Buland Darwaza, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra
A few days ago, I had a dream. In my dream my cousin was getting married (she, in reality, had gotten married almost three decades ago). The house was full of guests. It seemed to be my uncle’s house that appeared to evoke a mixture of the memories I carry within me of my grandparent’s house and my uncle’s house. Among the guests, my (dead) mother was there, very well dressed for the occasion. My father was also there, well dressed. My mother and father hugged each other. My aunt (my mother’s sister, whose daughter was getting married) was also there – she had passed away a week ago. The ritual of the marriage was going on. Before I realised, suddenly, the ceremony was over. Astonished, I said “how come the marriage got over so soon, I haven’t yet taken any pictures of it……” The other guests told me that the ceremony was already finished, but in the dream I neither saw my cousin nor her husband. What I saw was a group of seated women surrounding my dead mother and aunt (who were alive in the dream). While my aunt and mother had been talking to each other lying on a bed sheet, suddenly those women started wrapping up the bed sheet as they kept saying my mother and aunt were actually dead. In the dream at times I saw them both talking to each other and at times I saw them motionless. Then I ran to my elder sister and told her that though we know that mother is dead, I had just seen her talking to our aunt. I kept asking her in the dream to tell me the truth, is my mother actually dead or alive? When I narrated what I dreamt to my elder sister the next day, she warned me and said this ominous dream would soon bring some misfortune. 20
