January 2nd,2024

On New year's day or January 1st I went to my bestfriend's , and the delicious meal over there. When I returned I was full of zeal after meeting her. My mother and I were talking about nepotism or how the authorities prefer the people with similar castes and promotes those with similar surnames over the eligible and qualified people.

 She told me about how Nana ji ( her father ) who was a teacher in the school that she studied in, and Naani(her mother) told her that the principal of that school recommended the names of only those people who had the exact surnames belonging to his own caste despite Naana ji being overqualified for the post. And therefore he could not get to the Higher posts he worked hard for. However, he never seemed to be disappointed about this or criticised anyone for the discrimination he went through.

He bid his goodbye to all of us in November,2017. I was really attached to him . He was the most gentle person I had ever met till now. Also a very religious man, who followed rules and his own disciples. But very kind..who would never hurt even an ant. He had this habit of feeding the birds, squirrels everyday. Even they got to know that at what time he would come to feed them,so those tiny innocent creatures would wait for him at same spot and time. It was not the first time that I dreamt of him. I usually do. 

Since we talked about him that day before sleeping. So I had this really lovely dream when I slept. And what I saw was that I was holding his hands, throughout the dream, walking him with, slowly, making sure to match his speed, not loosing his grip, securing his hand in mine, we both smiling, feeling fresh...admiring the nature,breathing deeply,calm, peacefully. We reached home. He showed his craving for mango shake. I instantly got up and started preparing shake for him , selecting the best mangoes. I am so confused while choosing the most perfect ice cubes. So I decided putting little spherical ice cubes for him so it does not hurt his teeth. I am so deeply  involved in this  process.

My alarm ran off and I could not complete my dream. I do not remember if I gave that shake to him or not. I turned the alarm off to go back to sleep and continue the dream. But I failed in doing so. 

Though I had an amazing feeling throughout the day because I remembered his smiling face and holding his hand  that gave me immense happiness !

Thanks for reading this.