It was passing in a dream and when she woke up, she thought, she’d find herself back in Calcutta in her own room where the sparrows chirped at dawn and she’d talk to them silently. After she broke up with Sushanta, Nila used to spend sleepless nights and doze in the day. Sometimes she slept all through the day and woke up with strange dreams. Once she dreamed that she was running in a jungle and a lion was chasing her. She turned around and it wasn’t a lion any more but a hundred snakes. Nila ran and fell into a vast ocean. She sank to the bottom and found the lion sitting there. It didn’t do anything to her. Behind it there was a huge tree and on top of it a house. She entered the house and found Molina sleeping there. She opened the window in that room and looked out at the busy Chowringhee. When she came down to the street hurriedly she found the hundred snakes sitting there. In an instant the street was devoid of people. Just the snakes, and Nila. That day Nila woke up to find she was bathed in sweat and her heart was hammering away.
