I’m not good at writing stories at all. And all the more when it comes to something of this type – relating a dream as wacky and loony as this. But thanks to the age of social media, I could feel this blogpost writing itself in parallel when the dream was playing out in my head early this morning (#socialmediacelebs). What was on my mind really? Maybe that could be taken up in another blogpost, or not at all, given it’s (only) a dream after all. But a minimal background with regard to the places in the said dream does need to be provided here.
For those of us who live in Bombay or have visited the city a fair number of times, Colaba and Bandra are two areas we somehow cannot miss. The first one is located in what Bombay dwellers call ‘Town’ (as distinguished from the Suburbs) and houses very old buildings, eating establishments etc. The second one is a comparatively newer area, located in the Suburbs but at the edge of Town and houses the flashier segments (oops!) of the city, like newer watering holes etc. The dream in a way connects these two areas, and in a way as whacky as possible.
I’m waiting to meet someone in Colaba on a lazy weekend afternoon. It’s quite hot, and more importantly, humid. And it doesn’t help that my friend is already running late and I’ve to while away my time simply walking up and down the Colaba causeway. As I wait for her to turn up, I notice some sort of a silver streak of light emanating vertically from one of the numerous old buildings on this stretch of road. Curious, I move closer to it and see a concave glass door concealing a shaft. Such a contraption in such a building? [hey, this is dream, remember?] So I get curiouser (?) and try to enter the shaft. The moment I move closer, a shiny disc-like thing swiftly descended into it, much like an elevator. And as if on cue, the shaft door and the door of the disc slid to reveal the interior. And, like any other dream, I walked in. Nothing remarkable, except that it look like an idli crossed with an elevator. A glass idli at that. But oh well, the glass idli had a couple of pod-like chairs in it. So yeah, I walked in and sat on one of the chairs.
As soon as my entry was complete, glass idli started moving, first vertically, like an elevator, with a glamorous view of Colaba, the Gateway, etc etc. And that’s when the best part kicked in – on ascending a height equivalent of about 15 stories, glass idli started making a horizontal dash. Right, my very first ride in a UFO across the Maximum City skies. On top of that, idli-UFO was following a set track, pretty much straight. Just like a drift race on an invisible sky track. Just about then, a screen popped up right across me, giving a full display of the traffic below. BEST buses, autorickshaws, cars and everyone and everything else jostling for space on the famed roads (or not) of Bombay. So, it was as if idlUFO was cutting right across the dreaded traffic of Bombay, but not quite.
And slowly, the splendid Turners and Carters of Bandra started coming into view. Quite obviously though, in about a fourth of the time it takes to commute between Colaba and the so-called Queen of the Suburbs. IdlUFO was beginning to slow down now, pretty close to an eating place which was named like a confectionary. And just as I was beginning to royally descend the steps of my uncalled for sky cab, I felt I was about to hit the floor from my bed. Good Morning.
Slow & Unsteady 
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