tales of Suchita

The appearance of one Arjun Gupta in her dream unbalanced Rashmi so much that she completely discarded her morning ritual of burning incense sticks while talking to Gaia, using lavender oil on her pulse points to soothe her mind and choosing a crystal that best represented the energy of the day.

Instead, she focussed on teasing out why in the world he had appeared in her dreams.

She hadn’t seen him on Instagram in a while. Sure, she had had an intellectual crush on him ten years ago when they had been studying together. Of course, the two of them had a mutual admiration club going on because they thought the other was the only intelligent person in the cohort of forty. And she knew it was conjecture but she had a feeling that he had a soft corner for her, much like the soft cushion she had for him.

But to appear in her dreams like this, out of the blue, had to be a sign. It had to be! She refused to take it any other way.

On her way to the office, while crossing the sea, she prayed to Gaia and grandmother Sea, asking for guidance. They remained stubbornly quiet.

What sorcery had the universe unleashed on her this time? The last time Gaia and grandmother Sea had remained quiet while she had thrown question after question at them had been the time her boyfriend was about to dump her. She had been asking if she should consider marrying him and they hadn’t responded. In hindsight she realized why but…the dream had been so…strange.

Her dreams were usually oracles, messages about important things in her life. Like her job, or how best to tackle an irascible client, or how to talk to a colleague who was impinging on her boundaries, or areas where she needed to be assertive.

The dream with Arjun Gupta was…there was a car (did that mean movement?) and he was waiting for her (was there another boyfriend in the offing?). Once she sat in the car, they went on a drive (…???) and then she woke up.

That was another thing that was bothering her. Her dreams were never this random, this devoid of sense. What she remembered most clearly was his face – his dear, sweet, beautiful face. Heavens above he had exactly the kind of face she liked and he was smiling at her, with that mischievous smile and twinkle in his eye – Rashmi squirmed in her seat in the taxi as she thought of him. Even after ten years, she could picture him so vividly.

And the other thing she remembered was the feeling as soon as she woke up. She had been unsettled but the greater feeling had been of shyness. Like the time when she first realized she had a crush on him during class. Her face had started burning and she was convinced everyone knew of the epiphany she had had while the professor had been talking about profit and loss ratio.

She had been able to discern every dream she had but the harder she tried to get to the bottom of this one, the more elusive it became. She was half afraid she would be useless at work. Once she was in the office though, she forgot all about the dream, focussing instead on getting through her gigantic to-do list.

It was only during her tea break at 4 that she revisited the dream. The feeling of shyness slammed through her as she pictured his face again and she moaned at Gaia and grandmother Sea to please, please, please tell her what it all meant. There wasn’t even a peep from them.

She huffed and tried to dissect it herself, without their help but when she started going around in loops, she gave it up as bad work.

When a week had passed and the dream had become an obsession, Rashmi finally realized this was one of those mysteries that wouldn’t get resolved until the time was right.

Had she perhaps been paying attention to her surroundings rather than pestering Gaia and grandmother Sea, she would have noticed another Arjun Gupta, a colleague she often ran into during their cross-functional meetings, looking at her with dreamy, shy eyes.

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Song: Sweet Dreams by Eurythmics

Check out the other posts for 2023 here. Written as part of #BlogchatterA2Z

Header image: Photo by Pixabay