Sidharth woke after a rotten night. He was still thinking about his dream. What kind of a dream it was? Was that even a dream or something else? What would happen if it becomes true? Thousands of unconscious thoughts were roaming in his mind.
Sidharth was on his bed, it was 9 o'clock.
'Sidharth' his mother yelled 'get up, breakfast is ready.' His mother was much older then she should be, according to his son's age. anyone could have misunderstood her as Siddharth's grandmother. However, their features were quite similar, same nose and eyes.
His mother glanced at him through a small serving window which was between the kitchen and the only room, in which they all live. A small room, with an old double bed in it, with a ripped dirty bedsheet. In the middle of the room, there was a pair of loose-fitting curtains hanging, in an infelicitous try to hide the spear parts of his dad's taxi and other waste household appliances.
Sidharth had his breakfast and got out of the room. They were living in a rental house with two more families. Since his childhood, Sidharth had faced problems in almost every phase of his life, like this morning, even for going to the toilet, he had to get bothered. Someone was already inside.
Sidharth had to wait so, he went outside. As he got out, he saw his friend Aditya washing his car outside of his home, in a red sports vest and a black narrow lower. His house was an average double story house, painted grey and pots and plants were placed in the front of the first floor.
Sidharth waved his hand. They came closer and shook hands. 'how are you buddy' Sidharth asked. 'I am fine' Aditya replied 'how are you'. Sidharth exhaled 'you are not going to believe what I saw last night'.
'what?' Aditya demanded.
'I ha…' Sidharth opened his mouth to explain, With a large intake of air in his lungs but before Sidharth could say anything. A heavy voice came from the house behind. It was Aditya's father voice, he was calling him. 'sorry I have to go brother' Aditya said in a hastened way 'its Sunday and dad is home. See you in the evening, bye'. And Aditya sprinted to his house. And Sidharth mouth left open.
Sidharth wanted to tell his friend what had happened with him but he knew his friend. Normally Aditya was like a lion but in front of his father, he ends up no more than a cat. There was no use stopping him. so, Sidharth went into his house back. He still wanted to tell someone about his dream, first, he thought to tell his mother but he didn't want to scare her as well. He decided to keep this thing between him and his friends.
Then he thought Rajveer could be free. He hurried toward his room, picked his mobile to call Rajveer. Bell rang, but no one picked the phone. Soon Sidharth remembered that his friend would be sleeping at this time. After all he was a sportsman. he wakes up early, workout and after practising his martial arts. He sleeps till noon. He was not going to pick anyone's call yet.
The rest of the day was much longer for Sidharth. He did not feeling like to do any work. He tried to study for his job exam, listening to music, see something on YouTube. But nothing worked, every scene he saw last night was kept on coming in front of his eyes. the giant statues of Buddha, the temple, the book and the amulet, and the face of old psycho.
Somehow Sidharth managed till noon. It was 4 p.m. Sidharth was still listening to music on his mobile and a bell rang. Rajveer was calling him. Sidharth picked the phone. 'woken up lazy!' Sidharth cursed.
'yeah. So, what were you saying?' Aditya asked in a sleepy voice
'let's meet first and call Aditya also' Sidharth said 'he listens to you more. then I will tell you both'
'but tell me something at least' Rajveer insisted.
'no! are you coming or not?' Sidharth asked stubbornly
'okay, let me call him' Rajveer replied and cut the phone. He was quite light-headed with his friends he never minds anything soon. Especially of Sidharth, they used to enjoy loose-talk a lot with each other. However, the things were a bit different with Aditya, he was quite a diplomate and you had to be diplomatic while talking to him whereas Sidharth was pretty state forward so both of them used to oppose each other like two sides of the magnet. Rajveer was the clinch behind them as he could be both state forward and diplomatic, whatever needed at a time.
After five minutes Rajveer called again 'he is also free. I have told him. you will find him outside. and my house is empty, come here, we will talk here.'
'okay, we are coming then' Sidharth end up the call. And went outside.
After fifteen minutes. They were sitting on a fine sofa, old but fine. Rajveer's mother had maintained her house well, most of the stuff was old but clean and hygiene. The House, however, was structured like a train, with three compartments, and bathrooms in front and back side of the house, in the place of engines.
Sidharth was holding it from too long, he was quite humorous, funny, cute, even sensible sometimes but the boy had no patience, for him waiting half day was like waiting for a decade. Without wasting an another second Sidharth let the cat out of the bag. He explained every single detail of his dream to his friends and they kept listening with patience.
'so, you are saying' Rajveer queried after he finished 'that you were actually in a secret temple of Lord Buddha, last night?'
'yes, I think I was' Sidharth replied.
'it was dream brother' Aditya insisted 'don't take this serious'
'I know It was a dream but..' Sidharth emphasized 'but it was different. Okay, you tell me you ever had a dream like this, which was so clear?'
