Inside-out

She wanted this for a long time and finally it was coming. Quite excited and anxious, she prepared for the event.

The day came. She was allowed fifteen minutes. She was angry that she was not allotted the sixty minutes that she had asked for. They said: "First sit through for fifteen."

She was advised to sit in a wee corner and observe the entire process. She was thrilled. She pulled a chair and made herself cozy in a "nice" corner. The process was going on. It did not have an exact starting time. She was told that since there was no beginning and no end, it did not follow any plot. She was happy that she will not miss anything by not being there for the beginning.

She started listening, observing and . . .

She noticed restlessness, uneasiness, sudden happiness, blankness.

She stopped. She cursed herself for not bringing a book. She had asked for sixty minutes and got only fifteen minutes but it seemed like eternity.

Distracted, she tried to "think." She could not. The "process" was quite loud almost hijacking every other thing. "How could this be?" She tried to remove herself mentally from the scene and think of water and small boats but the "process" was almost suffocating her senses. She wanted to go. But it was only seven minutes. She had eight more left. She figured in the "process" many times. She wasn't interested. "Let me go." "Please let me leave this place."

Silence. This was her own asking. There was no escaping it now.

Finally but slowly the fifteen minutes were over.

She ran outside. She was wrapped in sweat. Life wouldn't be the same again.

The dream-stealer woke up. Many times she had imagined being inside the mind of someone and observe the processes of the mind sitting in a wee corner. She always wondered if that would be a romantic affair. But after the dream, she revised her thoughts. The dream-stealer finally dreamt and was glad she had seen a dream but unhappy that being inside the mind of someone was so terrifying.