Wishes and Dreams Do Come True.

    Photo courtesy Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash.

Four years into his job, Ivan had turned into a despondent man and was living from paycheck to paycheck. The prevailing recession had cost him his increment.

Due to peer pressure, he had joined an IT engineering college. During the course of graduation, he had received a job offer from a software development company in the campus placement.

In the final year of graduation, he had only two love interests. One was with his childhood sweetheart whom he had known from his school days and the other was watching football matches. Both the lovers were deeply in love and decided to get married once he had a stable job.

After two years in his job, he was confident of his future so he decided to get married. In a years’ time, they were blessed with a lovely son. The expenses of the family had increased and he had not got any increment. The house rent outgo was huge and due to the recession, jobs were rare to come by.

The money issues often lead them to have arguments. The love was soon evaporating and there was constant bickering among them. His wife used to remark, “It was a bad decision on my part to marry you. Any rich man would have married me, seeing my beauty.”

“No use crying now. You married me out of your sweet desire. Believe me, the situation will improve.”

“I am hearing this for the last few years, but have now lost trust in you.”

After the arguments, Ivan would go to his room and think of ways to earn more money, so that his family would be able to lead a comfortable life. Often he would be transported into dreams which would be broken by the cry of his child or the angry words of his wife, "Enough of your dreams. Get back into the real world and worry about your family.”

One fine day, Ivan was walking down the road enjoying the bright sunshine which was visible after many days. The sunshine was rare in the monsoon season. His thoughts were disturbed by the sudden barking of a dog. At some distance, he could see a dog barking continuously. There were a bunch of street urchins throwing stones at the dog and the poor creature was writhing in pain. Ivan shouted at the boys,

“Leave the poor creature, or I will thrash you.”

The boys dispersed due to his warning. He could see the injured dog walk past him slowly. After walking some distance near a traffic signal, he could see a beggar in half pants begging for alms. Ivan removed his coat and gave him a hundred-dollar note. The beggar blessed him and left the place.

Walking some distance further he reached a park. There was no one around and he walked up to a bench and sat there. Soon he saw a chariot alighting from the sky. The chariot was made of gold and appeared radiant in the bright sunshine. He could see two men in golden crowns and they appeared to be from the other world.

A startled Ivan got up from his seat and walked up to the chariot. One of the men whose face was calm and glowing spoke “We are very impressed with your acts of kindness. The dog and the beggar you just now saw were our appearances, which we had taken to check if humanity was still alive in this world. We are from heaven and wish to grant you a boon. You are free to ask for anything you desire.”

Ivan was hesitant at first, “I have everything that I desire and am quite happy.”

The angel responded “Don’t try to hide your situation. We are aware that you have regular arguments with your wife over money matters.”

Ivan was startled at the angel’s knowledge of his personal situation, “You are quite true. I have always desired to be rich.”

“Don’t hesitate. You can ask for any amount that you desire.”

Ivan was lost in his thoughts of how much money he should demand and if he asked for a large amount of money, how he would carry it.

Sensing his confusion the angel spoke out “Don’t worry; the money will be transferred to your account, online.”

Ivan heaved a sigh of relief and replied, “I will have to consult my wife.”

“Not a problem. But there are some strict rules laid down by heaven that you will have to comply with.”

“As I was expecting, getting money is not so easy after all, like in this world” Ivan smirked.

“Nothing of the sort. You can take as much money as you desire, but all the money you receive will have to be spent by evening.”

“That’s great! Not a big issue.” Ivan remarked.

“If you are not able to spend all the money, you will die by evening and we will come back to take your soul. And remember that it should not be an investment, but spending only.”

Ivan was happy with the terms. It is not too difficult to spend money.

“It’s a deal and I know I can trust you” he smiled.

The angels also smiled and their chariot slowly started to take off from the ground. Suddenly Ivan remembered something and shouted “Heavenly souls, what would be the User Id and password.”

