Theandric Thursday : Déjà Vu

©Ashna Banga

.....I am standing, shifting my attention between the two people sitting in front of me. The first one's asking for water, for the third time maybe. I nod my head at him just as the other one says something about a shop. I answer him referencing the odd time of day, afternoon.

I hear a dialog from TV in the background. Something about blood. Then suddenly, something happens and I run to my room, only to be left severely disappointed by the mess I am landed into. After a while, while going I don't know where, I hit my head on the door. Hard. And I just sit down holding my head. 

Looks like a bad day.... 

Its 10am. I am staring at the mirror at the tiny dot emptily, while I brush my teeth. What I just saw, was not a dream, not even a daydream. It was just a smudgy, incoherent memory somewhere in the back compartments of my subconscious mind. Actually, I can't even say if it was even a memory, because I don't remember where is it from or how it is there, or more importantly, why it is there.

After scrubbing at the same spot for 15 minutes, I remove my gaze from the dot, wash my face and go to the kitchen wiping the water with my fingers lazily, not even caring to dry up with a towel. I woke up late this morning, everybody has had their breakfast already. I make scrambled eggs after checking each and every bowl and dish and not finding anything of interest. I just woke up a few minutes ago but the heat already makes me sleepy and I know this day is going to be boring.

The eggs followed by a mug of fake cold coffee help a bit and I move to the computer to edit the file we (our group) are supposed to submit tomorrow. The file, a project report, is already there, I just have to do some editing with the text and formatting. I complete three fourth of it within half an hour by which time I am completely drowsy and wobbling with sleep. I rest my head on the table with a rather loud band and fall asleep.

While asleep I see some weird dreams. Short albeit weird. In one of them I am kneeling before the computer and begging it to start, telling it that its a matter of life and death. In another one, I am sitting by the window and suddenly out of nowhere clouds starts assembling and rain starts to fall down. The rain brings with it a smile that widens with each drop.

I wake up to find its already 1pm. Did I really slept that much, on the table? I should probably get a checkup, I think. I have to hurry up and finish editing before my group-members arrive. I take a mini-bath, pour two glassfuls of water down my throat and then feeling considerably fresh, sit down to edit the rest of the file.

As the file finishes, my friends arrive. It looks like they were pulling rickshaw since morning. They drop on the sofa. One perches on the main sofa, folds his legs and takes out his laptop. The other one lays on the side chair and demands water(he asked to keep chilling water ready on the phone too). I go in but remembering to ask for the CD's halfway, I go back, but before I even open my mouth, the one on the side sofa looks up, breaking his gaze from the newspaper he was reading and says.

'Bhai, will I please get that water ... today'
'Ya ... just a sec', I reckon with my index finger pointing up
'How far was that shop, the spiral binding one. And are you done with the editing?', says the one with the laptop.
'Yeah, was just finishing when you two came. And it's just 100 metres, let's go in a minute and check if it's open... The.. shopkeeper.. closes.. it.. in.. the.. afternoon.. normally..'

Wait a minute, have I heard these things somewhere before? No. Maybe. Whatever. In the background, I can hear the TV through the open drawing room door. The hero's mother is furious and saying something to the villain when I open my mouth again to ask for the CD's. Instead, I mutter..

'Kutte, main tera khoon pi jaungi...'

My friends stare at me without a word, I am not looking at their faces, but I know they are staring. Then four things happen in quick succession, · the Maa says 'Kutteyy, main tera khhoon pi jaungi...' and launches at the villain · a certain Robbert Pattison's image flashes in my mind · it dawns on me that this has actually happened with me before · I dash towards my room knowing something bad is going to happen.

Before I reach my room, power goes off and my computer shuts off because the UPS is broke since a week. Excellent! And I forgot to save the file. Beyond Excellent. Power comes back almost instantly. I go and turn it on, half hoping that MSWord might retrieve my data through its temporary file. It doesn't start. I try again, it shows the great hard disc error. Is there even a word beyond Beyond Excellent??

I kneel down, disconnect and reconnect the hard disc and pray/beg it to start. I'll be screwed if it doesn't. It doesn't. I'm definitely in a lot of mess now, as my friends are. After much begging and cursing the machine, we decide to go to one of our classmate's house a kilometer away, take his project report and edit it to make do with. We move out and just as I reach the main door, mom calls from behind,

'Where are you going in this heat'
'I have some work, I'll be back in 15 minutes',

I say as I turn back to the door and BAM! the corner of the door hits me so hard, that I could only do so much as not to stamp my feet with equal force, maybe to redirect some pain there. A splintering pang shoots inside my head and I sit down covering my forehead with both of my hands. A lump is already showing up. People rush to see what happened. I am handed a glass of water. I sip some of it.

