Getting wished on the wrong date, going back to school and some 'Reality' TV!

Sunday, 30th August 2009

The number 27 is quite close to my heart. I was born on the 27th of April, my mother on the 27th of March and my father on the 27th of June. Quite a rare co-incidence of birthdates!!

Easy to remember as well for everyone who knows us!

I keep calling my parents 'very good planners' in this regard , at least!

Not too surprising then, that even though I messed up my birthdate in my dream, I messed up only the month, I stuck to the date!!

My Dream..

This one starts in my house, in my drawing room. Its quite late into the night, November the 26th. I am seated lazily on the couch, watching TV and reading newpapers , whilst my uncle and aunt (who live in Bombay as of now, but I wonder why they are recurring characters in my dreams! ) are seated in front of me, making petty conversation.

Its around 11 :55 pm in the night , when my mobile rings. I am quite irritated at first, not wanting to be disturbed from my pursuit of laziness. When it comes to lazing around, I am not quite a big fan of Newtpn's second law of motion ! I get up rather clumsily and check who it is... and am even more irritated to see the number flashing on the touch screen. Its a number I instantly recognize... Infosys , Pune. When I was working with Infosys, I received so many calls from friends/ collegues from the office phones... the number that always flashed was 020 22932800... I never saved it in my contacts list.. so this number was almost printed on my mind !

I am amazed... who could it be at this late hour, I wonder. I pick it up and the voice at the other end says in Hindi ... 'Happy birthday Arvind! ' .. 'Did you recognize me?'... 'Its Mr. S here!!' ( I refrain from using actual names in my blogs to avoid any misunderstandings with people.... sorry about that, I am a bit of a coward I guess !) ... Now this guy is not really someone I expect to call me... he' was one of my collegues in Infosys , who was more an acquaintance, than a friend.... but he is the friend of a very close friend of mine...

'Happy birthday' ??? Where did that come from? I am perplexed , even as I explain to this guy that he's made some kind of a mistake. That's when he insists he didn't , as this is the date that there is on the 'shared XL sheet' on the office file server!! ( So much for working all day with shared XL sheets I guess.... it had to pop up in my dreams some day!! ) . That's when it strikes me, that I'd apparently made a mistake in entering my birthdate as 'November 27th' instead of 'April 27th' ... I have no clue how this could have happened!

Even as I am about to laugh off this call, the phone rings again.. This time, its another number I instantly recognize.. 020 25661992 ... the phone number of my current workplace.. Sigma software solutions in Pune. I almost want to not take the call, but I end up doing just the opposite... 'Its G n G here' !! .... says the synchronized voice of a male and a female at the other end .... I am totally flummoxed! ... Its some of my collegues from office .. I don't really have a nice thing going for these guys (why do people I like a lot don't appear much in my dreams ?!! ) ... and are the last ones I'd expect to call me. But call they did... and off went the wishes again ... 'Happy birthday!' ..they sing in unison ! I love the way things connect in my dreams.. this XL sheet was apparently 'shared' between both these companies.. crazy !!

I finally decide I have had enough and that before any other unwelcome acquaintance calls me, I better log on to my office VPN and set the date right in the bloody XL sheet! I just got a VPN connection from the office admin guys.. .so that explains why this fact popped up here!

That's the end of that ...Scene one.. birthday wishes gone wrong and hearing from all the people I don't want to hear from !!

The scene suddenly shifts to a classroom, which looks like the class Xth A ( or is it some other one?) of the school I studied in (Sarawati Vidyalaya in Pune) . I recognize it instantly due to way the corridor looks outside the class, the layout of benches and the teacher's room next door. On the blackboard (which is actually green in color, for some weird reason) is written neatly.. 'Unit test examinations' ... apparently an exam is about to commence and I am the only student who's reached on time! In the dream , I am my present adult avatar, but yet somehow, I am the student here.. I am not wearing any uniforms to suggest this , but I do know that I am in this scene as a student! The benches are neatly arranged and on each bench, is a packet of Marie biscuits and a glass of orange juice. A distinguished looking lady walks in ... 'Must be the teacher' , I think aloud in my dream! 'How many gold members are there in this class???' !! , she asks!! I really take a long while to try and understand this, and looking at my confused expressions, the teacher offers to explain .. 'How many students who have ranked 1st and 2nd in the last exams are going to be seated here?!!' ... Waking up .. this particular line felt so funny, as I was recollecting the sequence of events in my dream.. I don't answer anything .. and she says something more and leaves... 'Anyone suffering from a stomach ache in this class? I will remove the orange juice glasses from those benches' !! How weird can it get!!

Scene two ends here... the sudden shifts in situations and locations and people and stories in my dreams would be something an award winning editor would be proud of ! ( am I being too pompous here! Pardon me! )

Scene three..

I am seated in a very large room... spacious, but not really elegantly done. Chairs and couches and beds are strewn all over, like brushstrokes from a piece of modern art! I am seated in a particularly over-sized chair, sipping on cold coffee and munching on chips. In real life, an ideal set up for a movie marathon on DVD , I'd say ! How ironical then, that in my dream , it turns out to be something far more real !

