I wrote a story in my dream but I don't remember it.

Last night, in my dream, I wrote a story. It had a surprise ending. Even in my dream, I knew it was a dream, like it happens so many times. I also knew that I would not remember the story when I woke up. So I considered waking up right then and jotting the story down. But even as I was thinking that, the salient points of the story began to blur. So I did what I thought was the next best thing. I tried to engrave some key points of the story in my head, so that I would remember it when I woke up.

I don't know if I did it, or if the darkness of sleep overcame the momentary clarity. But when I woke up, I did not even remember about the story. But a few minutes back, it came back to me that there was a story in my dream. I tried as hard as I could to remember what it was, but all that I remember is that the surprise ending consisted of one line, and that one line had a longish word, starting with "S". Surpassed? Stupendous? Stargazing? Is there any use?

I am insanely jealous of all those scientists who got solutions to their problems in their dreams. Take for example the scientist Kekule. He racked his brains for years, trying to find out the structure of Benzene. Then, once, in his dream, he saw six snakes slithering about. Suddenly they all got together, with each snake holding the tail of the next in its mouth, thus forming a circle. Bells rang in his head, and he probably woke up shouting the German version of "Eureka" and gave us the structure of the Benzene ring. (Which, by the way, is the only structure I could remember for Chemistry tests).

Then there are writers who say that they get their literary ideas from their dreams.. Robert Louis Stevenson says that he got the idea for "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" in a dream.

Now, my question is this. How did Kekule and Stevenson wake up and remember their dreams? If I were Kekule, the moment I started dreaming about snakes, I would have woken up screaming. And then I would have forgotten why I woke up screaming. Sigh. That's what makes Kekule, Kekule and me, me.

Don't dreams just drive you wild? With their can't-understand-them characteristics? You spend a whole day thinking of the Himalayas, and two minutes thinking of Dracula, and when you sleep, what do you dream of? Dracula of course.

And then there are those dreams where you know that it is a dream, but you cannot get out of it. It is like thrashing about in a web that you are caught in. If it is a nice dream, you don't really mind, you can even ask the person trying to wake you up, to hold on for five minutes while you finish your dream. But really wild are those dreams where you say, "I hope this is a dream. It sure feels like a dream". But it is never-ending, and bad things keep happening, and you can't control it, and at the point where you feel, "No, this is not a dream, it is really happening", the tears start flowing, and then you wake up, my cheeks wet with tears. And what a relief that is!

Then there are times when you wake up, and know that you have been dreaming, but don't remember the dream. Then the next time you go to bed, the dream automatically comes back, and you can easily continue it. Strange indeed.

Then there are dreams where a certain person makes an appearance, but you have forgotten it. And the next day, when you meet that person, you blurt out, "Hey I dreamt of you last night!" and then you have to listen to the sniggers all around. Sigh.

Anyway, the whole grouchy point of this post is that I have forgotten the wonderful, prize-winning material, Roald Dahl-ish story that I wrote in my dream.