Thursday, April 22, 2021

Dreaming Timeline

An eight minutes nap during a ten minutes break to help me keep myself up from the last night's failure to sleep has surprised me with three different dreams.

The first dream - I am at the University of Pune with my friend Raju, at the Department of English's entrance. He is asking me to request Prof. Aniket Jaware for the re-examination for the exam that I missed for sleeping in the library the previous day, deliberately. Raju, who had come to remind me about the examination the previous day, was convinced by me to sleep as appearing for examination without any preparation wouldn't be useful. He, then, appeared for the re-exam, but I didn't. Here, in the dream, he is telling me why it is important for me to have an M.A. English degree. Raju wants to go somewhere so he borrows my bike and hands over his cycle to me. I am there standing at the department's entrance. It seems I am waiting for someone.

It was the past from the year 2006.

I see Amish and Kiran, my college friends (with who I still am in contact, almost every day) arrive there. They seem to be very happy. I too am happy to see them visit m. I don't know who told this lie but they have come to see my girlfriend. I am trying to tell them it was just a rumour, and they are unconvinced by my words. They call me 'smartass' and are poking me to tell them who the girl is. And I am, after some time, acting as if I have one but I don't want to tell them.

It is the present that mixed with the past.

I see her and myself sitting in a bar. I don't drink - she knows. She wants me to drink so that once drunk I would tell her the truth behind my feeling for her, and I want her to do the vice-versa. To make her believe that I am actually drinking, I sprinkle some wine on my lips and I start acting weird. I am about to tell her how impossible it is for me to spend days without remembering her. How impossible it is for me to spend a second without thinking about talking to her. And In my dream, I am thinking about the beautiful time, I was spending with her in the bar.

Will it be a future that I am expecting to be real?

 An eight minutes dream took me in three phases of time and I realize that the search for the perfect friend who I will always love is still not over. Every day we sleep. Some days we dream. Some days we dream possible, some days - impossible.

 


RETHINKING THE PURPOSE OF HOMEWORK

In education in India, homework has long been viewed as a staple, a marker of a student's engagement with academic material. Yet, the qu...