63

"Dada, they are in Lucknow!" Ramani had called Balwindar Singh. "They are in danger!" said Ramani.

"What are your men doing then? Watch them in danger?" papaji flared up in rage.

"Dada, I have my people deployed. But that sham has his men all around. A local person is helping him! Before someone gets killed they should leave the city!" Ramani suggested.

"Ramani, keep a close watch and if need be kill him!" ordered papaji.
"Yes Dada, I will bring them home, safe!" assured Ramani. 

*** *** ***

"Biwi, I think we have to go to Delhi!" papaji came into Mummiji's room!
"Oh! You too? I already have booked my ticket this evening with Shondeep!" said Mummiji matter of factly.

"What? You already are going? And didn't even bother to tell me?" papaji was upset.
"You were busy doing other things!" Mummiji snapped back.

Papaji stormed out. "Raj these people are going to Delhi!" he said seeing Raj sitting on sofa in the hall.

"I know Dad! Even I wanted to go with them but decided to stay back with you!" said Raj.
"For me? Who said I am staying back?" papaji barked at him.

"You told everyone not to go to Delhi... it will have adverse effect.. blah blah..!" Raj tried to imitate Papaji.

Papaji gaped at him for a while.. "Never mind! I am going to book my ticket!" he said angrily.
"Wait, Dad! I am also coming!" said Raj getting up to book the tickets.

******** ********** *********

Arnav and Khushi were in Taxi, heading towards Airport. Ramani had deployed his people for the safety. Sham already had boarded the early morning flight to report to the police station.
Arnav reached Delhi in the evening and was surprised to find Raj and Shondeep at the Airport to receive them. Khushi was more than happy.

"Look at you! What happened?" asked Raj concerned looking at her happy but pale face.
"She has fever!" said Arnav wrapping his arm around her shoulder. She smiled.
"Now I am alright!" she said happily. 

"This is the first thing I wanted to do... bring her to safety!" Arnav had other plans ready.
They entered Raizada House to see Mummiji and Papaji waiting for them. Khushi ran forward into Mummiji's embrace and papaji hugged Arnav. 

"You know what.... I was not mad as he thought!" Khushi started off looking at Arnav.
"Shhh,... Khushi, stop it! There is enough time to talk about it!" he said looking at Mummiji.
Mummiji nodded. "Khushi, go and freshen up !" ordered Mummiji. 

***** ******** ********

"Khushi...!" Arnav called her softly. She turned to face him. They were in their room.
"Did you see... Lavanya... in the office ... that day!" he asked her stuttering!
She ran into his embrace and said "Yes, I had seen you two in a hug!" his hands from her shoulders dropped. 

"I.. I felt lost! Arnav ji, I did not know what I was doing. I just kept running away from that place..!" she was crying in his arms. 

"she.. she had told me about your relationship...!" she said during her sobs.
"Khushi... do you believe her?" he asked in her ears...

"Yes... I mean I did, that time!... but now I know she was lying.. !" she said tightly hugging him. She pulled him on the bed and said, "Arnav ji, I am sorry! Please for..!" Arnav kissed her hard to shut her mouth up. 

"Ok! Now get ready!" he released her from his hug after a while and said in a soft voice. She nodded.

***** ****** ****** ****

Khushi and Arnav were at the central place and the family had gathered around them. Raizadas, Papaji and his family, Shondeep, Dasgupta, Guptas , Dr. Avinash and his psychologist friend were listening hard at what these two were saying. Khushi started off first. Everyone had read their dreams.

"You know, I was getting very scary dreams sometimes. Arnavji thought it was the effect of the thriller novels I used to read. But then Avinash advised me to write down my dreams....!" She told her dream journey. Everyone was amazed at the vivid dreams she was seeing... ...!

"Oh! These are not dreams! These are made up stories, in your subconscious mind.!" said the psychologist cutting everyone's imagination off. 

"Look at those so called dreams... they are so vivid, no one can remember dreams so vividly, unless...!" he stopped in the middle to have a careful read. 

"Oh! But natural... every time you woke up with a start feeling paralyzed or shocked.. you woke up during your REM (Rapid eye movement, where your brain flairs up becoming more receptive but your body movements are shut down!" people just gaped at him. 

