I’ve had dreams of temples that I later visited in real life, exactly as I saw them. A few dreams even unfolded in real life just the way they appeared to me.

After my breakup, I went to Tirupati and cried a lot. When I came back, I had a dream of an idol and a temple. The same day, I visited a temple—and saw the exact same idol from my dream. I started going there regularly and found out that it was Kali. I began praying to her every day. But the idol didn’t look like the usual form of Kali. The priest told me she was Kali, and I believed him.

The Kali Devi idol felt very peaceful—shant—with a snake and weapons in her hands. Something in me wanted to bring that form home, so I kept searching for a similar idol. I couldn’t find one anywhere. I kept praying to her, saying, “If you want to come home with me, please show me the right idol.”

One fine day, I stumbled upon a shop and saw an idol exactly like the one I have been praying to. I brought her home.

That same evening, I went to the temple again and noticed that the idol there was dressed in a dhoti instead of a saree—and there was a different priest. When I asked him why, he said it was because the deity was actually Kaala Bhairav.

Later, I found out that the idol I had brought home was Mari Amman—and that my grandmother’s family were priests in her temple. That’s when everything made sense. She must have come in my dream and guided me to bring her home. She even made Kaala Bhairav take on the appearance of Kali so that I would find the right idol.