Shuja Tasleem

  I spend my days in mindless chain-of-thoughts in the hope of brewing some compelling story. But sadly – most of the time, I end up fixing my reality instead. I try to change the endings of each encounter I ever had or will have with people I have either lost or am afraid to lose. Thank god, my dreams give me hope that my subconscious is still good at sewing fiction. So, today I bring to you excerpts from a dream – I woke up in the middle of exactly when the clock was about to strike two in the dead of night. I have a strong urge to note this dream down in my dream journal before I lose it to mindless mundane days or fuzzy sleepless nights. (Yes, I have a dream journal.) Here goes… It was the end of the world; at least it felt like that to me. Or maybe it was one of those abandoned sets of a sci-fi movie where destruction had taken over, and the plot was waiting for some miraculous recovery twist. Vaguely eying one ruin after the other, I knew I was maneuvering myself in...

Chase me through the backwaters of Dal, while I will run fast over those tiny bridges leading us away from the tinsel town of hopes and dreams... "Will you hold my hand if I would want to take you in a Shikara and row us into the unknown world of wonder?" I will ask you with a heart full of doubt. "Why wouldn't I?", you will say these words releasing me of my miseries. We will watch the stars falling across the horizon of the night sky and you will laugh watching me in awe as I will try catching them on a larger than life-sized lotus leaf... I will fail in my vain attempt to do so, but just when frown will start overtaking my face; you will hand me a freshly plucked lotus leaf embedded with tiny droplets of Dal; twinkling like diamonds... "It shines just for you; just like my heart glistens watching you smile!", you will say. "And I smile just for you!", I will laugh.  We will row till the end of the world; who knows if time wi...