Aditya reaction on this was full of staidness 'yes actually'
And everyone's attention turned toward him.
'it kept bothering me in my whole childhood.' Aditya continued matter of factly 'I always used to have the same dream and every time it used to disturb me equally. In this dream I see that I am in a saint's clothes, you know, saffron cloths?, standing in an ancient looking hermitage made of wood and grass. And an old white-bearded man is sitting on a mat and I am standing beside him, hands joined and chanting. There are more people also but they all are in traditional clothes, which people used to wear in old times, white "dhoti kurtas" and they all seem to be frightened form something. The old man has a bottle in his one hand and a wooden box in another and the upper side of the box "ॐ" is inlaid. The bottle is an old-style plain glass bottle with a wood cork on it. and it is containing some kind of mist in it. the old man is doing some kind of incantation, then he puts the bottle inside the box. And as he places the bottle, I fall on my knees because of extreme pain in my stomach and lower part of my chest. And do vomiting of blood. At that time, I know that the cause of this is in the bottle. And then I always wake up. But the worst thing happens after waking up. I forget my family and start saying weird things, Which I don't remember now, my mom had told me about that. I just remember the dream, nothing after that.'
Aditya was good in explaining things no one speaks between, now when he finished.
'wow man,' Rajveer said 'I think you were a saint in your previous birth and not a normal one perhaps a ghost catcher'
'yes, that's why' Sidharth said with a grin 'he is the lucky one among us'
'only you think that' Aditya gave him a flat loom 'well, it's an eight-year-old story by the way, this dream stoped when I was twelve.'
'after listening to you both' Rajveer said 'I am having a rubbish thought'
'today is rubbish day bro, don't you know, come on, we are listening' said Sidharth now feeling quite relaxed after telling his friends about his dream.
'okay if we considering Aditya's dream as a memory from his past, then Sidharth dream could be a vision also, a future sight. I mean if rebirth is possible then what the matter with future's vision.'
'well, although it sounds pretty much nonsense' Aditya said 'but still, you got a point'.
Rajveer and Sidharth frowned and shared a confused look. They were amazed by listening to Aditya's agreement. They both know that he was not the kind of person who believes in this kind of things but here he was. That gained Rajveer's confidence.
'Sidharth said that the statues were made of metal. guys think' Rajveer leaned forward on the sofa 'what if the metal would be gold, okay even if it will not, but finding a secret temple, would be a great historical finding. the government would honour us'
'why not' Aditya sneered 'this is India brother, even if we found it our name will never be mentioned, someone else will take the credit'
'we can think about that later' Sidharth said eagerly 'first tell me, are we really going to search for it?'
'you both have gone mad' Aditya scowled 'where the hell on earth would we search for it'
'yeah, that's right' Rajveer said desperately 'after all, what we have as a clue?'
'a well' Sidharth put in excitedly 'we can check all ancient well in our city and try to relate the place's history with Buddha' Sidharth said confidently 'and where these two things will match, that's the place.'
Rajveer was already convinced, now they both were waiting for Aditya's signal. Aditya knew that too but his clever mind was not giving him permission to say yes for such a stupid task. On the other side, his heart was opposing him to deny his friends. He was not completely in favour but for his friends, he said 'okay we can try once'
'that's my brother' Rajveer yelled excitedly 'let's find it.'
They all were agreed but they were wondering how could they be such stupid to chase a dream.
But something was on, which they weren't aware of. Sidharth and Rajveer were even more surprised about the acceptance of Aditya.
Now they decided to go for a walk and to complete their talk in the way. Because Rajveer's mom and brother were back from their relative's house. Now they were in the broken streets of the village. 'well, honestly saying I am more festinated about the book and the amulet rather than temple and gold' Sidharth said 'what you guy thinks about it?'
'it could be magical' Rajveer said mockingly 'okay, okay it could be some kind of holy text' Sidharth and Aditya laughed a little.
'we did many things together' Rajveer said.
'yes, and we are an extreme failure in almost everything' sidharth replied
'so, what would be the difference if we also fail in this?. We are useless and will be useless. There is no harm to give it a try, besides it would be fun'
The walk was about to end now, they were at a crossroad. They stopped there, it was the place where they always get apart because from here, the difference between their houses was the same. 'okay let's go home now' Aditya instructed 'and start the search on the internet. Search for all ancient well in Kurukshetra and see if anyone could be related to Lord Buddha, we will meet tomorrow on the same time, then we will go to the river and analyze the collected information. And plan farther'.
Rajveer said bye to his friends and turned back to the way of his home and his friends went their way. Everyone was feeling excited to go for an adventure like Hollywood movies but nobody was aware of the mystic force working behind everything. Evoking them to take the quest.