Dreams

Often we hear people say, "Oh, I had this dream last night. I am quite worried/ embarrassed/happy about it. Will it come true?"

What are dreams? One school of thought is that it is some form of ESP(Extra Sensory Perception) by which the human mind communicates with some supernatural intelligence and grasps knowledge which is normally beyond our reach. I would love to hear their justifications for the wet dreams that I guess almost every teenager has experienced.

At the same time, there another line of thinking. It is as follows: "Dreams are just a meaningless mish-mash of whatever has been running through our heads throughout the entire day. There is no meaning to dreams whatsoever. Ignore them. "

What I believe is, both points of view are somewhat correct yet not entirely correct. According to me, dreams serve two major purposes. One, they are something like a refresh function for the brain. Whenever we focus on one particular activity or thought for a long period of time, our brain gets overloaded. To clear our minds, we dream at night. These dreams often involve "a mish-mash of whatever has been running through our heads throughout the day". These dreams are quite a reliable indicator of what is currently occupying your mind. Analyzing your dreams will help you to understand yourself better.

There is another reason why we dream. Even when we sleep, though our conscious mind is inactive, our sub-conscious mind is still working. So the 'problem' which you were fussing on throughout the day is still being solved even in your sleep. Of course, the sub-conscious mind works in a very different manner as compared to our conscious mind.

Let me illustrate this with the well known example of the scientist 'Kekule' who figured out the structure of Benzene. In the time of Kekule, the structure of Benzene was a great mystery. None of the scientists of that time knew how to solve this peculiar problem as benzene did not conform to any of their known structures. Kekule was also working on this particualar problem. One day, after puzzling over this problem for quite a long time he went to sleep. In his sleep, he had a very peculiar dream. In his dream, he saw lots of snakes. After a while he noticed that these snakes were all arranging themselves in a particular manner. Soon the pattern beacame clear to him. It was the double bonded hexagonal structure which we commonly use for Benzene. As soon as he woke up, he wrote out the structural formula for Benzene and Voila! it was a perfect match.

So, did ET(or maybe 'Jadoo') come and give Kekule the structural formula for Benzene, or, was it just some stupid design that he saw in his dream which happened to match up?

What I think is, whenever we fuss too much about something, these thoughts seep from our conscious mind to the sub-conscious part too. Unlike our conscious mind which works in a very logical ordered and sequential manner, our sub-conscious mind functions completely opposed to it. However, sometimes this approach is exactly what is needed.

So, dreams are quite useful to us. They enable us to clear our thoughts, freshen our mind and occasionally even help us in solving our problems!

Keep dreaming!!

Fear of the Future

Will I be able to feel secure,

wherever I go, I hear the death's call,

"Die, die, die . . . . "

These are the lyrics of a song by the Doom Metal Band 'Grave Flowers', rather ironically titled "Fear of Future".

I fear these lyrics chronicle the way we Indians, and more specifically, we Mumbaikars have been feeling.

Everybody is scared and angry(Just read some of these smses being circulated). Seeing this mindless carnage, many of my friends have decided to join the armed forces and help the country.

I guess this is the mindset of the majority in this country at this point. I don't know whether this is right or whether this is wrong. Many will join soon to find their fervour ebbing later.

Do what you think is right, but think with your heads, not your hearts. And once you've made your decision, follow it with all your heart.

Will I be able to feel secure,

wherever I go, I hear the death's call,

"Die, die, die . . . . "

The Age of Innocence

"The age of innocence is fading like an old dream . . . . "

These are the lyrics of Iron Maiden's songs "Age of Innocence". I was listening to this song the other day and I was led to think about the relevance of this song to today's world.

Today, the emphasis is on growing up as fast as possible. Toddlers in kindergarden are taught how to hold a spoon and fork, how to say "Thank you" and so on. If this is not enough, there are the stories of child-soldiers. These children, who should be going to school and playing with friends are trained to handle weapons and to fight a war which was never their's.

