Sophisticated dreams and The Train

I am sleeping alone in Study room in my house. Just woke up from the following real Dream.

My family, all 4 of us, Me, Shivangi and both kids Kiara & Kashvi are on a vacation to my native village Bari Tengraila. Our vacation is ending, so we need to return to Delhi. I am taking showers at Nanighar. However, I notice that yesterday old clots are laying dry in the bathroom. I decide that, since we are anyway going back, today also, I will not make the cloth wet, and simply pack them for Washing Machine was at Delhi. [ Reality: I do this on weekly cadence for eventually weekend washing.] When we went on vacation from Delhi to Patna, my father had accompanied me. [ Not true, they left 1 month back]. However, we have to return ourselves. So, my parents arrange a care taker from the village. He is some 15-year-old kid. He will accompany us to Delhi and then return. He has been given a ticket to Delhi and promised Rs 4500 when he drops. We board the train at Patna Junction. I have a conversation with him at the start of the journey. I ask him, how will you return, will you manage to buy ticket. He confidently says, “yes. Just asks me not to reduce his 4500 amounts. He may even buy a plane ticket with that amount. “. [ This is the last time he is with me in the dream.].

                We board the last compartment of the train. The bogie itself is kid of a Jumble between general class and sleeper class. It is more like a waiting room setup at the station. Benches all around the periphery. With few more row of chairs at the back. We sit in the last chair of the train. So last that, we are outside the roofed area, and in the open. [ Real train has guard compartment at the end with open floors. ] That kind of setup.

The train is moving with good speed. Train was supposed to be overnight. However, in the next scene, train is moving in daytime. I talk to Shivangi appreciating our very good and extreme light luggage. Just 3 to 4 trolly. [ Reality: We really had 3 trolly in the vacation we went 1 month back.] Kids are sleeping. And than the train crosses a Bridge. A special kind of bridge. From the look of it, the bride is not on river, but above another road. We are somewhere in Jaipur! . The bridge design appears such that it can be opened in the middle, to make way for large vehicles on the road. Opening radially. Like Pumban bridge maybe. Deck is not elevated, but rotationally elevated. The joint between both segments has large pool of cylindrical rubber tubes. Like we see in the vertical shaft between 2 bogies of the train. And I am thinking “How does the track align after the train bridge is lowered back into place? How is expansion joint gap requirement is handled in the middle? They (engineers, which I am one of) can’t have this kind of beauty in Bullet train project we are constructing from Mumbai to Ahmadabad “[Reality Connection: My friend Babla does design review of Bullet train tracks in office.]

                The scene changes. It is night time now. The train is moving not on the actual train tracks but some kind of city metro/tram route track. The kind in Kolkata.  A vibrant lighted city. The train is moving very zig zag and slowly. And since we are at the last section of last bogie, with no roof. Train is moving extremely slow. So slow that people are deboarding, to buy something from the shop and quickly boarding back. While the train moves. Kids are wakeup. They are playing. Seeing other people, both Kiara and Kashvi also deboard. I shout at them to get back at the train immediately. They don’t listen. So to bring them back, I also deboard. Somehow, the train speeds up. Me, Kiara and Kashvi have missed the train. Train is Gone! We should to stop the train to no avail. Shivangi is still on the train. Somehow at this point, train tracks are not straight. They are very zig zag, like the narrow alleys in unplanned Patna city. I am in full panic mode. How will we reach Delhi how? I run behind the train shouting to pull the “emergency brake chain pulley”. Somehow the train is very away. 1km away. I can see Shivangi standing at the back handrail. However, she can’t hear from this distance. While I should be taking care of kids, I am kind of just running behind the train. Maybe I will call Shivangi on phone and ask for Chain pulling. While I am running, I see Ujjwal [ My cousin brother from Village, her mother died of Cancer yesterday. May her soul rest in peace.] holding Kashvi in Lap, standing. I am assured of her safety. Kiara, I believe will take care of herself and will not move around. I keep running. The train is in kind of other side of a very large lake. [ Reality Connection: The kind of lake in harry potter story I read to Kiara]. Along side the lake, there is this Marine drive Mumbai type road. Anyway, soon I see Shivangi walking back towards me. She also has abandoned the train looking for kids. I am usual me, telling her “Why did you leave the luggage, I was with kids na, I would have brought them back anyway? I would have taken the overnight flight and reach Delhi before train reaches you and receive you at the station! “Now that train is totally gone, we start walking backwards on the curvy roads towards kid. Shouting Kiara / Kashvi …..

We reach to the point where they initially deboarded. However, this is not some random street. It is her Nanighar we reached. Both kids are home and sleeping. Then I see, that all Hairs of Kashvi is gone. Like she has been given Mundan. [ Reality Connection: She has turned 2, and her 1^st mundane is due soon.]. I a thinking. Whoever found Kashvi on the street, must have planned to send her to Orphanage. She (2 years) can’t tell yet, who her parents are and live where. I am furious at this prospect. At myself.

And I wake up. My heartbeat is very fast. Maybe 120! I realize, it was just a Dream. And I feel relaxed, heartbeat normalizing. I open the phone to see the time, It’s 5:30am. I am thing, that was one hell of a dream. What’s up with the really sophisticated dream, I am having recently? Just few days back also, I had 2 back-to-back sophisticated dreams. Maybe it’s my modified sleep timings recently. Somehow, Dreams are in very short-term memory. By evening everyone forgets about the dream you clearly remember in the morning. Do you remember, any dream from last year? Not me. Actually, even last week? Not me. Few days back also I had this thought, but not pursued the idea. I have thought about writing all my sleep dreams before. Maybe it can become a good book! This one was too good/hell of a dream to ignore. I must write it down, before it’s gone from memory lanes. Even 1 hr. after waking up, I have this feeling that I have already missed many other fine details I had during the dream, but forgot to write in above passage. And I am done writing this one. It is 6:20am. Time to get ready for office.

Good morning.

Edit in the Evening:

Once I read the somewhere, why do we dream? What is the biological reason humans evolved to sleep dream? The explanation is 2 different set of reasons. 1^st is the fulfilment factor. Humans have many desires, which might not fulfill in real life. So, brain conjures itself the happiness of having achieved/acquired those unfulfilled real-life desires. This makes people, at least the brain feel for a short duration. 2^nd is the survival factor. Humans many times perceive danger. Or mind conceives probable miseries, so that it can plan for future survival. In olden times manual wars, shoulders who dreamed of battles, has higher chances of survival. This led to natural selection of dream generating genes! This is pure science.