The Nostradamus Redemption

Warning: This article is not about the great man in the title.

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What I find significant about Nostradamus is the force with which he asserts the presence of the future. The present would have been an edge of time otherwise. That does not mean Nostradamus is the end or edge of understanding time. And…and…

The next thing I knew, I was trying to hold my head straight and open my eyes forcefully. I did not know how long I was asleep. I should not say sleep, either. I dozed off. The impact I felt however, was that I drifted away for a considerably longer period than I usually did.

These days, I sleep a lot. Not that time-sensitive, proper dormant state that overcomes an individual during nighttime, but a sense of overwhelming weight that hangs on the eyelids on all occasions. My memory of when this issue started remains vague. For some months now, I have not been sleeping much during night. Reason? I could not pin point. Sometimes, a mosquito attack and sometimes, a group of people who live only inside my head. Mostly between the conception of a story and its birth, this state follows me.

As I was working on Wall of Colours and Other Stories, especially in its editing and proofing stage, I could only work during night. During daytime, domestic emergencies and other obstructions (day job, otherwise a blaring television) kept me away from work. Perhaps the schedule I set for my work is the reason, now I experience this reversal in sleep. I drift into sleep only near to early morning. All through the daytime, I must carry the weight of the remaining sleep on my eyelids.

I had a book in my hand, Carlos Castaneda’s Fire from Within. In Fire from Within, Castaneda reveals a spot in the inner cocoon of human beings, the cause for hallucinations and visions. I have no idea, still, why I thought about Nostradamus. I was reading, and then…I drifted away into another thought world.

I dozed off again and a thought flickered in my mind, as a hallucination, I should live in the present and enjoy my short nap, no matter what.