Last night I dreamt of.....

"I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
- W B Yeats

Not Manderley for sure, I will leave that to Mrs. De Winter :)

I had gone to the movies on Sunday with a friend of mine. Never a big fan of DiCaprio even while the Titanic was afloat, I still wanted to catch "Inception" at the cinemas. Despite a terrible cold and a nagging headache, I was quite keyed up the whole day awaiting the "me" time.

However, having long since departed from my days of watching Bollywood movies, nothing had prepared me for the looooong 2 1/2 hours of this over-hyped and much awaited movie. I was quite disappointed with the movie and at times, my patience was running quite low that I was quite provoked to give the much needed kick the cast needed to get out of their maze of dreams. Of course, this is the kind of movie that would either be critically acclaimed as a masterpiece or considered to be a downright disappointment. Sadly, despite the stellar cast (I do luv the Juno kid) and visibly stunning special effects, the movie did not do much for me........it did get awfully boring towards the end and I wished I had a remote so I could get to the part where the credits start rolling :) In the end when we stepped out of the cinema-hall in a stupor with our grey-cells almost fried, we too needed a totem to remind us if we were in reality or still in a dream.

However I digress, my post is not about the movie itself, but just the concept of dreams. I am one of those people who does not have a restful sleep. Given my restless nature or a disposition easily reactive to stimuli, I have very vivid and colourful dreams which would more likely fit the label of nightmares than actual dreams. Despite having seen 3 1/2 decades, I totally freak out on sleeping on my own. My family and close circle of friends are well aware of my nocturnal episodes. I had a trying time especially when I was away on my own......I used to try everything suggested to ward off bad dreams.......rosary, pair of scissors, a copy of the shroud of Turin, even sleeping with the light on. Sadly nothing helped. I used to wake up in shivers or keening and sometimes suffering from bad episodes of sleep paralysis......occasionally my dreams have served me as premonitions of bad tidings as well. In the end I reverted my sleep cycle turning nights into days and catching up with my much needed sleep during the day.

So technically, I should be afraid of dreams by now !!! No, this is where "Inception" despite not being warmly received by me, struck a chord in me. What are we without our dreams? Why does reality pale in significance beside our dreams? Are dreams merely the incessant and meaningless chatter of our subconscious and if so, why do we still long for the faraway world of dreams?

Imagine stuck in a harsh reality with no exit signs highlighting your way out !!! What if the monotony of life painted in shades of black or sombre grey leaches the breath out of you and all you have within you is your capacity to dream. Would not the world of dreams then become the sanctuary offering total refuge, the only oasis of solace and comfort in the arid desert of existence? Perhaps the parched soul takes its sip of life-giving water to continue on its meaningless journey!!! Perhaps this is the parallel world where flimsy and broken castles of reality morphs into sturdy structures, where forgotten faces from the past are thrown into sharp relief, where broken relationships are mended anew without traces of fracture, where perfidy is forgiven with grace and compassion, where ablutions are conceded without judgement, where broken souls become whole, where utopia is the natural state..........maybe reality in this dimension is nothing but a bad dream :) For those living other people's dreams, this world becomes the only place to live their own dreams. Once the dream is over and you wake up blinded by the rays of harsh reality, the only thing that keeps you going, is your hope that someday your dreams might become your reality.

However I rush in to put a disclaimer ( read the small print folks), this post does not sanction any rights to you to throw away your reality in a haze of dreams :) Guess it is time I cut short my rambling discourse and hasten to the world of dreams :)