It was quite late into the night. I went to a movie with my buddy and two Arab girl-friends (i.e. friends who were girls, nothing more). The sherut (शेरूत – an Israeli shared taxi) dropped us at the gates of the Old city at 12:53 am (point A). Our destination was point B, across the Muslim Quarter along the narrow walkways.

Map of the Old City. The points A-I are used to explain the events below

The four of us were laughing, joking and talking about the movie until reality stuck us. It was late night and we had to cross the Muslim Quarter. Women were not allowed to travel alone after 9 pm. They had to married and accompanied by their husband. Hanging out with male friends so late at night was against the rules. The punishment was death for the girls and 200 lashes for the guys (not sure if rules were different for non-Muslim guys).

We were two Hindu guys with two Muslim girls, trying to cross to point B.

One of the girls was called Hafza and I don’t remember the name of the other. Hafza wore religious black head dressing, while the other girl was modern, dressed in jeans. The four of us were so close friends that we never realized until now that we belonged to different religions, or such man-made differences.

We became serious. As a self-declared leader I announced: “Three of you stay here (outside the gates) while I go and checkout if it’s safe inside. Don’t go anywhere.” I asked my buddy to protect the girls (ah, how sexist!).

Ignoring their protests, I ventured in. It was typical old city. Nobody around, occasional drunkards (strange to find them in Muslim quarter) and drug addicts lingering and looking at me with suspicion. For a moment I thought I was on those narrow alleys of Mumbai or Toronto. I started to run on the route. Too bad it was too dark, I couldn’t see my feet and everything was so confusing. At point C, instead of going straight, I took a left turn – blunder…..

In total darkness, I ran till point D because I saw light there. To my right side was a Turkish shuk (शुक् - market) – brightly lit and very clean. Just one perfume shop was open. The guy inside was wearing a blue Islamic cap. He looked at me and sneered (as if mocking at my panic). I went back and continued to point E, which was a junction again.

PS: I hate junctions.

I turned left and approached gate F. It was a huge gate, really massive. It looked similar to the Damascus gate, except that it looked evil and gloomy. The doors creaked. They were closing. There were men and women standing in front of the gate. Someone started yelling भागो भागो… (run, run!) and as the gates closed they started running. There was loud music, someone playing a Flute and मृदंगम् (Mridangam - South Indian percussion instrument).

I started running too. The road was a steep hike and I was trying my best to run but even the women dressed in blue abayas were overtaking me. Somehow overcoming the screams and fear, I made it out to gate G. I was exhausted with all this running around in darkness, full of fear and panic.

I saw a plaza in the front. I recognized it was the tourist plaza in the Jewish quarter where I clicked pictures yesterday. I saw few tourists and tour buses there. Somehow I dragged myself to point H.

Holy shit, I was lost (realization 1). It was 30 minutes since I left my friends at point A (realization 2). I didn’t carry my cellphone today (realization 3). I couldn’t speak Arabic or Hebrew (realization 4). I was terribly worried about the safety of my friends (realization 5). What can I do now? Going back would mean another half-hour of running thru terrifying dark alleys.

I collapsed on the floor crying, unable to take all of that.

1:23 am. But then I told myself to get rid of the melodrama and got in control of myself. I got up and started looking for help. Tourists were running towards the bus and the driver was honking. I wanted a cellphone and I was ready to steal one if I didn’t find any. I saw 2 girls and begged them to make a call from their cell phone. I waved a 10 Shekel note (Rs. 40 or $2.5) at them. But like any other friendly Israelis I met, they simply gave me their cellphone. It was a RIM blackberry.

I started dialing the number. But I couldn’t. My hands were shaking, my eyes were full of tears and I was so weak that I couldn’t press the buttons. Embarrassed, I asked them to help. The girl dialed the number. Suddenly ten little Arab kids appeared there from somewhere, grabbed the cellphone from the girls and held it to my ear (aww.. so nice). Probably because I looked so damn weak that I couldn’t hold a cellphone. When the call connected, they all yelled – “helloooo….” I took the phone and said, “I’m okay, Toda (तोदा - Hebrew for Thanks.)” They turned away without saying a word, strange. Then I realized they were Arab Muslims (and probably trained to be apathetic to Hebrew) so I shouted again Shukran (शुकरान् - Arabic for Thanks.) They turned, smiled, waved and disappeared.

Back to the call, I started blabbering to my friend in Marathi (strange!). I was so delighted to hear my friend’s relaxed voice that I talking to him frantically. He said बोल बोल, मी बघतोय (keep talking, I am seeing it). What the hell…. I turned around and there he was – walking from point I to point H. The girls were giggling too.