Suddenly, a group of performing artistes appear from behind the curtains and start singing and dancing and making merry in front of me!! I am thrilled and I thoroughly enjoy it! They're done in ten minutes and then, group after group of artistes pop up and perform short skits, plays, scenes from popular movies, poetry recitals and what not .... each act in the span of ten to twenty minutes! I kept track of time since there was a nice big clock on the wall in front of me.

I don't remember much about this part of my dream, except one very nice fact. One of the persons involved in one of the acts turns out to be Sonali Bendre, a popular and very beautiful indian actress.... not so strange this one.. I really started to love her all over again after she appeared in one of the reality shows being aired currently on TV!

Hmm.... the dream ends abruptly , or perhaps I don't remember anything apart from the stuff written here!! Better luck next time!

Wedding bell(e)s, old friends and the Police!!

Saturday, 29th Aug 2009

Complete strangers can meet in only one place .... in the world of dreams!! And this was proved once again in my dream last night!

My Dream...

My mother and I are seated in a spacious looking room... apparently the drawing room of a nice posh house.... there's an intelligent looking lady sitting in front of us , on the couch.... my mother smiles at her and asks in Hindi .. 'So, where's the girl' ? !! . And this is when it dawns upon me that we are on a bride hunt for myself!! Strange.. I don't know how and why the thought of marriage popped up all of a sudden in my dream!

I always hated arranged marriages... I guess this is why this dream came to me and it shall also explain the events that occured further..

What's even more stranger is that the family we are visiting, are Gujrati or Marwari .. I cant pin down the exact dialect... When I was recollecting this dream in the morning , I wondered why we were visiting a Gujrati family when we are pucca Tam brams... weird!! .. this being an arrannged marriage situation ! .... My mother and the lady in front of us are having an apparently boring conversation, neither of them looking exactly pleased at having to interact with each other..

As I fidget around on the couch, with nothing to do , I notice through the window that in one of the adjoining rooms, there's someone sitting and working on the computer.... a little more concentration and I notice its one of my old friends from my engineering college days... lets call him Mr. A!! I didn't really like this guy much during college days and I wasn't too pleased at seeing him in the dream either!! And so there he was, walking out of the room , along with two more guys .... and as soon as I saw them .. I recognised them... they were my friends from my schooling days..... Lets call them Mr. B and Mr. C! Now... the guy from my college and these guys from my school have never even seen each other, but here in my dream, they turned out to be chaddi buddies!! And Mr. C was apparently the big brother of the girl we'd come to see.... Lets call her Ms. S!

I make small talk with them ... asking them about which jobs they were in and what was going on in their lives.... we really don't want to be talking to each other, but everybody is busy maintaining some sort of courtesy!!

I get to know Mr . C is working with Titan.... wonder why this particular brand popped up here.... the other two were not exactly too forthcoming with what they were doing. ..

I remember Mr. A telling me 'You tell me the stories of your love affairs first, and then I'll tell you the stories of my career!! ' Weird!!

So, here we were, back in the drawing room, waiting for the girl's father to arrive. And arrive he does, in the most pompous manner , looking as if he were doing us a favour by giving us his darshan! He comes and sits in a chair perpendicular to my couch .... and he looks at me with hawk eyes, as if studying me in great detail, I cringe under this unwelcome scrutiny...

He asks me a few harsh questions... when suddenly, the lights in the room go off and on comes this fancy light... like the one's they use on stage to highlight the catwalk of models during a fashion show... and in walks this girl along with her giggling girlfriend... she's not very good looking , she looks scared and she walks with the fear of a little deer walking into the cave of a hungry lion! But I can't really see her too clearly in the dim light .. and off I go with my big mouth.. in hindi, to the girl's father.. 'Please switch on the lights Uncle, I can't even see her properly'!!

The reaction he gives is expected, he scowls at me angrily ... looking really irritated at the way I said that!! The girl sits next to her father, at his feet, on the ground.. .I am repulsed at this... and so is my mother... The father pushes the girl hard towards the floor and growls at her in Marwari/Gujrati ... 'Touch the boy's mother's feet, you idiot' !! Both my mother and I are appaled at this unruly behaviour.... and we exchange a few unsavoury words with her father and we walk out...

The scene suddenly shifts to a building where I am apparently searching for a flat which houses 7 girls... I really dont recollect who they are... maybe my friends.. when I enter the flat they are all busy with some last minute preparations for one of the girl's birthday.. I see a giant multi-tier cake in the middle , nicely perched on a table.. I remember licking my lips at the sight !! ( I guess my love for good food had to make an appearance too!)

One of the girls, looking like a dwarf... she's really tiny... just about 4 feet.... offers to show me around the building ... its called 'Ganga Satellite' , she tells me.. I am surprised at how things connect in dreams.... This was one of the buildings I recently visited while house-hunting!!

I tell her I want to see 'The Inspector' .... I really have no clue why I needed to see the police!!

