Tuesday, August 01, 2006

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.

24 comments:

Inder said...

yeah. i can understand. dreams could be really weird sometimes... as you pointed out, some dreams are so weird that you have this great relief when you realize that it is just a dream.

i remember one of my weird dreams. i think i had it when i went to sleep after reading some cowboy comics. i was a cowboy in that dream and there was some serious riot in the town. people were shooting each other like mad. it was like a crazy vidio game. then a mob attacks me. luckily i had some guns. like clint eastwood does in his old western movies, i casually take my pistol and shoot at them. but, damn. nothing happens to the attackers. may be my pistols were unloaded or may be mine were toy guns. looking at this, my attackers start laughing at me. they laugh so hard that they forget what they were up to and roll on the floor laughing. i then run along the streets for my life. i don't remember anything else. weird.

Shruthi said...

Inder: ROFL!! That's such a fantastic dream! And so weird! No wonder the world of dreams is a complete inexhaustible field of research!

anoop said...

I usually dont dream. When I dream, it would be because I have worked a lot, and in those dreams I probably would be solving some conundrums which i couldnt during the working hours. And I distinctly remember solving them in my dreams, but the solution doesnt flash to me when i wake up the next day.

For people who dont want to dream about work, just before going to sleep try reading a book for around 30 mins or hear 15 mins of music you like. This refreshes the mind like nothing, and who knows, you may dream of being the protagonist in the book and complete the story or become another Yanni.

Shruthi said...

Anoop: Ouch! Such a pity, isn't it? That brings us to the question - it is the same brain, what stops it from solving the same problem in a fully conscious state? :O
I hardly ever dream of work. I might dream of my workplace, but of work - very, very rare. And I usually don't remember my dreams either!

Chitra said...

Good...at least you can remember your dreams. Nandu full blanku !!

anoop said...

well well, i didn't say i dream only of my work. ;)

I sincerely don't think i solve any of the puzzles in my dreams, its just my brain is so confused and it makes me believe that I have solved it. Sometimes i remember the solutions too, its always almost illogical.

Viky said...

Ah Dreams...

I get a lot of them, but I only remember the gist of them when I get up. I usually go to sleep thinking of a to-do list for the next morning, and I get up remembering that I have to DO something, but forgetting what.

But in all that, I have one dream to which I have become habituated. I often dream that I am walking/running/riding/driving on a mountain/flyover, and I go overboard into the nothingness and fall with a thud. The thud used to wake me in a cold sweat earlier, but now I'm so used to it that when I'm falling, I realise its a dream, and curl up to cushion the fall.

A more familiar scenario is when I dream about a certain sequence of events, and a long time later, when they are turning out the same way, I realise with a sense of deja vu, I know what happens next.

Like the time when we were sitting in Barista, and it kept rankling my mind where we had sat like this together in Barista before...and then I realised it was in a dream. I recalled that someone dropped a tray in the dream, and as if on cue, a pretty young thing dropped her coffee and biscuits while trying to extract her phone from her figure-hugging jeans.

Amazing how the 3 lbs of flesh right at the top works, eh?

Anonymous said...

yeah, I empathize..happens to me too - and I see entire movies in my dream sometimes. Hope the dream story comes back to you sometime, so we can read it..:)

Shruthi said...

Chitra: I have bouts of remembering and forgetting dreams - and I don't know the reason why! :O

Anoop: Oh no no, I was clarifying that I don't dream of work :)
Hmmm you do have a point there. For all you know, I never even wrote a story in my dream!

Viky: Yeah yeah, that falling off a cliff dream happens to me pretty regularly - at least it used to!
And that thing about something which I have dreamt of, happening in real life - I have always brushed it off as deja vu - but sometimes I do feel that maybe I have dreamt of it before.
It is extremely eerie!

Sue: I hope I remember it too! It was a good story! ;)

Nirwa Mehta said...

Trust me, Shruthi, when I tell you you don't want to hear about my dreams!!

There have been times when my sister (who used to share the room before she went to US) used to wake up at nights because of a thunderous laughter in the middle of the night.

She would actually wake me up and tell me that I was laughing like mad in my sleep. Even my mom has experienced the same thing 2-3 times! :D

I'm sure it was something I dreamt! ;-)

Shruthi said...

Nirwa: I am sure your dreams will be as weird as you are :D
Oh btw, I guess you had donned the identity of that Green Faced Monster in your dream, and you were giving a wicked, evil laughter! :D
Now I know why your sister went off to the US ;)

Anonymous said...

Shruthi,
majaa banthu odhi. btw, do u dream in 'colour' or b/w?

Shruthi said...

RK: I really don't know! Sometimes I am sure I dream of a red pullover or a blue plate or something - but I am not too sure :D

Anonymous said...

Hey, reminds me of a really old post of mine.
Check it out here - you have to scroll down till your reach "Dreamland Movies (An Old Post)"

ano

Shruthi said...

Ano: Ha ha!!! That was a really sweet post :D I could so relate to it :D -- The other old posts were good to read too!

Anonymous said...

There is another rk, in your comment spaces. I guess I should identify myself in some other way. Any suggestions ?

Talking of dream, I got this dream sometime ago. And there is another dream which was way too filmy & I am embarassed to put on blog!
Nice post and it was almost like what I had in my mind about dreams but would have been unable to put on paper so clearly.
My 2 cents addition : I like my dreams however wierd they are and of course I dream in colour :) And I do not like intepreting dreams what so ever. It is meaningless to me.

Shruthi said...

RK: Whew! What a dream!! Hey I am not able to leave comments on your site.. I can't view them either.
"Now they are coloured" - that was a good way of putting it... and a pretty gory way also!
Oh, I personally can make out which RK has commented. In case I get a doubt, I just hover over your name, and I see your blogname, and I know who it is. But if you really want to make a distinction, for the benefit of other readers, you could call yourself RK of RKblogs or something like that ;) -- But it is entirely left to you!

Sachin said...

Hey, the only part which I identify with is the "falling off" part....though mine is not falling off cliffs, its more the feeling of falling of the bed on which I am sleeping. And that makes it feel all the more real!!! In fact there are times when I wake up with a slight pain in my knee caps and a jolt but then I realize I'm still on my bed...really weird. As for the deja vu thing, it happens to me too but I get the feeling when the event actually happens in real (that I've seen the same sequence before somewhere!!)... yikes, now I feel slightly spooked out.... :)

Shruthi said...

Sachin: Yes and sometimes I dream that I am eating or drinking something, and I wake up and I can actually swear that I can taste or smell that.. strange indeed!

Anonymous said...

Funny, but I have created tunes in my dream - Madan Mohan types. Of 10-11 such dreamy tunes, I was able to remember only 1 after I woke up.

Some say that you see your worst fears in dreams and I agree. I have vertigo, and I have willingly jumped from Qutub Minar many many times in my dreams.

Usha said...

Very well written. Loved the post. Felt the same way many times but never could articulate the experience so well.

Shruthi said...

Silkboard: That is very very interesting indeed! Willingly jumped from Qutb Minar?!
And you actually remember a tune? That is so cool! Do you still remember it? If you do, you have to hum it for us at the next meeting ;)

Usha: Thank you so much! :)

Anonymous said...

I dunno how people got things in dreams and then they were able to remember them.
I dunno why u 4got the story of ur Dream.

Like our politicians say
"Pakistan and ISI may have a hand in this".

:)

enjoy Sleeping

Shruthi said...

Mukund, like we used to say as kids, tickle-tickle-laugh-laugh.

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