The virtual dreamer

Shrikanth R Rao's story, which is written in dream-inside-a-dream format, is about man's bleak future with technological advancement

Roy woke up with a start. It was already 6 am. He was getting late for his jog. It was drizzling lightly, but he decided to go anyway. It had not started to rain heavily, but one never knew — Bombay rains were so unpredictable. Still, one needs to take care of one’ s health.

As he jogged along the sidewalk, he noticed that many shops were still closed, which was unusual. None of his friends had turned up either. It must have been the damp weather. They were not enthusiastic joggers anyway, and Roy had jogged alone many mornings. Today would be one more.

As he passed the closed shop, there was one shop still open. On coming closer, however, he saw Radha, the tea shop owner, preparing to shut her stall. This was a stall he had tea and biscuits every morning after his jog, and knew Radha well. “Radhaji, why are you closing? Why are the shutters down everywhere?” he asked her. “Sahabji, don’t you know? There is a strike today — Bombay bandh. If you ask me, you too should go home. It’s not safe to be out. I had to open the shop to take some of my things which I had left here. I too will rush home.”

Bombay bandh — but he did not remember reading anything about it, nor had the TV stations mentioned it last night. He asked her why there was a bandh. “I don’t know sahabji — my neighbour told me this morning. It must be something called by some party. Every time this sort of thing happens, we are the one who suffer the most, but who listens to us? Anyway, I will be back tomorrow. If you take my advice, get back home by the fastest route this instant. Namaste, sahabji,” so saying, she closed her shop, and left.

Roy nodded, but decided he did not want to return home just yet. There was no sign of any trouble that he could see. Many times people would start baseless rumours and others blindly reacted. Anyway, his doctor has told him not to avoid even one day’s exercise, and he would not, if he could help it. He continued down the now-deserted street, determined to finish his jog.

He must have taken a wrong turn for the street ended in a cul-de-sac. It was funny, he thought — this was his normal route. Anyway, he turned around to go back, and received a jolt. A crowd of ruffians was coming towards him. They had sticks and choppers in their hands, and didn’t seem at all friendly. Suddenly, one of them shouted — “Look! Someone is breaking the bandh! Don’t leave him! Let’s teach him to disobey our call!” They rushed towards him, shouting “Jai!Jai!” Roy desperately looked around to see if there was anywhere to escape, but there was nothing. The crowd had almost reached him, and he knew that he was done for. The leader reached out, grabbed his collar with one hand, and swung his chopper with the other. Roy shut his eyes tightly, waiting for the end.
Rai woke up with a start, sweating. Radha was shaking him. “Rai!” she was calling. “It’s 6 am. You wanted me to wake you up early for your presentation. Get up!”

Rai wiped his face. What a nightmare, he thought. What a strange nightmare too. For some reason, he had imagined that he was Roy, whoever that was, and jogged on the streets of Bombay. Why, he had not even seen the streets of Bombay for almost a year, except the short street till the station, and through the windows of the local trains. Why did his wife appear as a tea stall owner? Everyone knew that ever since fast food and coffee joints had come up, the tea stall owners had either joined them, or had gone out of business. Anyway, he had always hated tea, and his wife did not even know how to prepare it.

He got ready quickly, and ran to the station. It was drizzling lightly, and the street, normally busy, was deserted. He managed to just get to the train almost as it was starting. He caught his breath, and looked around for his friends, but for some reason, none of them had turned up, just like in his dream. No matter, he would catch up with them tomorrow. It would be a bit boring without them though.

Someone said that it was raining hard outside. Rai could not see anything, because the train was so crowded. Someone else was commenting that the bag in the corner seemed to be of a very odd colour. Rai looked up and saw a purple bag on the rack above. There seemed nothing remarkable about it, though. Then someone was talking about the recent bomb blasts in local trains, and how people must not trust unattended property. This started off a lengthy debate on unattended bags, and went on to how the rains cause trouble, and where you got the best vada-pav in all of Bombay.

The talk gradually stopped, the stations went by, and Rai began to feel sleepy in the humid atmosphere. He was almost falling asleep, when suddenly there was a big bang. He heard people screaming. The train stopped suddenly, and Rai felt a thump. Somewhere a siren was going off. Things became black, and Rai thought the end had come.

Rye woke up with a start. He found himself on the floor, and it took him a few minutes to realise that he had fallen off his bed. His alarm clock was ringing. It was 6 am. What an odd dream. Local trains, and open streets — things that were no longer accessible today.

