In your dreams

99.9% of times I see dreams when I sleep. My constant complaint is that on waking up in the morning I feel as if I have been working all night.

The usual setting for my dreams is my school building or playground, my IIT Bombay hostel and home in India. Those making appearances in my dreams include family, friends, colleagues from work, people I haven't seen or thought about for years, random unknown faces, and even film or soap actors. The latter invariably happens over weekends as a result of my being glued to the tv for too long.

I had one of my scariest dreams just a few days before the Class X Board Exams were going to take place. I saw all my teeth crumbling into tiny pieces and when I covered my mouth they fell into my palms! One early morning in January 2009 in a rare happening I woke up crying continuing the flow of tears from the dream. Months after I had successfully given my Ph.D. viva I found myself floundering at answering the questions posed by the committee in my nightmare.

Such visions can easily be attributed to my fears and insecurities during those periods. But what about the cases when I see myself doing things I am incapable of doing (as of this moment) in life. For example, I do not know how to cycle. I do not know how to ride a scooty. I had learnt driving a car once up on a time but lost the confidence on Pune roads and no longer remember now even the order of accelerator, brake and clutch. I do not know how to swim. I definitely am no Krrish.

Yet in my nightly illusions I just pick up a cycle or get on a bike and am able to balance it without any issues. I find myself having fun floating in those Waterworld kind of pools. On other occasions I see myself riding on huge waves. Once I got inside what was in the beginning a plane and later turned into a spherical capsule but really enormous. The way it traveled was very much like this scene in the animation movie Robots when Rodney arrives in Robot City and goes to meet his idol Bigweld. A few days back I was flying around from one part of the school field to another. It was as if I had gained some superpowers.

As much as I'd like to have a relaxed slumber, these particular action packed specters of the mind-boggling type tell me that if only we believe then like in our dreams in our daily affairs too we would be able to do things above and beyond what me may normally percieve ourselves to be capable of.

So dream on.

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PS: What kind of dreams do you have?