After a few minutes, my friends say that I should rest and that they'll take care of the file. As they go, I move inside, to the mirror to see my lump. A long red line has appeared on my forehead and it looks pretty abnormal, but the pain is ebbing away slowly so I let it be. I take some ice and move to my room applying handful of it over the red line.

Few moments pass and my mom comes with some lemonade. I sit by the window sipping it and look out. The weather suddenly changes and the sky turns gray. Within seconds, tiny raindrops start to fall down from the grey sky. The ice and lemonade work some magic too and as I calm a bit, I realize that my head being hit was anyways going to happen and that I knew it too. A smile appears on my face. I sip on the lemonade as my phone rings and the voice on the other side tells me that the file would be ready in an hour and we can go for binding afterwards.    

Somehow the rain and the breeze makes my smile even wider.

P.S: This post is part of a meme 'Theandric Thursday' by Ashna Banga. Here is an excerpt from her blog defining the meme,

Once every week, on Thursday, I'll be posting something that's a cross between Fiction and reality, something that's not really on an average person's mind on any average day (including the supernatural!) That's where 'Theandric' comes into the picture. The dictionary definition of the word says, 'Relating to the joint agency of the divine and human nature'.

Comments

  1. Oh wow. This is brilliant! A true Theandric Thursday post! :D

    Apart from the amazing deja vu idea, I'm in awe of the way you described everything. Element of mystery and foreboding all the time! Awesome! :D I feel amazed with deja vu generally, it's such a weird feeling! I loved the way you've done this post!

    Thanks for participating. :)
    PS- Using weird is not a compulsion ;)

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    1. Thanks in bunch for those wonderful words Ashna. I didn't use weird on purpose, i just italicized it on purpose. ;)
      Okay, no use of weird from now on. :D

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    2. Oh you can use it! I thought maybe you took it as a compulsory word :P It's my favorite. Use it all the time and I'll still like it! :P

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    3. Ohh.. that's fabulous. Cause 'weird' is like half of my vocabulary. :P

      Delete
  2. what an amazing and intriguing post!

    I really loved the way you have unfolded the mystery, and your strange feeling of deja vu..

    I don't know if it is completely fiction, or whether you have actually experienced something like this.. but one thing is certain; I have started admiring your story-telling skills.. :)

    Keep it up!

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    1. Thanks a lot Saloni. I feel elated by your admiration. ;)
      And let's just say, this time, almost all of it was fiction. :)

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  3. Usama's best perhaps. I can clearly see the elements of truth floating around and that's the beauty of it! You have a clever way pf putting things in a more-than-correct way, which again, makes it a treat to read. :D

    I keep having deja vu, by the way. I guess, it's one of those mind games perhaps.
    Leo says, you're just too good! :D

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    1. Thank you so much Leo. Your comment made me smile. Though, I felt it could still have been better. What with all the haste I wrote it in.

      There is one more thing I am trying to write something on, but its a lot difficult to write on, since I can't figure how and what to write on it. Hope I sort it out soon. :)

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  4. wow...great story telling skills....and the way u unfolded mystery....would like to read more such stories from you :) :)

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    1. Hey, thanks a lot Priyaa. Glad that you liked it. I'll surely be writing some more, so keep an eye out for it. ;)

      And thanks for stopping by. :)

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  5. Wow! It was awesome. Absolutely awesome. The way it unfolded, the mystery, it's beautiful :)
    Keep it coming Usama :)

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    1. I'll sure try to post something good. Thanks for your absolutely awesome comment Abinaya. :)

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  6. Darn... How come I din't notice this awesome story earlier! And man, you have pulled it quite astonishingly well.

    This has been one of the most identifiable posts by anyone I've read so far. I mean Déjà vu effects me most of the times, and I'm sure most people feel it at some point of time. But I guess the more creative one gets, the more closely s/he notices such moments. Same goes for weird dreams, that I've been getting way too many for some odd reason.

    All in all a great story, fiction or otherwise. I could connect to it really well & feel inspired too :)

    Godspeed.

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    1. Déjà vu is a very fascinating thing for me. Whenever it happens, I just freeze at it and the immediate thing that comes to my mind, is "what's going to happen next, cause I know it happen with happened with me earlier". :)
      Its a very mixed feeling.

      I am very glad, that you were able to connect with it. And thanks for the comment. :)

      Delete

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