There is a world out there that is
not physical; it is imaginary but real at times. Inspired by my facebook
friends Joyi, Kush, Cathie and my two Nephews Tanveer and Zeeshan, I embarked on sharing
some of the unreal dreams, and I am sure each one of you had such
a dream. It took me a good
one hour of writing – from 2:32 through 3:30 PM on February 6, 2013 .
When I get a chance, I will fine tune it and add details; right now it
is merely skeletal and dates are approximate. I am sure I can find the closest dates.
1995
– Kundan Sharma, my friend who is like an older brother to me was hurt
in my dream; I called him up in the morning to find if everything was
alright. He asked me to tell him what I saw, and I told him that there
was some stupid accident. He said he was flying to India that day, and
decided to cancel it. That evening he totaled his Cadillac but thank God
nothing happened, he called me to thank me.
2004 – Again Kundan
Sharma and I were driving a car somewhere in Florida, the causeway just
broke off, and our car hung in the middle, half dangling over the ocean
below and the other half on the raised up road, either way it would be a steep fall. I woke up restless, called him up the next morning, he said,
he was going through some difficult times at that time and appreciated
the dream, so he can take an alternative.
2007 – Sudesh bhabi
(Kundan’s wife) was in pain, I called her up. She was in the hospital,
the previous evening her car had rolled over her from the garage drive
way when she went to pick up the mail. She had a severe fractured leg.
Kundan
and I shared offices in the same building and we became good friends,
he is more like a big brother to me. Both of us have gotten busy and
have not seen each other for a while, we saw each other frequently when
DJ Sharma, my office partner was alive. I always wondered what was the connection? We both ended up with the song – Tera Mujh say hai pehle ka naata kahin.
By the way, I sang that song when Mina was born, and that’s how her Middle name was named Dilshad, I saw my sister Dilshad in her and felt the connection was there from an earlier life, like in previous birth ( I don’t believe in it though). Years later I had a conversation with Alka Yagnik, singer of the original song, and in the middle of lobby of the auditorium with hundreds of people around, she sang that song for Mina on my little tape recorder. Lala Laala, lalla la..lalla la la lalaa. Mina this is for you. I never saw the movie but the song had grown on me. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO35DVm_5ts )
2008 – Arun Vittala and I
had not seen each other for nearly 5 years, he was standing in
the middle of the street, all worried. That was not him, a positive man,
so I called him up – his brother had passed away in India and he was
figuring how to get there and he was surprised too that I called and I was amazed with that connection.
Arun
and I became friends through Cricket, when I organized a major cricket
tournament in Dallas in 1996; he was a key partner in organizing the
game, and for many years after that. He organized the North Texas
Cricket Association and became its first president. I remained involved
for many years and was a president for two terms.
0000 – Phillip
Ramsaroop looked tensed up to me in pain, so I called Vidya his wife. Phillip
was undergoing surgery on his leg in the hospital in Arlington. Phillip has since moved to Florida.
He was instrumental in explaining the difference between acceptance and
tolerance while defining Pluralism years ago. He was President of
the D/FW Hindu temple and considered honoring me a title of “Honorary
Hindu” as I spoke up for Hinduism where ever it was misunderstood. FYI, I
do that with faiths and cultures including Atheistic tradition. He is a
great singer of Hindu devotional songs and I have played some of his songs on my
Religious radio shows way back in 2003.
1971 – Dr. Narsimaiah,
The Vice Chancellor of Bangalore University, Mahatma Gandhi and I were
sitting around a dining table. Gandhi put his hand on my back, and said
“Son, you have a lot of work to do” I understood, it was the work around
building communal harmony in India at that time.
2003 – Mahatma
Gandhi was in a halo, and did the same thing again, patted on my back
and said, “Son, you continue the work” and I must say that I found
myself deeply committed to the Pluralism work, the closet events were
death of my mother and the Gujarat Genocides that had
deeply affected me.
1970’s – Whenever my sister Dilshad was hurt, I felt the pain and I would see her in my dream. Damn me, I am feeling tender now. At that time, she was in
Rai Bareilly, India with Noorda, her husband. Invariably I would see
her in my dreams.
60’s – When we were kids, it was a routine for me and my brothers
and sister to pile up on our father, first thing in the morning, and we
all used to share our little dreams and he would his. They were some of
the most beautiful moments of my life. One Sunday morning, my father
told us that he saw his Uncle dying and had summoned him to appraise him
about the situation, and he told my father where he wanted to be
buried, after all it was a dream he shared.
Tuesday morning
rolls, and around 11:00 AM, we got a telegram (those days, no cell
phones, no faxes, not even a phone in our neighborhood) that my
grandfather (great uncle in American terms) had passed away. My father
rushed and got him buried on the same spot where he had told him in his
dream. The man was considered a holy man and every year the townspeople
celebrate and visit his grave, of course, I did not subscribe to such
celebrations.
2004 – This is unreal, but real, I saw winning
6.4 Million dollars in lottery, told my wife and kids about the dream,
she asked if I had actually purchased the ticket, and I pulled the
ticket and checked. I won $64.00; we ate a lot of doughnuts that day.
One
of the ugliest dreams that I have not seen in a few years was my inability
to put breaks on the vehicle I was driving, I could not lift my foot, like my foot was bolted the floor…and it would not reach the break pad..and before I hit something, I would
wake up panting and puffing. Thank God, I have not seen that again in the last four years, I must have seen that at least once year for nearly twenty years.
One of the most consistent dreams that I have seen
for years was flying. I would just lean forward and lift off like the
Harriett jet and go everywhere. One time, I actually got up and made an
attempt to fly to found out that I was out of the dream. A few years ago, a gentleman from UK sent a note on the face book, that he had the same precise dream, since then, a few others have mentioned having similar dreams. It is the most beautiful dream and I would love a repeat.
…….
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a
writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work
place and standing up for
others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers
pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a
strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a
frequent guest on Sean
Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he
contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly
at Huffington post, and
several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you
want to know about him.