"But then, why did I see the dreams in sync with hers?" asked Arnav trying to learn something.
"Same with you... you did not have those dreams but just made up stories in sync with hers"
"But then I did not show him my diary. He did not know what dreams I was seeing!" Khushi argued.

"Does she mumble in her sleep?" asked the psychologist. "Yes" was the answer.
"See? That's it. He heard her mumble and made up the stories!"

"But why would I do that? I mean I saw those dreams and wrote them down." Arnav raised his voice.

"That's not possible. Very few dreams are so vivid that we remember them later. 90% of our dreams are lost, as we don't remember them later!"

"These dreams are from those 10%" Papaji believed Arnav and Khushi.

"You know, I completely believe in dreams and that they do send some signals or premonitions..! Read these dreams.... it's a life span of two people deeply in love.. I believe in those....! This is some kind of drama unfolding a love story" Papaji jumped into the discussion.
"Oh! Don't be so sure about these... look at their dreams... All these are related to their present life. .. They saw a boy following her, That Sham followed and made their life a living hell!" said Avinash confirming the theory of the psychologist.

"All the dreams are related to the present life. They fantasized ! That's it!" concluded the psychologist. 

"But we had not seen the boy and the girl in our present life!" argued Khushi.

"That can't be true! No character in your dream is a complete stranger. You got to have seen them somewhere. It could be a person you have seen when you were just a small kid.! Or you must have read or heard stories about them" said the psychologist. Arnav and Khushi looked at each other with a smile on their face. 

"There is no such thing like premonition or signals sent from the dreams... dreams are extension of your awakening or your asleep life. Many a times dreams are outbursts of your suppressed feelings or the subconscious feelings taking a shape of dreams!" said the psychologist.

"Look at this... she was pinned down in a dark room screaming in pain... this is perfect description of labour pains... she was dreaming of giving birth to a child...any married woman would dream of having children! The way she has endured in her present life, reflects her dreams... she dreamed about pain not the joy of playing with the child. " he clarified.

"Look at his dream.. he says he cannot do it... ! It's a misconception that a juvenile diabetic medicines develop impotency... he must have got that fear somewhere in his mind ...!" The psychologist dissected each and every dream to prove them wrong that they saw some kind of past events..That happened. 

"Look at those key events... these two have each other's keys, that's what both of them said... the same they saw in their dreams... Somewhere we feel that those mannat keys protect us! Everyone from this part of the world feels protected!" said the psychologist. Avinash took out his key smiling at everyone!

Papaji was not convinced... he knew another dimension of the story. Khushi got flared up!
"Oh! Is it? You feel we saw our keys..? What we saw were silver keys intricately designed!" she said angrily. 

"That's what I say, you fantasized!" concluded the psychologist.

"Oh yeah? Then what...!" she was stopped by Arnav in the middle. "Khushi wait... let him finish."

"See, there may be some mystery stories your family members must have told you, when you were just kids and you tried to correlate those and concocted these stories. Lot of things happen in our dream state, Out brain projects things buried deep into our memories. It's a rarest of the rare thing that your stories match so perfectly...! This could be a method your brains could have used to vent out your extreme emotions! But that does not mean some reincarnation or something..! "said the psychologist looking at the disbelief on their faces. 

Khushi got up in rage and Arnav pulled her down again.

"But our Upanishad tells a lot about dreams and their significance in our life. They are the link to our past and future...! " said Nani.

"Yes, dreams are significant part of our life. .. but there is nothing like past or future life! Dreaming is essential to mental, emotional and physical well-being! Your suppressed emotions are vented out.. the unwanted redundant memories are flushed out in dream state!" He dismissed the idea of mystery of dreams..

"The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad is on dreams and their meanings... their dreams fit into the ancient philosophy about dreams, It explains the nature of the individual self and the Universal Self, as well as the concept of the transmigration of souls" Naniji was annoyed with such a summary dismissal about the theories of dreams.. 

"In psychology Dreams are the touchstones of our characters.! The psychologist concluded.
Khushi got up with a jerk...

"You think this is all psycho problems we both are facing?" she flared up.

"Then in that case what is this?" she took out a intricately designed silver key from her bag and so did Arnav. They had identical keys with them.

"I got this from my house in Lucknow!" she said raising her voice 

"And I got this from the room which I used to seen in my dreams!" he said with the same tone.
Everyone else was shocked. They just gaped at the mystery getting unfolded.