DREAMS…!!!

When you go to sleep, the chords of your mind detach themselves from this world and get attached with those of another world…you are unaware of the happenings around yourself… yet you feel you are conscious, but not in this world…in some other world… the dream world, the fantasy land, where sometimes you see beauty, adventure, fun and sometimes horrors and nightmares…

The most amazing feature of this new world is that… when you are in it…you don’t know that it’s unreal…everything seems more than real…

This reminds me the words of Morpheus in the Matrix:

If real is what you can feel, smell, taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain

And I like to believe this statement, because it arises many interesting philosophical debates…However, let’s discuss something practical…

Let’s come back to the real world, where while sleeping, we see a fantasy world…with certain features…

• Dreams are peculiar…
• They are unpredictable…
• They help you realize your most loved fantasies…and leave a smile on your face…
• They also let you experience your worst nightmares…
• All of us at one time or the other experience sudden falling down in a dream… and we feel that we actually fell from our beds…
• There are certain characters who remain passive in the dreams… its like… they are going with you everywhere in your dream…but are not doing anything

Another amazing feature…dreams spark new ideas, inventions and innovations…. there have been many famous dreams (actually, the dreams became famous because they were seen by famous people). To substantiate this point…

Mary Shelly, the author of Frankenstein, got the idea for her story from a dream. For more famous creations, ideas and discoveries credited to dreams

Kekulé gave the circular structure to solve the Benzene problem. This idea he got from his dream. In his own words:

"...I was sitting writing on my textbook, but the work did not progress; my thoughts were elsewhere. I turned my chair to the fire and dozed. Again the atoms were gamboling before my eyes. This time the smaller groups kept modestly in the background. My mental eye, rendered more acute by the repeated visions of the kind, could now distinguish larger structures of manifold conformation; long rows sometimes more closely fitted together all twining and twisting in snake-like motion. But look! What was that? One of the snakes had seized hold of its own tail, and the form whirled mockingly before my eyes. As if by a flash of lightning I awoke; and this time also I spent the rest of the night in working out the consequences of the hypothesis."

Isn’t that interesting…??? So why should we not do the same thing… try remembering the dream you saw… and just jot it down on a piece of paper…

So, that is what I am doing here… I am narrating a dream of mine here…

It’s an amazing feeling to see a good dream… in my dreams I have played many characters which I love… I have been Harry Potter once… but that wasn’t much interesting… (This dream came years ago, after having finished my first Potter novel)

But then there was one… in which I was spider-man… o man… what a feeling… I could fly using the spider webs that came out of my wrists… and there were no villains … it was an awesome experience… (This dream came after I had seen Spider Man 2…)

In one dream, I was Sherlock Holmes and… what can I say… it was a fantastic dream… because I was arisen from my sleep only after I had solved the mystery of stolen jewels…

I feel these dreams depict a lot about what you think and what you like… so let me tell you… my analysis of a dream through this dream sequence…

I was driving a scooter… going somewhere with my mom… (In dreams, I am generally not aware of where I am going…)

Whenever I dream …. I find myself in 2 frames of camera or rather one can say…2 frames of reference… Sometimes the camera is focussed on me…(inertial frame) i.e., I see myself as walking, talking, moving around… as if I’m sitting in a theatre and watching a movie in which I’m an actor…At other times, I am not able to see myself…its like how we see ourselves in the real world…(non-inertial frame)

The frame of reference keeps changing… as far as I remember, I’ve never experienced any background score in the dreams… nor do I remember whether they are coloured or not… but what I know is… I see them and enjoy them…

So coming back to the dream… in the non-inertial frame of reference, I was driving a scooter…and then…stopped… because my mom asked me to do so… There was this local ‘thelewala’ standing by the roadside… I thought he was selling some 2^nd hand books… but I was astonished when my mom asked him to give 2 Dairy Milks…

However, I was happy …I was getting a dairy milk… but as I said… peculiar things happen in a dream… so my mom got 2 dairy milks- one big and one small…and unexpectedly she took the big one and kept it in her handbag and gave the smaller one to me…I was disappointed... but then…alright… what could I do…what ever is happening is happening… you are just a silent watcher in a dream…(unless you are a lucid dreamer, which most of us are not…)

Hence, I dropped my mom to one of her friend’s and was heading back…probably to my home… but this time on foot… (I don’t know what happened to the scooter) …

After walking a few more steps…I saw a person who smiled at me…I thought for a second… and then realised that he was my cousin’s husband… and as soon as that thought was received by my brain… out of nowhere, she too appeared in front of my eyes…

I greeted them… and they invited me to their home…

I said, ‘but, I didn’t know the way to reach there house’… (in fact I have never been to the place of this cousin of mine)…

and they said, ‘what are you talking about, this is our home.’ pointing to the building adjacent…‘you are standing right next to it and saying you don’t know where it is…come on… come on in…’

I don’t know from where I entered the building… it was as if the movie was forwarded…

I found myself instantly inside the building…… it was a cylindrical building in which I could see only the stairs… which were spiralling upwards… it reminded my of Harry Potter… my cousin was already ascending the stairs…so I took a step forward to start climbing the stairs… but damn…

There was a mad dog… making a strange sound… and seemed almost ready to attack me…

My cousin called out… ‘He’s just a mad dog… he won’t do anything…’

I said…how the hell is that possible … a mad dog … and won’t do anything…

I quickly started climbing up… and the dog came growling towards me… hence I started running on the stairs… as soon as the dog came near, I gave him a well calculated kick… he fell down… but within seconds he was back… I kicked him again… and he came back again … this time he was able to grab my arm with his teeth… somehow I got rid of him…possibly by a punch… but he seemed more determined every time he returned…

Upon reaching the top I was a bit relaxed … because I was close to the place where my cousin and her family members were chit-chatting…. But alas…what’s this… there was no door to the terrace… there was only an opening on the roof… I mean…I had to jump and use the power in my hands to reach the terrace… I wonder how my cousin reached there…

But I had to do it… and that too … quick… otherwise the dog was coming for me…somehow I managed…but before I could say something…my mom called out… ‘Wake up… wake up beta…’

I got up and….just smiled…

So, the analysis of this dream results in certain conclusions:

• I am a bit scared of dogs… I think about them everyday and that is why they came in my dreams… its because when I go for jogging…even when you are simply walking they can go mad and run after you…that usually happened…fortunately I’ve now developed a mechanism through which I can protect myself from them…..

• I love Dairy Milk a lot…so anyone who wants to gift me anything… can definitely give me the chocolate… J