Hyperbole

Religion, gods or places of worship have never figured in my dreams. So by that by parameters my dream last night was extraordinary. I dreamt I had gone to Tirumala temple during this Lockdown and it was almost empty. I have been to Tirupati just once and at that time I refused to go up to the temple. So whatever I saw within the temple was a figment of my imagination. There were just 4 people from a family ahead of me, an elderly gentleman with his wife and two more ladies. They were to the temple authorities cause they walked right into the sanctum santorium. Looking at them go even I thought of walking inside with them but changed my mind.  I saw a huge statue or bust of Vishnu made up of some black stone and a lingam of similar dimensions and stone behind it. The thought that both Vishnu and Shiv are one stuck me at that time. The thought impacted me deeply. Afterwards on the way back a guy told me that there was a swarm of angry bees blocking the passage through a large stony cave

I have been brought up on Ghost stories of the Gangetic planes from the mid of nineteenth century. There was this lady in a white sari in Allahabad who would appear on the terrace of the house at midnight where death used to come calling within a couple of days of her appearance. There was the famous man/men with horses hooves for hands in Lucknow. These were all stories from my childhood of days (nights?) much before my time. I now stay in a well lit, huge tree lined, park facing neighborhood of educated people.  Everything that you take for granted as signs of civilisation and modern times can appear like a thin veneer to the primal past at times. I had a minor glimpse of this yesterday. I think it started in the afternoon when I noticed red thread tied multiple times around a huge tree in the park with vermilion and turmeric rubbed on it. I found it a bit strange and mystic but forgot about it after a while.  Late at night while walking Alex after his meal he came up to a house at t