A strange dream...

well, nothing much has happened in the last few days that i should actually write something here. But last night I had a really strange dream. I wish I had Sigmund Freud to interpret it for me, coz this was totally unlike any dream I have seen before. I saw that I have set sail in a very small boat into the Atlantic Ocean. I don't know where I am travelling ( or maybe I knew in the dream and now its pretty hazy and i can't remember ). Anyway...so i am all alone in this little boat of mine, and i remember it having sails like the boats of 19th century i guess. I feel at peace and free with all the vast blue expanse around me. Everything seems so peaceful and so quiet. Suddenly a violent storm breaks out. I feel the icy winds hitting me and my hapless boat. So, i lie down flat, and the boat is at the mercy of the storm. Then, i feel the boat going round in circles because of a giant whirlpool. I don't recall what happened next, but then i see my boat hitting land...not land...but a snow covered football field. I look bewildered at a black kid playing soccer. I ask him .."where is this place?". He probably thinks i am some lunatic and runs away. Then I keep walking and ask another kid...he sayz "fairfax". Actually, Fairfax is a county in Virginia. But in my dreams I associate Fairfax with a port on the western coast of Canada ( dunno why though ). And maybe, that is why the surroundings around me look different than what i would imagine in US, I imagine myself in Canada. Then I marvel at the storm which has taken me right over Hudson Bay and dropped me into the west coast of Canada!!

Then, somehow I feel i must call up my folks at home to tell them where I am. So, I go to the nearest hotel for a place to stay. There I see Massoud ( hez my classmate ). He sayz he'll wait till I go and call up my folks. Then I make the phone call, and instead of going back to the hotel, I go to the taxi stand and ask for charges for car hires. By that time, I am thinking..."what the heck...if i am in canada...might as well make the most of it". Anyway, suddenly I find myself going to a house where therez Uma didi ( she lives near Boston and I visit her frequently ), her mother and a gentleman who looks like my dad's friend but is much younger. Therez a big group and someone cracks a joke about having a house under the hudson ( no..i was not drunk in my dream!). Then I ask the gentleman his name, and he sayz "Deepak Dasmunshi". That's the same name as my dad's friend. I am acually quite fond of him and admire him for many of his qualities including the fact that he has chosen to remain a bachelor. I am about to ask him something......but then....I wake up!....hmmm....i know a big letdown. I was hoping of seeing some more Canada in my dreams....anyway....some other time maybe.

I have been reading voraciously for the past few days. Among them, "The Glass Palace" by Amitav Ghosh was fantastic. Its pretty good if you are looking for a novel for entertainment. This book reminds me of "As the crow flies" by Jeffrey Archer in its style and flavor. Its a saga spanning a century about a couple of famlies and their descendants. The author goes into such graphic detail, you would think he was actually there in pre independance india. I really love Amitav Ghosh's writings. He has an amazing style and his writings are so well researched and detailed. The second book is Tehmina Durrani's "Blasphemy". Now, this book is really an eye opener about some of the religious leaders who exploit their position in society and shows their real faces. Some of the things make yur stomach churn with disgust and you wonder how low humanity has stooped to be capable of such atrocities. But definitely both are a must read.