The night was hot and humid.

The monsoon showers were playing a crafty game of hide and seek, exacerbating the discomfort. Sleep eluded me, I shuffled in bed. The air-conditioner purred like a lion in winter, barely effective. The fan on the ceiling, whirling lazily, seemed like an antiquated relic, on the verge of extinction.

To beat the ennui, I frequently glanced at the mobile, lying beside me, to check the time, which, it seemed, had come to a standstill. My irritability increased by the minute. I got up to take a short walk. On return, I slipped into a disturbed slumber.

Maybe, I would have taken just a few winks, when ‘I’ saw myself- startled, and terrified, as a nuclear cloud rose at some distance from where ‘I’ stood. The waves spread in concentric circles, and before ‘I’ could react, or even comprehend as to what was happening, they engulfed ‘me’. The body melted like wax. ‘I’ was hovering in space, from where ‘I’ watched all this in disbelief.

Shaken, I woke up from my shallow sleep. Beads of sweat trickled down my temples, like a slowly meandering mountain stream, palms of my hands wet, as if dipped in a bucketful of water, my lips, shuddering, face ashen white with fear. But ‘I’ was still in that body.

It was a nightmare, probably the worst I have ever experienced. I slouched in the bed, still gasping for breath, holding my throbbing head, which was experiencing acute pain. After some time, I regained my composure, relieved that this was only a horrible dream, and hoped that it never turned into reality.