“User Id is the name of your country and password will be your birth date.”

Soon the chariot reached beyond clouds and Ivan could not see it any further.

Suddenly Ivan opened his eyes and felt the back of his body paining. He had fallen from the bed. Soon he climbed onto the bed rubbing his eyes in disbelief. This was one of his numerous dreams.

In a few minutes, his wife entered the room and began speaking “This is the list of groceries you will have to bring, otherwise there would be no food tonight.”

Ivan stood up “I will proceed to the market immediately.”

Saying this Ivan took the list from his wife. He dared not to discuss his dream with his wife as she would make fun of him and call him useless.

Ivan walked out of his house towards the mall. The day was bright after the morning rain. As he was a few minutes away from the mall, he saw some young boys throwing stones at a dog. He had seen the boys somewhere, but could not remember where. Shouting at the boys he asked them to refrain from hurting the dog.

Nearing the mall, he was thinking about where he had seen the boys. Suddenly his excitement knew no bounds when he remembered to have seen the boys in his dream. Hurriedly he purchased all the items and rushed for his house. On the way back he was thinking of his dream. Reaching home he shouted, “Sweetheart! I have brought the necessary items.”

“Great, keep all the items at their designated places. Don’t expect me to do all the housework.”

After Ivan had finished all the work, he started thinking about the incident of the dog. Deciding to start the computer, he put on the power. In a few minutes, the computer was up and running with a message “Enter the password and ID to withdraw the money you want.”

“What is all this?” he sounded surprised. “I have never seen this message before. Is this some kind of fraud?”

But then remembering the dream he entered the name of his country against the User Id and date of birth for the password.

The next message was “Enter the amount you wish to spend.”

This put him in deep thought. “Should I enter a million or ten million?” He could not decide so he shouted for his wife. When she arrived he asked her “How much amount should I enter here?”

“Why are you asking me this question? You are aware of your financial status. Does the money grow on trees, that you would get something extra?”

“Dear, you will get as much as you wish” Ivan replied calmly.

“Now stop fooling me. I think you are free today and have no better work to do.”

Ivan was thinking of entering $10 million. But would that be enough for the next generation? Or should he enter $100 million? Finally, he decided that he would enter $1 billion and it would easily last the next seven generations.

He did not know how many zeroes to enter so he searched on Google for the correct figure and pressed enter.

A message“$10 billion has been transferred to your account” flashed on the screen.

Ivan was surprised and checked again. In hurry, he had entered an extra zero. “Doesn’t matter a billion or 10 billion is not a big problem. Anyways, I am super-rich now. ”

Turning to his wife he remarked “Sweetheart! See I always told you that we would be rich one day. I have fulfilled my promise. See the amount in our bank.”

His wife could not believe her eyes and almost fainted seeing the huge figure.

She was wondering “Have we become so rich?” and then she went and hugged him.

“I was always confident that one day you would be successful and become rich.”

“How do you wish to spend the money?” Ivan asked.

“We will do one thing. Let’s go shopping. I had always wanted to purchase a diamond necklace and a Birkin handbag.”

“Fine! Then we leave immediately” Ivan agreed to her suggestion.

They walked towards the garage and took out their car. “I was thinking we should replace the old car with a Bugatti or a Lamborghini.”

“Darling, you are always right in your thinking”. For the first time, his wife was agreeing on everything.

Soon they were at a posh mall, shopping for the costliest of items. In a short time, she had purchased handbags, clothes, perfumes, jewelry, etc. These were the branded items prepared by some of the best designers.

They now decided to return back to their house.

On the way back he was discussing with his wife what to purchase next. He stopped his car at a traffic signal. As he was waiting for the signal light to turn green, he saw a beggar begging for alms. Taking out a $100 note from his pocket he handed it over to the beggar. Soon he noticed that the beggar did not even have a shirt.

Being in a joyous state, he took off his coat “Here you go old man. Take this coat and be happy.” The beggar blessed him and left.

