STREETLIGHTS

                                                                                                        From the pen-APN

When I stepped out of my house that November evening and opened the main iron gates, I was welcomed by tall streetlights which were scattering pleasant milky brightness as far as they could. The slender asphalt road, although worn out, looked majestic with the night sky overhead. The gleaming streetlights of the roadsides and the slightly misty and cool atmosphere were like the beauty of a dreamland.  The street was dominated by silence and loneliness and was a sight of pure magical charm and subtle beauty. The lighted view of the street stretching itself into the distant dark and mingling somewhere ahead indistinctly raised a good deal of philosophical thoughts and fixed my eyes in the distant horizon like a stoic. I could sense only some distant shadows. However, I could not but appreciate the immediate air and light which exhaled hope, joy, warmth and all-embracing love.      

I slowly walked ahead, chasing the lights. My hands were resting calmly in my trouser pockets, and so was my mind serenely resting in the soothing light. Further, in the silence of that wintry night, the easy wind was stripping off all my impurities and the lights were anointing my soul.

After a few moments’ walk, I stood beneath one streetlight that was close to the main entrance of my building. I wished “Goodnight” to all those confidently beaming and gleaming pillars of light and then went inside to have a peaceful night’s sleep.

    

Was It Simply A Dream?

From the pen-APN

(Dedicated to People's College Buguda)

When I woke up I knew that it was simply a dream.  But that dream made me sob uncontrollably and feel intensely some deep bonding that existed between me and the academic institution where I used to teach. I had almost drifted out of my sleep but I could not calm myself because my heart was still throbbing with some rush of emotions. In that dream, I had experienced one of the saddening farewell meetings and had witnessed the sorrowful pangs of a man who was departing from an institution where he had worked for a few years. I saw the man ruminating about his precious golden memories. To him, those departing moments were the moments of great discovery when he could realise the depth of his relationship with the said academic institution. At that point of that sad departure only, the man could realise how caring, loving and invaluable was the institution to him.

It is needless to say that the man in the dream was none but me.

The dream was over. I was then awake but I got amazed at my own feelings. In the silence of the morning, I realised how the soul of an institution spoke to me, softened my heart, moistened my eyes, stirred up many hidden feelings and demanded unfaltering dedication from me. Although it was just a dream, I could not ignore those life-like reactions, spontaneous responses and the warm feelings which I had experienced so vividly in my sleep. The memory of such a dream had stirred up some deep emotional state which had hitherto remained undiscovered in me.

I thanked those dreamy moments because they helped me understand my feelings better and resulted in some attitudinal changes at the personal and spiritual levels as well. Nobody knew what had happened to me but I was a changed man. I was lost in my newfound fond feelings for the institution and I was motivated for better work culture and pursuits of excellence.

When I got up and looked myself at the mirror, the figure in the mirror smiled back at me and told, “Afterall, tomorrow is another day and your days are not yet over”