Truly, the age of innocence is only a dream today. If only we would realize that the days of childhood once lost will never return . . . .

Mumbai University's Educational System

I chose this topic for today's post because of an interesting questionnaire circulated by some students of my college for the purpose of their PCT(Principles of Communication Theory) Report.

Some of the questions were:
"How do you find the examinations?", "How do you find the paper evaluation to be?" and so on.

Answering this questionnaire led me to think about the current educational system. My simple conclusion was, to put it bluntly,
"The current education system sucks!!"

The new syllabus developed by Mumbai University is much better, but they forgot one crucial point. The point is, most of the professors are not qualified enough to teach us. At least, when the old syllabus was being followed, they could learn things by rote and vomit them out in class. Now, even that option is not available. So, things are back to square one.

Now that I've said all this, let me add one more thing. One very close friend of mine, The Saiyyan(read his thoughts at http://saiyyan.blogspot.com/), always says something to the effect of "If you want to change the world, start the change yourself." Those students of my college who took the survey also want to start the change where they can i.e. their own classroom.

Similarly, if we start to change things on our own, the System will surely improve, though it might be too late for many of us :-(

More thoughts about a friend . . . .

We often look at some people around us and think "What a fool! He/she is never serious. He's so immature."

I thought the same about a friend of mine. He was always about fun and enjoyment, being happy and living life king-size. I had a very poor opinion about him. However, now as I come to know him better, I deeply regret my decision and thoughts. I've come to realize that he's probably the person most similar to me personality-wise.

If I had not been so hasty in judging him, we would have become friends earlier and I would have got such a wonderful friend much earlier.

This incident has taught me a valuable lesson. Never judge a book by it's cover and never judge a person by his look or outward behaviour.

"Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods."
- Aristotle

Friendship

"True friendship is sitting together in silence and feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had."

This is a topic very dear to my heart. My friends are what make my life worth living. If not for them I can't imagine how life would have been. As a matter of fact, I would probably have been one of those individuals who grow up as ruthless and heartless beasts. I owe my friends my life and I credit them for a great extent of what I am.

I don't have many friends but the few that I have are very precious to me. Each of them is unique in his own way. No two of them are alike but they all are special in their own way. The most important fact that bonds our friendship together is that we can be our true selves with each other. There is no need for any kind of "formality" or "etiquette" between us.

It is my cozy little group, my family or "my Inner Circle" as I like to call them. I can be myself when I'm with them without any worry that they'll think I'm strange or funny. They tell me their problems and I tell them mine.

Life without them is unimaginable for me now. The day I met them was probably the best day of my life.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin

Some more thoughts . . . .

I am not a very religious person and unfortunately, the only one in a complete family of devout Christians. So I am something akin to the "black sheep" of the family. Every person from my own parents to my Uncle-Aunts have taken it up on themselves to "talk some sense into me".

However, I still am not ready to be the sacrificial lamb leading to a lot of tensions and problems. This brings us back to the crucial question:
Religion is probably responsible for many more unhappy homes like this, then how is it good? Which logic is this that tells you to be unhappy in this life in order to happy in your next?

I dislike talking on such a stupid topic so I'll probably not make any more posts in this topic unless explicitly asked to by someone.

My thoughts on religion

This is my first attempt at posting a blog. So people, please forgive me if I make some blunders.

I took up this topic since it is an evergreen point of debate and discussion (and arguments) at my home, my college and among my friends.

Religion, as far as I care, is just a device to force people to adhere to certain "protocols" so that they will be worthy of a "better life". I do believe in that there is a Superior Force out there who is the Author of this "Order in Chaos" but I don't know what It/He/She is. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that even if He is exactly like how people imagine Him to be, He would never stand for all this nonsense that is happening in the name of religion.

It is rather ironic that people are willing to hurt, rape and kill other people whom they can see,hear and understand for Something or Someone whom they cannot see,hear or understand.

This post was not meant to hurt anybody's sentiments, but if I have inadvertently done so, my most sincere apologies.