Monday, March 27, 2006

Another world


Last night I dreamt that I was walking through my old school again. It was larger and cleaner than it had ever been. I walked through the old cycle shed behind the classrooms where we used to pile up our bikes, slanted against the wall, falling one on top of another until you couldn’t tell spinning handlebar from wheel. So I walked through the cycle shed and discovered that everything had changed. There were no cycles anymore, no dirty walls to prop them on – it was a wide field with grass high enough to skim my knees, and when I looked further, I could see a swing on which a kangaroo was swinging. His spindly legs were on the slat, well above my head, and his head was towering up in the air, bobbing side to side as the swing went up and down.

I walked past him, with my head pulled down towards the grass, gravity or fear, I could not be certain. Soon the knee high grass gave way to even taller structures that rose to my shoulder as I walked on into the African grasslands, no tear in the fabric of time, as it flowed past me. Where did this world end, and the new one begin? No line was visible, no mark of plough, no stamp of muddy feet, no trail in the sky above, no flowing water as guide. Time was indeterminate, standing still on a landscape of dry grass yellow and somber sky blue stretching to the horizon, which is the end of time.

I found a glimpse of moving ochre, a conjunction of power and audacity, a lioness, pacing the distance slowly. I was no one anymore, struggling to obliterate myself, hoping to disappear from that evil eye so powerful. I waited silently for morning, although I knew there would be no rescue. Sometimes, things are true even when they don’t seem to be.

9 comments:

DreamClicks said...

Yay to dreams! But did u actually dream of this?

Kangaroo in a swing put a wide smile on my face!!

Nostalgic chords - bicycles and school.

The ramblings of a shoe fiend said...

The kangaroo caught me off guard and like Dream Vendor made me smile.

Sometimes, things are true even when they don’t seem to be.

How wonderful!

A Dreamer... said...

Bicycle shed....I am back in JV looking at the boys and girls cycle shed :)

apu said...

I swear I dreamt it - so it wasn't all creativity :)

apu said...

Somwya, u hit the nail on the head - it was JV!!!

Sunil said...

also (forgive the spam), but i've often thought of asking (but never, till now have) what "a wind-up bird chronicle" means.....

Srihari said...

Very creative dream...kangaroo on a swing is a blockbuster idea! Wonder which movie/book you were engrossed in the night before though??

apu said...

Sunil, the wind-up bird chronicle is a book by haruki murakami - one of my favorite authors...

the lead character hears a bird cry every morning which he cannot identify - he imagines this to be the wind-up bird - the bird which comes in every day to wind up the spring of the world and get it going. You can imagine what happens when the wind-up bird fails to turn up...

Chotu :) I wasnt reading anything..maybe someone can do a dream interpretation for me..

Anjali said...

That was some dream!

I love the new look, by the way :)