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!!
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