Dreams: coded messages or gobbledygook of unfulfilled mind?

Queen of Dreams

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (2004)

For centuries people have always associated dreams with our connection to the alternative realm. The unknown space that is beyond human comprehension that is said to be the link between our world and the inexorable dimension of divinity. For aeons, people have been under the impression that Gods speak to their subjects through this mode which they perceive as His way of communication. They were hellbent on to believing this that one almost severed his son's head and the other went on a world-saving venture impending doomsday by building an ark to converse all animals on Earth, much to the amusement of his neighbours and friends.

People like Freud, putting God out of the equation, went on to suggest that these nocturnal visualisations were mere expressions of the mind which were suppressed, repressed or forgotten of the Conscious. It could also be therapeutic if one could critically analyse the cry of the hidden mind.  

Unlike our ancestors, we are now living in an era where human beings are constantly bombarded with stimuli from all angles. Never before in our civilisation have we been overloaded visually, aurally and intellectually. Now, our mind is the sum of our senses and dreams are related to our exposure. Can we still say that our dreams are expressions of something so out of this world, something so divine? Is it not just a defragmentation, decluttering and pruning in a process of housekeeping of the files in our grey matter? Or perhaps an act of self-gratification of an exercise of near impossibility in our protocol and etiquette conscious society?

The story narrates from the perspective of a daughter of a clairvoyant who struggles with her God-given talent of psychic powers through dreams. The mother tries to juggle between trying to make sense of her ability, setting rules of her power, tries to live her worldly duties and, at the same time, attempt to fulfil the reason for her perceived purpose on Earth. 

The daughter has her own issues with her DJ husband, a strained marriage and the challenge of living as a coloured in the head-spinning times surrounding the 9/11 tragedy. A good read.

When I grow up, it would be just shattered dreams!

When I grow up, I want to be rich; I want to have boobies (oops, groupies), so the song goes.
We all have our dreams so as not to repeat the mistakes that our forefathers. We want to undo all the mistakes, to grasp lost opportunities or that that never came their way. We follow the rules, the do's and don'ts paved by our elders. We try to uphold ancient value systems hoping for the blessings from Nature or Divine Being or whoever who is or isn't there.

We play hard, we work hard but bearing in mind that the Middle Path is always the best.

We do a reality check. The last time we scrutinised, we were doing a-okay. The future could not be looking any better. We were proud of ourselves. The future looked so bright that we may have to wear shades.

Then wham!

The dark shadow of the past plagues come haunting. The very genetically predetermined ailments that were tried to be kept at bay came a-knocking. The sensible life that was led is no guarantee for the rogue DNA to go berserk. You had one job to do, DNA, to replicate evenly, that too can go asunder. We observe rigid rules and indulge judiciously but still...

We do the best for our dependants, believing that they are God-sent and it is our God-sent duty on Earth when we accepted our mission to this birth. Still, that is not enough. Problems abound, if it is not poverty, then it is first world problem. Sobriety and satiety seem like but an illusive dream. Our offspring would probably feel the same growing pains that we had felt before in the spring of our youths and did not want to replicate. And maybe, they would want to their would want to build their own dreams for the future.

It is okay if dreams do not materialise, as long as it does not metamorph into the nightmare that leaves us drenched in our own bodily fluids.