I made it to the ground floor of Pool Shack. Missed few step in between; hit a guy coming up, carrying a red heavy bag, who looked more sloshed than me. I wondered why they didn’t have an elevator. I felt an elevator is a must when they serve alcohol at anywhere above and below the ground floor. It is generally cold in Bangalore in mid October, but strangely I was sweating already. I thought, may be the beer was messing up my body temperature control mechanism as well.
I crossed the busy airport road and reached the hospital end of the road. It was pretty unusual, because I have been here so many times but never really observed the other half of the road and the hospital. Perhaps I would be too eager to go to Pool Shack and get sloshed. Therefore, never really paid attention to anything else.
I think I heard a siren crying its heart out from few kilometers away. At least I thought it was few kilometers away or perhaps its somewhere in the vicinity and the beer in me is messing up my natural Doppler theory. I looked right and then turned back to check if it was an ambulance coming towards the hospital. The crying became more and more irritating and loud. Now I could hear the sound of chopper as well. I wondered if this was a hi-tech hospital and it has got choppers to get the patients. But the siren sound nullified that theory. I looked in all directions. People on street stood still and they were as amused and confused as my 1 year old nephew in wet nappy.
The sound grew louder and louder. Few kids on the other side of streets were pointing at the sky behind me. I turned around and I couldn’t believe my eyes. 5 choppers flying in a perfect circle formation. In the center of this formation, I could see a white chopper. No, it couldn’t have been chopper. It was triangular in shape. Like those stealth planes we see in television. Now I knew what was crying so loud. It was almost deafening now. People rushed to the roads. Traffic came to stand still. No one moved an inch. Even the street dogs hogging on the free food inside the corporation dust bin, stood still in amusement with straight ears.
The triangular thing hovered over the shack point. The choppers which looked like they are guarding this thing matched its movement. The triangular thing, threw a wide ray of red light. It looked like it was scanning the entire area. It aligned itself to the Pool Shack. The beer effect in me had vanished looking at this spectacle. It seemed to be more evident now that the Pool Shack is going to be attacked. Everyone ran for cover. I tried calling my friend, but the network is jammed. I couldn’t just believe what was happening. I crossed the road and searched for my friend. I couldn’t see him. People were running all around. The triangular thing sent out 3 straight blue lights down towards the Pool Shack, forming a cylindrical shape of probably 2 feet diameter. The light pierced through everything. I put my food forward towards the Pool Shack and suddenly, there was a deafening screeching sound. There was some kind of activity within this invisible cylinder. The entire space within the cylinder exploded into flames, but neither the flames and nor the particles came out of the cylinder.
The entire formation of flying choppers vanished out of sky in no time. Before people could rush to the spot, there were NSG commandos who had cordoned the area. I never realized this.
I ran to my room and switched on the TV. My mobile was now working. I called Ravi. He had followed me outside the Pool Shack to get a cigarette. He shared the same story. I flipped the channels and stood still when the reporter in a news channel announced, “Defense minister of India, will address the media in a short while.” The defense minister looked jubilant, contrary to the recent occurring.
He announced, “Today, at 20:08, India successfully tested its, Unmanned Arial bomb scanner and laser guided diffuser called Garuda. Garuda is placed at strategic locations. It takes less than minute for Garuda to detect, track and destroy the bomb. It also leads the choppers carrying the commandos who then cordon the site and aid the investigation. Garuda detected the bomb at the Pool Shack, Airport Road Bangalore at 20:02. It not only guided the 5 NSG choppers to the blast site, but also cordoned the bomb with its bomb isolation technique. The bomb which was attached with a timer device went off before it could be defused by Garuda, but the high tech laser bomb isolator was used by Garuda to form a controlled explosion. Many defense scientists have been working day and night on Garuda project which was started on 2009, took 11 years and it has been completed at the cost of 200 billion rupees. This is a great success for this developed country which is surrounded by enemies on all sides. Further details on this live test will be provided in few hours. Thank you.”
I somehow knew that bomber was the guy I saw carrying red bag while coming down the Pool Shack. I was too tired to be sure. I was too tired to think anymore.
I was shocked, amused and tired of all the incidents. It was too much for this tired sloshed mind. I went to bed. I couldn’t sleep peacefully. All the events replayed in my mind. I could hear the sound of choppers. It was faint and then loud. It couldn’t be a dream. I woke up. I looked at my watch. It was 6:30. I couldn’t take another similar incident anymore. My heart was pounding faster than my head because of hang over. I ran to the balcony. 4 choppers so close to my third floor apartment flew across the blue sky. I looked at the beach and the blue sea and then at the horizon. I just couldn’t believe this. I ran to the door, grabbed the news paper. On the front page, I read, “39 killed in Baghdad blast”. I glanced at the date on the top. 26 October 2009, Chennai.
It took me time to recap the entire previous night episode. I had been to Pool Shack to play pool. It was on the OMR road opposite to the Life Line hospital. Just when I was crossing the road an ambulance with loud siren had just turned into the hospital gate. Someone burst the rocket which was left over during diwali. The rocket sparked brilliant colors in the sky. Few kids jumped in joy. I took my mobile out to call Ravi, so that I could make out the address. There was no network. That was followed with a big blast of crackers which made a deafening noise and smoke. I wondered why on earth where they doing this in the vicinity of hospital. I was sweating profusely though it was October end and I thought that if was in Bangalore at this time, it would have been cold.
I was tired, sloshed when I reached home. I changed my watch to 24hr mode. I flipped the tv channels and halted at a news channel which showed the breaking news, “Blast in Baghdad”. I switched off the tv and went to sleep.
As I sat their realizing and re tracing everything, I wondered how amazing is human mind. It had weaved a dream for me with all the things which were totally unrelated. I could only admire this marvelous mind which had created EVERYTHING from really NOTHING that happened at 8:00pm. I looked at my watch. It was 8:00 am. I told myself, “huh,8:00pm-NOthing2Everything@8:00am”
Time to stop dreaming and work!!
Yeah you heard me. Stop dreaming, go back to work!!
“Why Drink and Drive, when you can, Drink and Dream”
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