Big boat! Take me home...

Millions displaced. Thousands of homes destroyed. Standing crops swept away by floodwater. How worse can it get?

Millions displaced. Thousands of homes destroyed. Standing crops swept away by floodwater. Hundreds of thousands of people forced to live in relief camps. A government expressing its helplessness against the might of the “super flood”. Foreign aid slow to come in comparison with the Tsunami and the earthquakes of Kashmir and Haiti. Major cities struck by terrorist attacks again and talk of a revolution. How worse can it get?

What does the future hold for the millions displaced?

What if the present scenario turned out to be a short horror movie and the moment we walked out of the cinema, the grimness were replaced by a pleasant sensation of prosperity and freedom. What if?

One thing I never forgot to ask every survivor I meet is whether they still had the capacity to dream at night, that is, if they can sleep in the first place.

Almost all of them say they couldn’t and some even found my query ridiculous. But eventually, I met the compulsive visionaries. The two survivors said they dreamt all the time, no matter if it was day or night or they had the time and place to sleep or not.

“I dreamt that the floodwater had receded and we were waiting for special buses arranged to take us back to our villages. When the buses reach our hometown, we are awed by the new look. The kachcha houses have been replaced by beautiful multi-storied houses with lush green lawns.

“The streets are also cement-paved. We get off the buses, and stand in a queue. One by one, we go inside a large store and come out wearing clean clothes and shoes. People cannot wipe the smiles off their faces.”

The dreamer couldn’t wipe the smile off his own face as he narrated his dream.

“An officer waiting for us at a makeshift counter hands over the keys to our houses. Behind another such counter, female officers are holding a list of families to make sure that the lost ones are united with their families. I look around the town and cannot resist the green pastures that are spread out as far as I can see...”

The other one starts telling his dream, “I dreamt that I am tired of living in the camps and wandering on the road when a lad comes running up to me and says, ‘Rahbu! There’s a boat in Sindhu and someone’s throwing sweets at us.’ The boy pulls my arm forcing me to go that way. When we reach, I see a boat, the size of which I had never imagined. Huge enough to cover the entire width of the river and so long that I couldn’t see where it ended.

“As we approach the ark, people inside call out to me. I take a plunge into the river with the boy, but as I leave the ground, I start flying and reach inside the big boat. My family and friends are already there.  We are told that the boat was about to set sail for our homes. I peep outside the window and I see large, scary vultures. Some people were throwing bodies of dead people to them.”

As the dream turned ugly, I asked him to stop. I walked away with a meaningful smile on my face - one that I couldn’t wipe off.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2010.