My Mother — Page 71
Dreams and Portents 71 injuries and did a very good job of it. I was allotted a room in the hospital and Shaikh Ghulam Dastgir, a local lawyer friend, very kindly did his best to make me comfortable. Mother was informed over the telephone and arrived at the hospital about midnight. Her immediate reaction was deep gratitude that by Divine mercy, my life had been spared. She then told me that her distress at the time of my departure from Lahore was occasioned by a dream of the previous night. She had seen a black cloud which arose sud- denly and covered everything. Out of it lightning struck and then everything cleared up. People said no great harm had ensued, but that the neighbouring house had been damaged. She noticed that a dark scar had been left on the outer wall of my room where the lightning had struck. She gave alms and had naturally been anxious. After two days in the Jalandhar hospital I was moved to the Mayo hospital in Lahore, where I stayed for ten days. I was then permitted to go to my own house in the Model Town. My inju- ries were healing satisfactorily. On the evening of 16th January my temperature shot up suddenly and I had high fever. I had the feeling that it was a sudden attack of malaria that would subside quickly, but Mother was much agitated and occupied herself with pitiful supplications. She stayed with me till midnight when my tempera ture became normal. Being reassured she told me why she had been unduly agi- tated. She said: ‘In Jalandhar, I related only a part of my dream to you. What I did not tell you was the second part of the dream. I had seen that with some women of the family I went over the roof of the neighbouring house and descended into the house, where we talked with the people of the house for some time. For the