The gambler

I had the craziest dream in the morning and I can't wait to write it down. I hope only part of it comes true though. So I had gone to India for a wedding and wasn't really interested in attending the festivities so I found myself in a casino. It was mostly empty and pretty dark. People were playing with real money instead of counters. I had about 2,000 dirhams with me and I sat at the roulette table. I was the only one at the table aside from the wheel spinning guy. So I lost some money in the beginning. Then I got impatient and put a 500 dirham note on four numbers. The wheel spun and I won 63,000 dirhams which if you do the math any which way is probably not possible. I didn't try to do the math after waking up because I suck at Math. I used to throw away my math notebooks and  study book with much glee at the end of each school year. So I won and I couldn't believe my luck. I started jumping up and down all over the casino shouting,"I won! I won!" Everyone was staring at me and the guy took my note and walked away dejectedly. I went to collect my money and they gave me a really tiny receipt and told me to go to the bank and get the cash. Suddenly I thought what if I get robbed on the way and got a bit scared. So I held the receipt clenched tightly in my fist and started walking towards the bank. Three men began to follow me and I kept looking over my shoulder and when the bank came in sight they grabbed hold of me. Then for some reason two of them went away somewhere and I managed to get away from the third one. I began running to the police station and all the while clutching the little receipt in my sweaty palm. I was yelling,"Help! Police! Help! Police!" The man chased me down. I got to the police station before he could catch me. There were a few hawaldars who didn't even bother to look at me. I finally got the attention of an inspector who asked me for a bribe and said that I must give some money to the guy who was chasing me so that he would stop chasing me. I actually tried to haggle with both of them and finally agreed to pay them.

So the three of us went to the bank and the teller asked me for the receipt  I finally opened my fist and found that the receipt had been mangled beyond repair due to the profuse sweating. I couldn't get the money and as the three of us were walking out of the bank I saw the wheel spinning guy. He walked up to me and handed me a cheque for the money and asked,"Why did you run away?" I didn't know what to say. By now for some reason the man who had been chasing me disappeared. The inspector then drove me to his house so that I would be safe from the hoodlums after my money. We got to an old decrepit house and I saw a few women and kids running around busy going on with their lives.

One of the women guided me to a large room with a big bed in the middle of it. I lay down tired and asked the woman about the kids and the other women in the house. The woman said they were all wives of the inspector. The inspector had seven wives. Six of them got along with each other while the youngest seventh one was not very well liked because she was very westernised in her dress, views and she even worked as a journalist. She took up all the time of the inspector and the other wives particularly didn't like the music that she listened to so loudly in her room. I thought to myself," Imagine having seven wives and so many kids. No wonder he wanted a bribe. it must be difficult to take care of all of them."  I felt sorry for the inspector.

All the women went away and I saw the inspector drive away in a Jeep. It suddenly struck me that I could have run away. So I snuck out of the house and decided I had enough money to fly anywhere I wanted. So I got to the airport and sat in a plane. I was very happy that I was going away from that place though I had neither any idea nor care about where I was going.