Of Dreams & Nightmares

After all my exams finished in 7th semester of college (November 2007), I was quite happy that I would be freed from preparing for an exam again! Atleast for the foreseeable future.. But I was wrong.. I have since given countless exams.. all types of crazy ones.. and guess what.. without an iota of preparation! Mind has got an ingenious way of making me give it.. yes, I am speaking of my first recurring night-mare I have known.. to those who have known me in school or college, they would scarcely believe me.. but it is true.. Even today morning around 6am, I woke up in fear of writing a hindi exam where I was damn slow to answer the questions!! I have always had fear of exams which made me, to an extent, to study hard and attend the exam with gr8 confidence.. Now I am unable to quell away this recurring night-mare :(.. I guess, my fear for exams is still deeply imprinted in my mind..

Anyway, these night-mares got me to again think on the subject of "dreams".. Like you would all have done, I have spent many hours contemplating on "dreams".. One thing that strikes me is that most (if not all) of the times, dreams have the characters/objects known to me.. only these known ones are vivid enough for recollection, rest of them are hazy.. also, when a book I am reading interests me very much, or sleeping after an uncompleted cricket match I like, with astonishing consistency, they have appeared in my dreams.. with all kinds of crazy events happening related to it.. mostly it takes the form I do not desire to happen..

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It is not like dreams always make us anxious.. sometimes, they tend to help us in clearing our thoughts/understanding.. I do remember a dream I had in 1st yr of college.. I had written few C/C++ programs required for the assignment.. in my dreams, i discovered that I had made a logical mistake in one of the programs.. which proved correct when I reviewed it the next day!!.. and recently, I have had similar dreams related to my office work which helped me..

I do believe, that in our dreams, our reactions are close to what we would have done in reality.. an example: few weeks back, i had watched die-hard2 before sleeping.. in my dream, I am taken as "prisoner" along with many others... each one is being checked for weapons.. and those who lied are tortured... interestingly, I had a bomb with me which I was entrusted with before being captured..to kill the enemy... now, when my turn comes for inspection, instead of blowing the enemy (along with me, ofcourse) I fear for my life and give it up.. (and, as with dreams, the scene later changed dramatically to my college!! )

And a final thought on my night-mares... they have atleast united both the schools I attended, college and the friends I had there... they all get mixed-up in a bizarre sequence.. changing from schools to college or mingling my school and college friends in the other location... and, few of them do not involve the exam-nightmares.. they become a treasure to be savored for the day...