Life before Birth- When I was in the Army

It rarely happens that I start a blog post with the title already decided. ‘Life before Birth’- I thought this is a good title to begin with, against the usual- ‘life after death’ epithet- although how much it justifies this post I wouldn’t know until I finish it over the next few minutes.

Hold on, this is NOT about the philosophical theory of life and death and rebirth nor is it about the Egyptian belief or anything like that. Although yeah, some parts of this might actually be signifying something in those orders. I am sure you are going to enjoy the humour of this because this is simply about a 'dream'.

When I was young, I used to have a dream a lot many times. One dream, numerous nights. And I remember it distinctly till date: it was a battle scene. There was a war going on. There were bunkers made on the border (just like in the film Border, one of my most favourite films till date) and the enemy was taking over. A group of armed soldiers kept running and shooting. I am watching it all from a third-person perspective. Suddenly I am on top of a huge wall, probably a high bunker. The story is now unfolding in a first-person narrative. This is when I realise that I am a small kid and I am scared and crying. The enemy reaches near me and point their guns towards me. I wake up.

Yeah, that’s it.

Ok, I confess it was a nightmare. I am sure I didn’t give much thought to it then but I do remember waking up from this same dream a lot many times probably when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I started giving thought to this probably only a few years earlier when I actually got to understand the concept of deja-vu (The feeling that you have witnessed some event, some experience in the exact same way, at some undefined time earlier). And also when Christopher Nolan’s Inception came out. That’s when I started thinking and reflecting on my old dream.

Did it mean something? Was I having flashes of memories from a previous life? Was I indeed involved in some war? Was I in the Indian Army in the 1962 war against China, because that is the only war we have lost post-Independence? (Yeah, I would like to believe that I was an Indian in the previous life too, in case there was one) The questions and the thoughts can go on and on.

Aaah…frankly, this is fun! No philosophy, but just a flash of memory. May be I could get myself hypnotised and then in case something like this were actually true, I would recount all the experiences of my previous life. A scene straight out of a movie it would be, isn’t it? :D

Anyways, as promised, this post isn’t about the ‘philosophy’ and I would stick to it and not stretch this post.

I had been willing to share this ‘dream/nightmare’ in a post that still lies in my drafts titled ‘Dream phobia’, but it never actually saw the light of day for reasons unknown to this version of my life. Just now I opened Indispire and had a good laugh reading the topic this week “What do you think you were in your past life? Share the experience of your intuitions! #IntuitionofMyPastLife” because I knew within a moment what I ought to write for this. Yeah, I was in the Army or was an Army man’s son in my previous life! Haha…

This post has been written as part of Indiblogger’s weekly blog writing ideas at Indispire. Do check the space for what other bloggers think about their past lives.

PS: Do note that this post in no way is meant to hurt the sentiments of the Indian Army in any way. It's just a personal anecdote meant for fun reading. I have the absolute respect for the Jawans at the border.