Rainbow Sparkles
I have been disappointed by films I've seen, books I've read, music I've heard but I've never ever, ever been disappointed by my dreams.
These scenes inside my head have somehow never failed to exhilirate, enthrall, horrify, entrance, turn on, apall, teach, perplex, irritate, enchant, make me think. I have tried and tried and tried to get to the bottom of my dreams, have googled extensively on the subject, read up variously (Jung, Freud and the occult included) and asked people claiming to know a lot about them but I have yet to receive a satisfactory explanation of how they're made.
Am now going to describe to you this one that came to me about a year ago...
Tell me if any of it make sense you guys
Am taking a walk down the road with a colleague and an Ambassador suddenly whizzes past us. On top of the car is a family of lions, most probably two lionesses (as there are no maned creatures) and some cubs. We wave at them and they somehow acknowledge the wave with a split-second nod or the cat-equivalent of it.
Next I am on a mountain track, walking--without the colleague but with a Caucasian couple. The woman and I have this 'first-time meeters' familiarity, a bit like cyberpals or penpals meeting in real time. The man is a stranger. I am walking between them, dishing out a monologue to which they have nothing much to contribute except agreeing nods. Funnily, my dream conversations are mostly telepathic, meaning sentences are not spoken, they're just heard.
We cut to an old-fashioned halal meat market, the kind that has carcasses hanging from hooks and where the meat is chopped on a slice of tree trunk.
The shop I stop by has a tiger carcass hanging from its hook. It's obviously not been skinned like the rest of the carcasses. And strangely, it's also not been decapitated. I ask for the head, which is duly cut off and handed to me. I pay the guy and start walking out of the market holding the head by the ears. (Am sorry if it's getting too grisly. Can't help, have to tell it as it was!). Halfway out of the market, I realise I don't need the whole head, so I go back to the shop and ask the meat seller to give me just the teeth. The big four.
The canines are duly pulled out and handed to me. I look at the sharp sticks of yellow tiger ivory, admire them and hand them back to the meat seller. Break them open, I tell him. He takes out a hammer and cracks open the teeth. Inside them are rows of diamonds, like peas in a pod, cut and polished, with rainbow sparkles. I take these diamonds in my palm to feel their sharp edges and their 'realness', slide them into my coat pocket and walk on.
The dream then fades like a reflection on a rippling pond.
Dude - all that dream means is that you have a really vivid and strangely potent imagination.
ReplyDeleteOr that you fell asleep watching the National Geographic Channel on TV!
I agree with Pareshan on the NGC part, but from a very lay perspective, I get the feel you are looking for something. But then all of us are right? What have you picked up from your readings on dreams? Are they really reflections of our inner desires/fears etc or something more than that..?
ReplyDeleteBeautifully written, Dhiraj.
ReplyDeleteIMO, the dream's symbology (and topography) is purely personal. It is simply impossible for someone to interpret another person's dream. (Since you mentioned Jung, I am sure you are up to speed on all that psychobabble.)
I think the reason our dreams NEVER fail to disappoint us is because they always involve the "I". We are the observer and the observed. How can it be boring :)
Jiddu Krishnamurthi once said dreams were not anything mysterious, merely the mind's non-stop chatter continuing even as we sleep. Maybe if we really paid attention to our feelings and state of mind during the waking hours, the quality of our dreams will change? I am not entirely sure I want that to happen!
krishna
INSANE! When does the movie come out. Does that dream really even need an interpretation? It's the closing scenes to a movie titled Maharaj The Jewel Thief!
ReplyDeleteHehehe no Pareshaan I wasn't watching Nat Geo.
ReplyDeleteKD where the desire/fear theory makes sense broadly what I can't understand is the path, the means. What in this case does that indicate? My dreams I think are quite like my writing: where symbolism, metaphor and imagery point to a deeper centre. Only here I can't understand that centre.
Krishna, "mind's endless chatter" usually happens when we're awake, am not sure it also happens when we're asleep. Sleep as described in many ancient texts is s'posed to be similar to death, where all conscious thoughts cease. But I guess what we call the subconscious is still active and running, which explains dreams.
TTG, hey thanks for the idea... i agree it would make for a damn good closing scene. Anyone for playing tiger???
Its plain obvious that you are looking for a lioness in bed, who recognizes that you might not look the tiger, but you've certainly got the tigers 'jewels.
ReplyDeleteSorry cud not resist!
LOL... am I Zapped or what! Umm... but maybe I am the lion the lionesses on top of the car are looking for...
ReplyDeletethe dream has a link to show between the begining and the end... but i cant make out what the couple is doing in between.
ReplyDeleteits an intresting dream but i cant figure it out, only you can -> its you imagination that created it along with past experiences and intuition.
Guess you're right Jona! It is my creation and I'll have to crack it... in time.
ReplyDeleteYou were dreaming of me long before we "met".
ReplyDeleteAnd which one of those characters are you, M?
ReplyDeleteCool blog, interesting information... Keep it UP » »
ReplyDelete