d r e a m y m e

I love day-dreaming. And I’m sure that the people who know me well will vouch for it. I start the moment I wake up. But it’s not a conscious effort you know... It just happens. Even as a kid when I was in school, I rarely listened to what the teacher was saying. I had no idea that you were supposed to pay attention to the teacher, if I recall right. Since I had so much time to just dream, I’d re-dream too sometimes. In the sense, I would re-run the dream again in my mind. Somehow over the years I’d also developed the habit of acknowledging the teacher occasionally. So, was hardly accused of being ‘physically present and mentally absent’. I don’t understand why teachers across schools adore that phrase. Never quite liked it.

Getting back to the subject... There have been days when I’ve put down my pen in the middle of an exam and let my mind wander. Invariably, I’d end up dreaming most during English exams and submit incomplete answer scripts. There’d be a crow in the tree outside the classroom, clutching something rather interesting in its beak. That would more than suffice. I’d watch the crow; observe its anatomy, its struggle with its prey, the withered leaf settling down on the sand, the frightened squirrel gliding across the adjoining branches, another squirrel giving it the chase... Oh what bliss it is to just sit back and be a silent witness to such harmless happenings instead of having to draft a notice for a lost swim-suit.

When I say dream, it does not stop with just watching things around me. Based on what I’ve seen I’d effortlessly conjure up a sequence of entertaining proceedings. By then the crow would have long been gone. But I’d make him the protagonist of my dreams for the next few minutes.
If school gave me so much room to dream, college with its huge lush campus and aesthetic buildings offered even more prospects. During the rainy season, you’d spot these tall white birds pecking at the grass. Storks or their distant cousins perhaps. That’s how I graduated from crows to more exotic species. A Financial Management class was in progress. As had been my regular practice, I switched to dream mode for that hour and had no idea what was being said. The class passed off uneventfully. A couple of hours later my HOD saw me stroll down the corridor and enquired about the class. She wasn’t spying or anything. She just wanted to know how much of the syllabus had been completed so she could allocate time or some such thing. Since I didn’t react, she patiently rephrased the question for me. Which unit was handled in class today? I continued to look blankly at her wondering how to make it clear that I understood the question perfectly well and it was just that I did not have a satisfactory answer. I tried recalling what was done last class, but was clueless. “I’ll just find out and let you know ma’am”, I said sounding as intellectual as I could. “But weren’t you in class?” “Yes, I was. But I’d like to confirm”, and I rushed back to class to figure out the status even as my HOD continued to direct a confused gaze at me.

When someone asks me what I do in my free time, I grope around for answers. Because I can’t tell them I dream in my free time. The fact is I dream even when I don’t have free time. And the few people who know that I have a tendency to slip into this make-believe world have been asking me what I dream about. If I told them I was watching a crow and that it has been the inspiration of my dreams, do I need to tell you how they would react? That’s why I usually don’t disclose the themes of my dreams. But they don’t understand. They insist on knowing the intricacies and torture me no end to reveal the details. The more I refuse, the more hyped the focus becomes. May be I should just give them the precise particulars from now on.
You know what; I just got a forward that said ‘Dream more when you are awake’ for it keeps the mind healthy. And was I happy!