Dreams, when we remember them in a wakeful state, can be so fascinating. I mostly sleep peacefully through the night and rarely remember the dreams that I had. Even if I do, as the day progresses, it becomes harder to recollect them. And then there are some dreams that stay with me for a long time and are almost hard to forget. I had one such dream on Tuesday night.
Tuesday began as an ordinary day with me spending a part of my morning at the gym. I had a dinner invitation at one of my much-loved Japanese restaurants, Harima, after which an auto-rickshaw drove me home. Before turning in for the night, I watched an episode of ‘Marvel Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D’, making it a pretty average day of my life. My night, on the other hand, was anything but average.
My sister, Sujata, and I were in Delhi to attend a wedding. We were staying in an apartment in South Delhi and strangely, it was just the two of us. The building was on a mostly deserted street and as we walked around, we came across this interesting looking home. It was almost like a large suburban American home, quite a misfit amongst all the other high-rises and our curiosity made us want to peek inside.
As we began nosily looking inside the partial glass door, a tall, sophisticated looking man appeared, introduced himself as the owner and invited us inside. Without any hesitation we went in and began exploring the house, which literally seemed endless. Every room led to another, each one right out of a fantasy movie or a fairy tale. It’s hard for me to describe any of the rooms as I can’t recollect the details but I do remember them being extraordinary. After going through many of the rooms we reached an enormous courtyard, in the middle of which was a crystal clear pond. There were birds everywhere and I rattled off their names, much to the surprise of my sister.
There was a little park with a bench and as we sat down, from out of nowhere appeared a waiter dressed in an old-school uniform with a tray full of tea and goodies. Between conversations we found out that our host was a big shot designer.
The house continued on across from the courtyard and that section was like a marketplace. There were little stores selling everything from shawls to shoes. This area was packed with shoppers and as we walked around, we ran into our sister, Rajni. We were unsurprised to see each other and talked about meeting at the wedding.
During the course of this night, I would keep waking up, which is extremely unusual for me. And strangely enough as I would drift back into sleep, the same dream would continue.
It was the day of the wedding and Sujata and I were back at the now minuscule apartment. She suggested to me that I go over to the designer guy’s home to take a shower and get dressed, which seemed like a completely normal thing to do.
The front door was open and I walked in without a second thought. I was back in that magical home, which now seemed much darker and creepier. Not in a cheesy horror movie kind of way but as a place that definitely could not be described as cheerful. There was not a soul to be seen and as I walked through a number of rooms, I could find no sign of a bathroom. I entered a large, dimly lit library with floor to ceiling mahogany bookshelves along all four walls. The rest of the room, however was set up like a restaurant with 4-seater tables, place settings and a centerpiece.
Along one of the walls was the bathroom door that I walked into with a sense of familiarity. It was a massive bathroom but there was no toilet and in one corner was a small shower stall. The rest of it was a largely open space with scattered plush seating. The far end wall was all glass, looking out into a view of Manhattan, the Flatiron building directly in my line of vision. It was starting to get dark and as the lights began coming on in the apartments, I could see silhouettes of it’s residents. I sat myself down on a couch and voyeuristically began watching these people who I could now see clearly, as if they were just a few feet away.
At some point I decided to take the shower that I was there for and get dressed. As I got into the shower stall, the library lights went on and there were people seated at every table. Not just that, there were guests in the bathroom area dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, holding a glass of wine. There was classical music playing in the background and a vibrant cocktail party was in progress. All the bathroom walls had turned into glass but everyone was clearly oblivious of me.
All of a sudden I looked up and noticed that the shower had turned into a large chimney with circus performers coming down it. As each one would come down and enter my shower area, they would open the door and go outside. I found myself dressed but however hard I tried, I couldn’t get myself outside the door. It was getting increasingly frustrating being trapped and even worse, everything began happening in slow motion. Close to tears, I didn’t know what to do and how to get away. “If this is a dream, let me wake up now,” I thought.
It was of course a dream and I opened my eyes feeling both exhausted and relieved at the same time. Although it was 8:30 in the morning I felt unrested, wanting to sleep for a little while longer, which I would end up doing for a few seconds. But then I would make a conscious effort and wake myself up, afraid that I would plunge into the same dream. For a while I lay in bed, thinking about my night, going through the pieces that I could remember vividly, not wanting to forget.
It’s remarkable how our subconscious works when we are not awake. And the imagination that we are capable of having. How a dream team puts disparate pieces of our lives together, throws in something we’ve probably only read/seen/heard about and comes up with a production merely for the purpose of entertaining us while we are asleep.
