The Dreams of Dagdoo

The Dreams of Dagdoo

The story was of a city named Chandanpur. There lived an old woman who had a young son named Dagdoo. The old lady used to do embroidery work and earn her livelihood. Dagdoo was a useless boy who did nothing but only ate, slept and dreamt. It so happened to be that whatever he dreamt turned out to be true. He could see the future and it happened to be that he only used to see the destruction in everyone’s life. Everyone hated him because of the way he said things and they all felt that he had a black tongue. Once he dreamt of a marriage procession being robbed by robbers and the bridegroom being beaten up. He started screaming and woke up. When his mother asked him what happened he told her that he had dreamt of the bride and the bridegroom being looted. His mother fired him for such a bad dream. Just then a lady came to take the sari that she had given for embroidery. Dagdoo asked her whose sari it was. She said that she had made it for her daughter-in-law as her son was going that day to bring his wife. Dagdoo then asked if he was going to ride a horse. When she said yes, he told her to get the doctor ready as her son and daughter-in-law were going to be robbed by the robbers and they would loot everything and beat them up as well. The lady was very angry at Dagdoo and fired him for always dreaming ill about others. Dagdoo’s mother was very upset with him but Dagdoo’s dream turned out to be true. The lady caught hold of him blaming Dagdoo for his black tongue and also said that he was associated with the robbers as he knew what was going to happen. She then took Dagdoo in the centre of the town and asked everyone to beat him up and he was thrashed.

Once more Dagdoo dreamt of Choudhary’s new house being on fire by a curtain that catches fire from the diya just when the Choudhary was hosting a house warming party. Dagdoo got up screaming that it was burnt. Just then Choudhrayin came to his house to give ladoos. When Dagdoo asked her, she said that they had made a new house. Dagdoo told her that her house was going to catch fire and she should not be as happy as she was for the new house as her happiness was not going to last for long. The Choudhrayin got so angry that she left immediately cursing him. Dagdoo’s mother slapped him for this. But Dagdoo’s dream came true and Choudhary’s house was burnt. The Choudhrayin was so angry with Dagdoo that she painted his face black, made him wear a garland of shoes and made him sit on a donkey and go around the town. Later, he was thrown out of the town.

Dagdoo did not understand why the truth was so bitter. He wandered in the jungle here and there. Just as he was tired, he sat under a tree and went off to sleep and as usual started dreaming. He saw a King in his dream, just then the King’s men woke him up. When Dagdoo woke up, he saw the King in front of him. Dagdoo told him about his dream and said that his dreams were always true. He then asked the King to put him in service. The King said that he needed a guard for his palace but for that he would have to keep awake all night. Dagdoo agreed that he would stay up like an owl and give best of his service. Dagdoo got the job of a guard. At night, while he was on duty, just as the lights went off he too went off to sleep thinking that if the King had gone off to sleep even his subjects should do the same. Meanwhile, in the palace, before going to sleep the King asked the queen to wake him up early as he was to go to Shonpur the next day. Here, as soon as Dagdoo went off to sleep, he started dreaming. He saw that an earthquake had struck Shonpur and the city vanished and all the people in Shonpur died. Just as Dagdoo got up, he saw the King getting ready to go out. When he came to know that the king was leaving for Shonpur, he stopped him from going and told him that an earthquake was to come in Shonpur. The King stayed back and next day the King got a message that an earthquake had struck Shonpur and everyone living there had died. The King was happy that he did not go. He immediately called for Dagdoo and asked how he knew about the earthquake. Dagdoo told him about his dream and the King rewarded Dagdoo with a necklace for saving his life. Then he sacked Dagdoo from his job.

Saying this, Betaal stopped and asked Vikram as to what must be the reason that the King rewarded Dagdoo and then threw him out. As usual, he forced Vikram to reply or else he would behead him. Vikram replied that the King was very happy that Dagdoo saved his life and so he rewarded him but threw him out of service because he was sleeping while he was on his duty which is why he dreamt and the King realized that Dagdoo was not loyal towards his duty, so he sacked him. Betaal once again was impressed by Vikram’s intelligence but as he had opened his mouth, Betaal once again flew away.