XBOX – Dragon Age – Origins

It was the longest night of my life or at least in the life I know and remembered. I could hardly sleep. It was the first time I am spending my night in the open. It felt like I was camping minus all the excitement and fun.

As the day broke, I woke up and fixed up myself a bit. I was thinking all night and was determined to solve this puzzle that has taken my life hostage. My phone was almost dead and was surviving on the last bit of battery life. I was just getting ready to go over the phone numbers that I had called the day before when my phone rang.

Surprisingly this was the first time my phone has rung since yesterday morning. Well, not much of a surprise given that I was in a dead zone almost all day and the entire night. Taking a walk into the open seems to have given me the luck I badly needed. I could recognize the name of the caller and answered the phone immediately. My joy knew no bounds when it was in fact one of my oldest friends calling me. Apparently everybody was worried that I hadn’t come home in the night. I was blabbering on the phone in excitement and wasn’t making any conversation. He understood that I was in some kind of trouble and offered to come get me. I asked him for specific directions on where to wait for him and got there as soon as he hung up the phone.

The fact that I hadn’t eaten in a full day doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. I wanted to meet someone I knew and he was going to show up anytime now. I was checking my watch and could see the seconds hand making its way round the dial. It was like the time did not want to move forward. In about 25 minutes my friend shows up in his car. I never knew he had a car. His looks were different too. He had grey beard and balding hair. But I knew who he was. He was surprised to see my state. He started off with his long questions but I wasn’t ready to answer. My only words were Take Me Home.

We took off immediately and in about 15 minutes reached the part of town that I didn’t even know existed. There were huge mansions everywhere. He drove me into a driveway and stopped the car. I got down and was waiting for him to lead me into the house. I wasn’t ready for any more surprises. As soon as the car stopped a group of guys came out of the house most of whom I knew as my best buds. They were asking me the same set of questions on where I was the day before. I was hesitating to walk in not knowing what was in store for me when one of them says ‘Your wife was worried all night.’

Wife? But I wasn’t even married the day before. This came as a shock to me but I was already used to getting these now. I slowly started walking towards the door when I see a familiar figure run out to me. I knew who she was. Whatever I have gone through in the last 24 hours no longer bothered me. It was her. It was her.

She never looked that beautiful before. She hugged me tight and tears started rolling down her cheeks. We went inside and as I looked around only one thing kept ringing in my mind. She was my wife. We got married. Everything in the house looked familiar yet new to me. There were a lot of folks there and everybody had the same questions. As I finally gathered my senses, I told them what had happened. None would believe me. Some were even taking this as some pathetic excuse for some mistake I have done. After a while, they gave me my earful and finally left.

When everybody was gone, she walks up to me and asks me what really happened. I told her that was the truth. I don’t remember the last 5 years of my life. I only remember waiting near the campanile bell for her and that was the last thing I know. She smiled when I asked her what had happened in the last 5 years and answered me ‘Everything that you wanted happened’.

I did propose to her that day, we got married an year later, I got a good job in a decent company and make a good living, bought a home and it was exactly 5 years since I proposed for a better life with her. Life’s good and exactly where I always wanted it to be.

Its been a while since all this has happened and I have come to accept the my life although I still don’t remember the 5 years. With a life so good, I had no complaints although there are times when I wish I knew what made me forget everything and reset my memory to that particular day in my life.

It was the best day of my life. I was going to propose to my 3 year girl friend. I was looking forward to this day for almost an year now. I got the loveliest ring for her, picked out the right clothes to wear, right spot to propose – the campanile tower on our University grounds where we first met, and had the perfect evening planned.

I reached the meeting point and was waiting for her at a stone table by the tower when a weird feeling takes over. The first thing I notice is that my shoes are different. That’s not the shoes I picked out in the morning, I don’t even remember I had those shoes. I immediately noticed my clothes are different too. I was holding a phone that wasn’t mine, or atleast I thought wasn’t mine. But I was holding it so I continued holding it for a little longer. All of this definitely felt freaky but I kept waiting for her. Its past a few hours now and she hasn’t shown up yet. I am already cursing myself on picking an afternoon for this. I was hoping to celebrate the rest of the day but this hasn’t turned out that way so far. I tried using the phone but it’s not my phone. Its asks for a  pin number that I cannot recollect. I cannot unlock this phone but with the looks of it I was sure it was mine. It had my name etched on it and said ‘Love’. So I walk up to the student center nearby and call her from a booth there. I got her machine. The answering machine used to have her voice but now it’s just the default message. Nonetheless, I left messages asking her to call me back.

It’s been a while now and I am beginning to worry. I get a call back from my girl friend. Well, that wasn’t her though…apparently I have been calling the wrong person. I gathered that my girl friend  doesn’t own this number anymore and the new person had that for almost 2 years now. I decided to drop by her house and make sure she was doing alright. I knock the door a couple of times and wait for her to answer it but its not her. She doesn’t live there anymore. I am shocked, surprised and freaked out. Not knowing what to do and still knocked out of my wits, I head home. To add to my confusion I don’t live there anymore. All my neighbors are different, someone else lives in my house and no one has any idea where my family is.

Life’s taken a wrong turn for me. It’s like I was dreaming all this stuff till now and just woke up or I was still dreaming in my sleep. Whatever it is, this is not my life. Not knowing what do to, I decided to go spend the night at a friend’s place. It is no surprise that my friend doesn’t live there either. Now I am too scared with all the bad looks I was getting from all these houses and I am the brink of calling myself mad. I decided to use the last few bucks in my pocket to call my oldest friends and left a message with all of them. It was night already and hoping for someone to call me back, I decided to spend the night on a park bench.

Read part -2 to know what happens next.

This weekend was awesomely sunny too but we did not get to hike. Instead we had a festival over the weekend and decided to celebrate it the way we would in India with as much grandeur.

So what was the festival you ask. Its the great Ganesha festival – Ganesha Chaturthi also called as  Vinayaka Chaturthi or Vinayaka Chavithi in Southern India. This is a very auspicious festival and is celebrated by Hindus all over the world. This is the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the leader of all the Gods and the remover of all obstacles according to Hinduism. This festival is observed during the Hindu month of Bhadrapada on the 4th day after new moon, the Chavithi. Hence the name Vinayaka Chavithi. The festival runs for 10 days and ends on the Ananta Chaturdasi. This festival is very famous in the state of Maharastra and is probably the most celebrated in the Indian city of Mumbai.

So we decided to throw a party with lots of good festival food and celebrate it with friends, and boy did we have a good time. It felt nice to have a good gathering on a nice summer afternoon. Meanwhile if you want to read up more on the festival, see what bing finds on the net for Ganesha Chaturthi.