Ever since the great Bombay nuclear disaster, there had been no trains. Or buses or taxies, nor people in the street. None of his friends had been spared. He had never seen the outside world because travel was severely limited, and that too only in sealed robot-controlled vehicles, which did not have any means to look at the outside world. People who had survived, and still wanted to work, mostly worked from their homes. Travel was not possible for everyone yet, except for a few people like Rye. It would take another 20 years before radiation levels came down, and people could walk out again. It was great that the sea was so close, otherwise the radioactive gases would not be cleared for decades.

Rye went to the kitchen to brew himself a hot cup of tea — a lonely cup of tea, he thought wryly. None of his family and few of his relatives had survived the disaster. As he prepared his tea, he thought about how to spend his day, and decided that he would work on fixing the code for the cleanup robots — the same ones who the Bombay Municipal Corporation was trying to use to remove the radioactive waste, and speed up the cleansing process.

The news said that there was a drizzle outside, which meant that the radiation levels would be lower today.

As he was sipping his tea, his phone rang. It was Radha, his boss. She wanted him to come to the work site to fix the robot. “Can’t it be done offsite?” he asked, not feeling like leaving his home. She voiced her dissent. “Not really. There’s some problem in the communication system. You need to come here and fix it,” she insisted. “I’m sending the jeep.” There was no other alternative, so he agreed reluctantly.

At the site, Rye saw that the robot’s internal boards were damaged. They would have to be replaced, and this meant a cumbersome job. Sighing, he began to open the panels, and prepare for repairs.

Finally, after two hours, it was done, and the robot was ready to be tested. Radha turned on the robot, and commanded it to move. Nothing happened. “Rye, check what’s wrong,” she ordered, and Rye obediently went to check. He got close to the robot, and started opening the control panel, to see if he had made an erroneous connection, when, without warning, the robot began to move. It was Rye’s bad luck that he happened to be between the robot and a wall, and had nowhere to go. He stepped as far back as he could, hoping that either the robot would turn, or Radha would turn it off. No such thing happened, and the robot continued to move toward him, crushing him against the wall. Rye felt the breath leaving his body, and darkness began to close in.

Ray woke up with a start. So he had been dreaming. What a weird dream, he thought. Radha was still sleeping peacefully. In her sleep, she had pushed against him, and caused him to wake. His clock said 6 am. Time for the red sun to rise. It was a beautiful day outside. The red sun made the landscape look exceptionally beautiful. He could not remember why he dreamt that there was a nuclear winter. In his dream, there had not been even a single sun. Why, Bombay had not one, but three suns — the red for the morning, the white for the noon, and the blue for the evening. This was Bombay, the third moon of the stellar system called Tri-Earth.

Ray decided to sit in the balcony, and enjoy the sun with a glass of cold coffee. He didn’t like tea, and wondered what made him dream of drinking tea. He took his coffee, and was going out, when he saw that the legendary unpredictable Bombay rain had started as a drizzle. He ran to close the balcony door. Just as he reached the door, his foot struck the door frame, and he lost his balance, and pitched forward. His head rushed to meet the floor.

Rao woke up with a start. It was 6 am, time for the darkness to begin. What a funny dream, he thought — Bombay with three suns. And he had dreamt that he was out in the sunlight. What a scary thought. Everyone knew that when there was full light, people could see things they should not. Scary things that drove people mad with terror. The only way to live was to sleep when it was light and wake up when it was dark. The ghosts did not like darkness or dim lights, and it was safe to work.

It was time he started for work. He called Radha to pack his bag for him to go to work. Before that, he decided to take a look outside to see if his car was okay, but first he would have some nice hot tea. Outside, it was drizzling. Typical Bombay weather at this time, he thought. None of his friends had called him today, which was unusual. He finished his tea, and decided to start without them.

He stepped outside to get into his car, when suddenly, the clouds cleared. With a shock, he saw bright sunlight light up the landscape. The sudden change dazzled him for a moment, after which his mind screamed at him to get out of the sunlight, and into the house. He turned to run back inside, when he saw them. They were between him and his house. Slowly, he backed away. Every second, the light got brighter and brighter, and they stepped closer. He closed his eyes to shut out the terrifying scene.

Rau woke up with a start. This was still Bombay. Radha was still asleep. It was still 6 am, and he must get ready now. He wondered if he would wake up into another dream. Or was this reality? He didn’t know. He went to the kitchen to brew himself a cup of tea. It was drizzling outside.