The scene then shifts to this guy .... 'The Inspector', talking on the phone to the father of the girl I'd visited in the first scene.... The inspector threatens to arrest the man .. He tells him ' I know that you have committed the murder. Its your choice, do you want me to arrest you today or in the morning tomorrow!! ? ' !!

And phutt goes my dream... its all blank now.. dream's over!!

As weird as ever!!

Dreams, Documented!!

It was during the reading of Sigmund Freud's book on the analysis of dreams, that I got intrigued by my favourite nocturnal activity.... dreaming!!

I always had a thing for dreams... the only way I think our subconscious tells us what it really wants!! They are surreal, at times a bit too connected to reality, crazy, beautiful, horrifying, emotional ... all at the same time!!

So here's my journey of accounting my dreams.... each night's story , recounted in as much vivid detail as possible!!

Loch Ness meets swimming elephants!!

Friday, 28th August 2009

It was during the cold January of 2007 that I went to the UK, an onsite opportunity to work with my client at Infosys, BT .

I guess , it was roughly around Feb-March, that I went to the country laden with history ... Scotland.

The trip through the snow laden terrain and the ice cold lochs (the word the Scots use for lakes) was nothing less than a dream in itself!!

Coming to the most famous of the lochs, Loch Ness.... a place filled with mystery and folk tales of the 'Loch Ness monster' .... now referred to by jovial locals as 'Nessie' (they even sell cute looking momentos of the pre-historic dinosaur-like animal as a part of their tourism initiatives) . The boat ride through the lake was something of a disappointment.. although the weather was beautiful and cold and the lake was as clear as a polished diamond... somewhere in the back of my mind, I was wishing the legend was true and we really could spot the 'Nessie'!!

Its just a matter of time I guess, before my subconscious mind would take me on a trip to see Nessie, as real as it could possibly be ...

My Dream...

The place is huge... a garden, perhaps a forest.... a tropical forest perhaps .... the place it resembled the most (albeit the connection is really strange!) was this resort called 'Chokhi Dhani' in the middle of the concrete forest called Pune!! I'd been there once or twice , its just a place for the busy people in the city to chill out and relax... wonder why this popped up in my head tonight! Yes.. it was like Chokhi Dhani .. only a 100 times bigger!

The greenery is astounding and really pleasing to the eyes. .... perhaps a 100 kms long and slender stretch of land... covered with tropical trees and bushes .... and lined on one side with tall trees , beside which a huge river or perhaps a sea or perhaps a lake, ran down the entire length of the land...

The lake reminds of Loch Ness... only my vantage point was different here.. Here, in my dream, I was viewing the lake from the land , and there, on my boat ride, I was viewing the land from the lake... Looking at the thick green foliage from the deck of the motorised vessel , I remember wondering what the land beneath the foliage looked like... and now I know!!

Mahouts... men who ride elephants ... The word mahout comes from the Hindi words mahaut and mahavat, derivatives of the Sanskrit word mahamatra, meaning "[one] having great measure.(thanks to wikipedia for the last line!) . I see tens of them.... and of course, tens of elephants at one end of the lake .... only .. the elephants resemble a resized (a bit smaller that the illustrations I ve seen) Nessie!! Yo... there's my connection to the Loch Ness again !! . These brave men seem to be taming the wild , almost-prehistoric animals.... the elephants seem to have flaps in place of their legs ... that helps them manouver around in the huge mass of water....

I see these huge animals flipping about in the water, turning round and round in circles about an invisible axis that runs through the length of their shapeless bodies.... but with the elegance of dolphins that are often seen on TV .. performing these stunts at amusement parks!

And then comes the best part of my dream.. the thumping finale!! Just a five second scene, if this were a part of a movie!! One of the elephants suddenly turns around and pops its head up in the water... the mahout firmly perched on top of its humongous frame.... his hands holding on to invisible reins.. like a jockey would hold on to a horse in a thrilling race!!

The animal goes ballistic, on a rampage... albeit not on land, on water.... It swims, or leaps should I say, at breakneck speed.... along the 100 km stretch...... from one end to the other...my vantage point keeps changing in this scene... I see it from the side ..... its huge frame leaping ahead like a cheetah would in pursuit of its prey...... with the man perched on top of it.. a tiny speck in comparison with the animal...

And then I suddenly see it from the front.. its relatively small head (with a face of a herbivorous dinosaur and the trunk of a huge mammoth ) lunging towards me at full speed.....the man looking brave in the middle of it, holding on to his life, his everything...

It takes only ten or fifteen giant strides for the animal to cross the 100 km lake, from one end to the other, besides the line-up of beautiful trees... and then, at full speed, it crashes into the other end...... into a hillock... perhaps....

The crash flays a huge mass of water out of the lake... and the sound of a 'Thump' fills the sky!!

My dream ends here... as my eyes almost open in the shock of the crash.... I am a little scared.... but not enough to wake up!!

I go back to sleep... and into the world of my beloved dreams!!