Today I dreamed that I was hanging out with a really ghetto group of friends.
One of them is a gang leader, who is involved in all sorts of underground activities. We operate in Marine Drive in Mumbai, and are really brash and destructive. We steal or take whatever we want from vendors who take protection money. Even when some vendors offer to give us money, we laugh and take stuff, and eventually drive them out of business, just because we don't like them, and can fill the spot with a stooge. We drink and drive and sarcastically salute the cops, and the pedestrians have to jump out of the way or be taken to the hospital. We have this spot in Marine Drive where we all hang out, smoke chillum, drink up, and harass everyone who passes by. It is pretty bad. Like this one time we see a dog walker with 7 dogs, we chat up the guy like he is one of ours, and pet the dogs. One of them bits the top guy who gets too aggressive and friendly. So we throw all the dogs into the sea.
At some point there is a construction ditch, across which a thin plankway is built, and instead of going from the front of the museum, I go from the back so that I can have a smoke. I call for a chai, which is delivered by a kid. I stub out the cigarette but in a place where everyone else has, but take it out from there and throw it properly in the dustbin. The guy selling the chai and ciggies thinks I wants drugs and sends some over. I take them. On the way across the plank, two office going people in suits start coming down, just as I am going out. I push them in the ditch, splashing them in the mud and water, and go on my way.
I am friends with the top guy, but lowest in the hierarchy, and always being made fun of. I have not done anything illegal myself, but just hang around the gang because they are my friends. We decide to go to a movie in van one day. There are five seats, and luggage area on the back which is loaded. I am in the front seat with the driver guy, and we arrive at a spot on the Marine Drive. There are five other guys, including the top guy. People start filling in. Chain/mobile snatcher and top guy get in the back at first, but I get down simultaneously and offer my seat to the top guy. Top guy gets into front with little kid/kaccha limbu. I get in the back with dumb guy, mobile snatcher, bike stealer, and debt collector. The tempo screeches out of the way, and a pair of girls have to jump aside. Their fright at the near miss excites us. Dumb guy starts giving gyaan about how not to keep mobile phone in pocket, as the batteries are likely to explode. I tell him its a problem with only the cheap Chinese phones.
The tempo guy still has a bunch of CDs and DVDs in the back. We take out a stack and start going through them. Dumb guy gets the idea of playing music and hands over a CD to the driver guy. I tell him "abbe dhakkan, dekh toh le ki blank hai ki nahi". He asks "kaisa malum padta bhai?". I say "yeh dekh, likha hai ispe". Check if it is blank, how do you know?, and look, it is written on top. Then I ask the tempo guy, "why have you labelled the CD as blank?" Tempo guy says "because I come to know which ones not to put in." Everyone starts laughing, and then takes out all the CDs to see the other funny labels. We laugh at "nice songs" "sooongs" "bajao" "unplugged mix" and "90s nostalgia". Suddenly we stop laughing and start playing 90s nostalgia.
I am thinking why I am here with these guys and what I will do. I imagine a scenario where the top guy kills someone, and the police asks me what I was doing there. I make up my mind that if the top guy kills anyone in front of me, Im going straight to the police and telling them all the details. I decide to become a snitch, and feel bad about it, but good about it at the same time.
I secretly steal a few CDs and hide them in my jacket. We are blasting some song about stalking a girl, when we come across the DGP in a yellow shirt, brown belt and grey pants. He promises that he is out for our blood. Top guy stares him down. DGP does a little threatening dance and says be on your way or I will issue shoot at sight orders on you and all your people. Up ahead, we see a body on the floor. He is an old anglo Indian guy who was poor, but kind and friendly to everyone. He used to drink a lot, and cheated everyone he met. He could sell a stolen phone to a guy, and then steal it back from him before the guy reached home. If you needed anything though, like a weapon or something, it was this guy who could give it to you. He is now dead, and we are all sad. The cops have shot him. I see a ghost as a remembrance of the guy, who signs a song about how temporary happiness is and how lasting sadness is.
We are angry, and seething, but we really want to watch the movie. The movie is at the bombay stock exchange, really run down theatre under a tall but derelict building. There is a menacing bull statue out in the front. There is a big rush. People have climbed up the barriers. Everyone has little blue slips that are the tickets, but we have a big stack of them ourselves. It does not even belong to this movie, and the show timings were off. We just got a big batch old discareded tickets. We promptly fan out and start selling them. The gates open, everyone rushes in, and then the inner door closes. Half the people cannot see the movie, and hang out outside for the next show. I am one of them, as I am hurt and too slow to go up the barricade. People think Im holding everyone up, but I just smile at them as half the crowd comes back out from the closed inner door. One of the guys looking at me says "oh he knew that we were not getting in".
Im outside, having a cig, when a freaking huge bull out of nowhere starts kicking and goes wild. It throws one guy out with his hind feet, and goes after a short guy, who runs around but gets gored.Then it comes for me. I lead it up to the BSE bull and duck under, but it jumps over. I snake through the parked bikes and drop a Royal Enfield on it. The bull skids and falls with a big thud. But, it starts getting up. I am scanning for an escape route. I see my way out, a wheelbarrow full of cement. I run towards it with the intention of escaping, and wake up.
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