Dreamland

It seemed like any other ordinary day, when I was too lazy to get out of bed but I had some place to be. Soon enough I was roused from my slumber by a call, from my friend as to what time I ll be reaching for the ICHH. Arrgh..I said to myself as I clumsily got up feeling a little unwell. I went to the bathroom and when I emerged out. it was the auditorium of the college which seemed to look a lot like the Karwar restaurant setting. All of us -'the gang' was at the table enjoying the breakfast, happily chattering and laughing about. Then came in to join this tea party was AC, some random collegites and even my school teachers! I suddenly noticed it was evening and apparently the occasion was the Annual day of my school. A few of my teachers came up to say hello, so we all got up to greet them. The dining table gradually vanished as we started talking to the teachers about what we were upto.
Meanwhile Dj was showing my dad videos from our Karwar trip. In one of the videos, Dj was standing in the sea near what looked like a mini tower for crabs. Crabs were jumping off the tower into the water below n Dj was recording it. The 1st crab jumped in and swam away. The 2nd guy jumped, came up real close into the camera n said...”Who’s your daddy.” Then a huge mouth engulfed that crab and his jaws snapped to reveal a giant turtle who just ate the crab. He then looked into the camera and said.."ME!" end of video. Coming back to my teachers..a few friends said, “We spent 1 day of work/thesis to be here for the occasion, I hope there`s alcohol.” Incidentally, my teacher couldn’t wait to serve them some because she`d heard how awesome they were when they were drunk.
Suddenly, the scene shifted to a classroom (9b from my school) where I and a couple of college friends were in uniforms with me wearing a sweater. The teacher asked us about our socks, shoes and ties, but mine was hidden in the sweater as I realized I did not have a badge. The teacher saw it and reprimanded me about it. So in retaliation I said “Now we are in the 10th and barely have lectures in the 2nd half. We aren’t supposed to be here. So let me off!” A huge discussion ensued ending in laughter. Infuriated the teacher asks” who was talking!” I and fellow collegites raised our hands. Seeing this many others did the same. Finally some random chick got canned for talking.
The teacher then starts lecturing us. Her getup slowly turns into that of saintly robes and little idols, pictures of gods n goddesses appear. She was narrating the story of some 'Veer'(brave man)who apparently had his thumb cut and was depicted likewise in many temple friezes.(its not angoolimaal-u know it all smart asses) She also mentioned how he was also a reincarnation of Lord Ganesh in someway. In one of his bravados as we were transported to medieval India, he single handedly lifted up a huge musical instruments she referred to as a tanpura (its not but she does) and blew in it to herald a battle call. Coming back to our classroom which now looked more like one of my bedroom(my real home bedroom)….the call seemed realistic. The other students had disappeared from the class to be replaced by 2 scale models of our ’fort’ in ‘Mattel ‘boxes! The setting was such that there was a long approach way to the fort. Through a gateway you enter a square where life size chess is to be played out. Then was another gateway leading to the hilltop fort. So my teacher (saintly) is explaining to us now the strategies of war as we realize that a war has been declared on Salsette. Apparently due to paperwork error it was still an independent princely state. Subsequently, the government also couldn’t interfere.
The enemy was supposedly an independent Rajput princely state! So it was decided we should help out in whatever way possible. Since it was Salsette, I was the only student left. A terracotta life size figurine walked into the room which now looked like a Spartan but huge room from a grandiose haveli. She informed us that the people below were crying with desperation and fear of certain death. “We must not go down like this my teacher says.” She asks me to go away to a safer haven while she`d prepare for war. While arrangements were made, I looked out for movement on the outside thro the window,which surprisingly looked like my other bedroom window. I could see the street, the flyover and the bus-stop-complete with an AC 105 to CBD Belapur! I ran across to tell my teacher it wasn’t needed, this war.
“Lets get out of this crazy place!”
But my teacher didn’t agree…I thought she was bananas and I decide to leave as the first stream of sword wielding, brocade uniformed invaders made their way to the fort. They fired the first shots of udad and jaggery thro the cannon, into our window. I turned back only to realize that the teacher is actually my mom! I ran up to her and gave her a tight hug. I pleaded and begged for her to come with me and finally managed to convince her. Then me and her looked for my dad and brother and asked them to come along and run away to somewhere safer. It was relatively easy because the palace now was a 2BHK apartment.
We took the stairs as the invaders hadn`t reached there yet or so we thought. I peeped to see if the coast was clear but there were gun toting people waiting for us. They spotted us and I yelled my guts out.
As the shot was being taken I realized, that they were actually my neighbours with a PAINTBALL GUN and the invaders had transformed into other bldg members celebrating Holi! Apparently my family knew about it before hand itself... making me an idiot who was lost in the premises of war!