Suddenly it came to his mind that he had seen the beggar somewhere and the face appeared quite familiar. All the while he was thinking where he had seen the beggar.

“Oh yes! I had seen the beggar in my dream.” Ivan spoke loudly.

“Why are you talking to yourself?” his wife appeared puzzled.

His face suddenly turned pale. Everything was happening according to the dream. He now narrated the whole dream to his wife. At first, she did not believe him but when Ivan spoke about the end of the dream where the angel had told him to spend all the money by evening 6:00 p.m., failing which he would meet certain death, she panicked.

They reached home and were discussing where to spend the money. This $10 billion was too big an amount to spend in a day. In their whole life, they had spent a maximum of a few thousand dollars in a single day.

Tension was writ on their face. His wife suggested, “Why don’t we purchase 100 Bugatti Veyron’s?”

“That would be just $20 crore. Still, we would be left with $980 crores.”

“Let’s start with that. Meanwhile, we will think of other ways” she replied.

Ivan agreed and rang the local dealer in his city. He was having only five Bugatti’s in stock. On hearing of 100 Bugatti’s, he was surprised and shocked. No one had ever ordered for so many cars at a single go.

His first thought was that someone was playing a prank on him. The cars were customized and even the whole country may not have such a huge stock. To convince him Ivan said, “I will pay you the amount in advance.”

“I will talk to my boss.” Saying this the manager rushed towards the owner of the showroom who too was awestruck.

“I think this is some insane man, but if he is saying he is paying in advance there is no reason not to believe him. Just tell him that he would get delivery of all the cars in two years.”

They still had four hours remaining to finish all the money. Ivan was pacing up and down the room in worry. How would he be able to spend all the money? Taking a glass of water lying on the table, he gulped the entire water at one go and tried to calm himself.

His son came running and sat on his lap. Ivan was almost in tears. Would he not be able to see his beloved son from the next day?

The thought shook him to the core.

Suddenly an idea came to his mind. He began searching for the numbers of all the shipyards on Google.

Soon he got in touch with the best shipyard. “I want to order a superyacht.”

“But our order book is full for the next five years.” The shipyard was not interested in taking any order for the next five years, but when he offered to pay a premium of 50% over the existing market rate, they agreed. He immediately signed and sent back the deal papers. The deal was worth $2 billion.

Ivan heaved a sigh of relief. Again he looked at the clock. Two hours were remaining and he had to spend the remaining money. Thinking furiously an idea struck his mind and he rang the Boeing company. He wanted to purchase a private aircraft. After negotiations, he was able to finalize a deal for four aircraft which would be delivered in four years. He transferred the money in advance.

Only 15 minutes were remaining now and he had to spend another four billion. Feeling helpless he sat on a chair leaving everything to God and destiny, “O God! Please help me. I desperately need your help”

His wife was in tears at the thought of losing him “If God saves you I will never fight with you again and will be content with whatever we have. “

Suddenly a thought rushed to his mind and he ran towards the computer. Only five minutes were remaining now. In an extreme hurry, he logged to a site. It was for the flood relief donation in a flood-hit state. Lots of people had been left homeless and hungry due to the sudden floods.

Only a few seconds were left now. As soon as he filled the figure and pressed enter, all the money was gone from his account.

He stood up and jumped in joy and hugged his wife. She was very happy to see him alive.

“We will do one thing; we will sell all the aircraft, yacht, and cars and donate the money to an NGO. The money you are earning is enough for our family.”

"Life is not only about money. We have learned a good lesson. Our true aim should be to help the needy. I completely agree with you."

He walked to the window and opened it. Up in the sky, he could see the same angels blessing him and he waved at them.

“Sweetheart whom are you waving at?” his wife questioned.

"I am waving at the adorable angels who showed us the true way of life." Ivan smiled happily.

This time his wife agreed with him and his dream.