Their situation was stark in contrast to mine. I felt like I was almost dead. Although I was so relieved to see the three of them safe and sound, I was agitated at my buddy for being so risky. It was me who proposed the night movie idea. Although tourist, I was the guy who knew the streets well. The Muslim girls (locals) were my responsibility. I was agitated, I roared and ran towards my buddy, with this strong urge to slap him.

“Dude, it’s okay trust others too”, he said.

I wake up with a shock, look at the watch, it was 1:30 am. That’s right, this was a dream.

Influences:
- Recent trip to Jerusalem old city and one night when I was roaming there with friends.
- Asking strangers in Israel if I can use their cell phone
- Turkish shuk in Akko (Will post about this shortly)
- My superior map reading and navigation skill
- Japanese anime – I have to protect my friends at the cost of my life

Like I said, all this was a dream. Feel free to tell me what you think it means:

• Woollen hand gloves (15)
• Trip to the Holy Land (17)
• The unalterable soul (4)
• The milky way (9)
• The Lover (6)

I am dressed as a soldier and I’m fighting a war against terrorists. I can see typical scenes of wars that are shown in movies- few soldiers firing from behind their bunks, camouflaged with black stripes on face, leaves attached to their green uniforms, lot of dust, chaos and noise.

I’m a very good army man, perhaps a specialist hired on contract for this particular operation. However, I notice a particular trend in my style. I seem to shoot only at opponents who are wearing hand gloves. Woollen hand gloves in particular. This habit doesn’t bother me, and it looks like I have followed this trend for years.

Now I’m shooting the terrorists and moving ahead, and suddenly their leader stands facing me. We look into each others’ eye and I grin. This is going to be my best shot. As I position my gun, ready to shoot, suddenly I notice that he is not wearing any hand gloves. I am extremely disappointed! I get panicked and simply don’t know what to do. I can’t shoot a man not wearing gloves!

End of scene.

In next scene, I’m at a bar, drinking with someone who looks like my good friend. Next moment, I notice that he is none other than the dreaded criminal whom I pardoned and made friendship with. I am absconding from my duty and my seniors are furious about it.

Its some special day (maybe his birthday), and I present my new friend with a gift (can you guess what it is?)

A brand new set of hand gloves.

He is happy to receive a gift.
He puts them on instantly.

And then, I shoot him. I still remember the expressions on his face- shocked with disbelief.

- - -
I woke up after this happened and couldn’t sleep that night. I kept thinking about it for over a week…

• The Lover (6)
• Movie with two Arab women (38)

Note: This is not what it might sound like. I urge you to continue reading

- - -
They were dating for about three months now. It was only today that they decided to move their relationship ahead and have [tag]sex[/tag]. She arrived at his apartment and they started kissing. She sat on the bed while he was standing in front of her, bending down to kiss her tender lips. His torso was supported by his hands resting on the bed. His palms adjacent to her thighs gripped the sheets firmly. For a brief moment they stopped kissing and she looked at his eyes intently. She was rubbing her hand on his forearms which were covered by his pink formal shirt. The guy was wearing gloves and was virtually covered from top to bottom (weird). He started unbuttoning his shirt while they still kissed with their eyes shut. The next moment she opened her eyes and looked at her right hand which was still caressing his left forearm, now supposedly naked.

- - -
She screams.

The guy had removed his shirt and she expected to see him shirtless. Instead, she couldn’t see him at all…. He was invisible!

‘Invisible!’ she thinks to herself and freaks out.

“What the f—”, she says.

The man replies with an naughty grin, “Yeah, so I am invisible”

She scrambles to get away from him, he chases her.

The apartment is quite high, perhaps on 25th floor of the building. It is a huge studio apartment with the street facing side having a full glass wall. Had the glass been normal, people outside or on the street could have been able to see inside the apartment. But this glass had unidirectional transparency. His washroom seemed like a block protruding out of his studio. Again, it was a glass box. From the street, the building looked like a huge glass wall, with just one glass block standing out from it, from the 25th floor.

She ran into the washroom and bolted the door firmly from inside. He was banging on the door saying something incomprehensible. She looked around the bathroom to find something useful. She found a gas lighter. It looks like a gun, except that it triggers a flame instead of a bullet. (I’ve seen people light candles with it). She opens the glass window and screams, but being at this height makes her screams meaningless.

She observes that there is a red coloured cylindrical hoarding hanging from the washroom window. She finds some inflammable liquid in the bathroom throws some of it on the cloth hoarding and ignites it with the lighter. Clearly, she is trying to attract attention, but her efforts still go in vain.

Then, she points the lighter to a smoke detector and instantly the apartment starts blaring with the fire alarm. She is certain that authorities will arrive there soon. Water starts spraying from the automatic showers and this douses the flame generating capability of the lighter permanently. (Wonder why) She is shocked and doesn’t know what to do.

- - -

That’s it. I wake up all sweaty and confused.

• Woollen hand gloves (15)
• Movie with two Arab women (38)