s almost 9.’’  I see her backside as she hops away, pigtails prancing with her and a bag like the one I carried in my school days, on her shoulders. She is oblivious of everything around, including my screams, ‘’don’t forget, your uniform needs to be ironed!’’

I then hand over the bill, which strangely is a two-sheet printout, to the middle aged man behind the table. He looks at it and looks up at me. He then steps out from behind the rusted table and asks, where do you stay. I mumble something as he walks towards the door of the room, me walking along with him. He then steps out to an empty space and pushes the door of a small room with his back, signalling me to join him. I panic and step back. I realise something is amiss. I refuse now.  I am aware I have already handed him three thousand rupee notes, which look more like the dollar currency. I have no idea what is happening.  I rush back to the main room expecting help. People only look sympathetically at me. I am upset until the alarm shakes me awake.

It is not often that I wake up remembering my dream. But with thoughts of demonetisation, pending electricity bill, men who make you feel uncomfortable and maybe, women too, everything had to be part of my dream!