I dream of Genie
I love dreaming!
Ok, lots of us do that. I know. And it is the one thing that perhaps we social animals are capable of doing which other animals can’t. Rest all we do is easily copied; in fact it happens regularly in both directions. Anyways, my point was that I love to dream, but while earlier it used to be a nice traditional dream sequence punctuating my worriless slumber, of late (I mean in the last few years) I have taken to the more bizarre and shameless version of dreaming: the open-eyed day dream!
It’s like this. My theory on dreams was that whenever you get up and remember a dream from the sleep, it usually is the dream that got broken when you got up. Most of the dreams that get over properly you never remember. But you might ask, how do I know they exist at all if we forget them? Valid…very valid! You have been paying attention.
Let me explain. When you get up and remember a dream, you usually find a storyline, however bizarre, creeping through the whole dream. And the nature of the dream gets corroborated by solid physical proof. I have got up many a times breaking hard sweat…all wet around my neck and shoulders. At others, I have noticed a more than happy heartbeat and yet other kind of indicators at other times. So you have got a recollection and a bundle of evidence too.
But then sometimes it happens, that you find kinks in your nice smooth, although impossible dream story. You feel déjà vu! And that is what I am coming around to.
It is this feeling, of having seen something or having been somewhere that you have actually never seen or been to that gives rise to proof that it was from some other long lost dream that got complete.
Anyways…this even is not the point.
My point is that when I used to dream with closed eyes, I dreamt strange, exhilarating, impossible, nasty, thrilling, scary dreams…sometimes lovely, sometimes unnerving. All was tumultuous, all was confusing. But the new version that I have begun to use, the open-eye version, has a very different quality. All the dreams are almost similar. And they age along with me.
So when I am in class XII, I dream of success, IITJEE or such things as technology, cyber centres, space exploration, particle accelerators and such like. When I am through and doing engineering, I dream of foreign lands, of MBA, of IIMs, of the college discotheque and the dancing figures there, of internet and chatting, of USA being taught a lesson and of being a code guru. When I am thru again and doing my MBA, I dream of steel and glass empires, of young people in smart attire, of fat pay cheques, of awesome jobs and subsequently of having fun in the dance nights and of roaming places and of adventure trips and of adrenalin rush.
And now that I am finally through with it all, what do I dream of?
Well…I dream of Genie! A genie…my genie! Did you think the genie of Alladin’s magic lamp, the wishing genie? Oh no…you got it wrong. I dream of my genie…who is nothing of the sort you think it is.
I dream of a genie who can become a mirror for me…so I can look at myself in it and see myself happy. I dream of a genie who can become a face anywhere I want it, to share my happiness with. In the clouds when I lie down on soft moist grass of summer, the heady grassy aroma and the sweet and sour mangos filling the air. In the water when I lean over the village stream to splash my face, burning with the heat of running up the grassy hill. In the book when I open it to read the stories of passion. In the cool summer breeze as it hits my face ruffling my hair as I gaze at the spreading landscape of forests and hills. And then in the clock face whenever I get up in the morn from a nice dreamy sleep, saying “Hi there!”
And so has the caravan of my dreams passed through the deserts of age and has been to oases and dried streams and such places…and it has changed itself always. And now…in this happy stage in life…when I go to dream, I say “I dream of Genie!"
Ok, lots of us do that. I know. And it is the one thing that perhaps we social animals are capable of doing which other animals can’t. Rest all we do is easily copied; in fact it happens regularly in both directions. Anyways, my point was that I love to dream, but while earlier it used to be a nice traditional dream sequence punctuating my worriless slumber, of late (I mean in the last few years) I have taken to the more bizarre and shameless version of dreaming: the open-eyed day dream!
It’s like this. My theory on dreams was that whenever you get up and remember a dream from the sleep, it usually is the dream that got broken when you got up. Most of the dreams that get over properly you never remember. But you might ask, how do I know they exist at all if we forget them? Valid…very valid! You have been paying attention.
Let me explain. When you get up and remember a dream, you usually find a storyline, however bizarre, creeping through the whole dream. And the nature of the dream gets corroborated by solid physical proof. I have got up many a times breaking hard sweat…all wet around my neck and shoulders. At others, I have noticed a more than happy heartbeat and yet other kind of indicators at other times. So you have got a recollection and a bundle of evidence too.
But then sometimes it happens, that you find kinks in your nice smooth, although impossible dream story. You feel déjà vu! And that is what I am coming around to.
It is this feeling, of having seen something or having been somewhere that you have actually never seen or been to that gives rise to proof that it was from some other long lost dream that got complete.
Anyways…this even is not the point.
My point is that when I used to dream with closed eyes, I dreamt strange, exhilarating, impossible, nasty, thrilling, scary dreams…sometimes lovely, sometimes unnerving. All was tumultuous, all was confusing. But the new version that I have begun to use, the open-eye version, has a very different quality. All the dreams are almost similar. And they age along with me.
So when I am in class XII, I dream of success, IITJEE or such things as technology, cyber centres, space exploration, particle accelerators and such like. When I am through and doing engineering, I dream of foreign lands, of MBA, of IIMs, of the college discotheque and the dancing figures there, of internet and chatting, of USA being taught a lesson and of being a code guru. When I am thru again and doing my MBA, I dream of steel and glass empires, of young people in smart attire, of fat pay cheques, of awesome jobs and subsequently of having fun in the dance nights and of roaming places and of adventure trips and of adrenalin rush.
And now that I am finally through with it all, what do I dream of?
Well…I dream of Genie! A genie…my genie! Did you think the genie of Alladin’s magic lamp, the wishing genie? Oh no…you got it wrong. I dream of my genie…who is nothing of the sort you think it is.
I dream of a genie who can become a mirror for me…so I can look at myself in it and see myself happy. I dream of a genie who can become a face anywhere I want it, to share my happiness with. In the clouds when I lie down on soft moist grass of summer, the heady grassy aroma and the sweet and sour mangos filling the air. In the water when I lean over the village stream to splash my face, burning with the heat of running up the grassy hill. In the book when I open it to read the stories of passion. In the cool summer breeze as it hits my face ruffling my hair as I gaze at the spreading landscape of forests and hills. And then in the clock face whenever I get up in the morn from a nice dreamy sleep, saying “Hi there!”
And so has the caravan of my dreams passed through the deserts of age and has been to oases and dried streams and such places…and it has changed itself always. And now…in this happy stage in life…when I go to dream, I say “I dream of Genie!"
Comments