The Return of the King

             It's been a thousand years since he walked on this earth - a young prince who loved and lost ;a brave warrior who tasted victories and defeats alike;a just ruler whose epaulets were aplenty as much as in people's hearts as on his shoulders. It took the genius of a pen to resurrect this epic hero, in all his glory and splendor. He has inspired generations of readers,young and old alike, to travel back to that ageless time of our past, full of valor, intrigue and justice. But unfortunately, he  spoke the tongue of the few and was not heard much beyond his boundaries ....
            Well, this is the closest to the "poetical" that you can catch me out on. For those of you who are wondering what it's all about, here's a wonderful piece of news. “Ponniyin Selvan” finally comes alive in silver screen with Mani Ratnam at its helm.This news has renewed a  good deal of interest in the novel, which augurs well for the book as well as the world of Tamil literature.
           For a little background , "Ponniyin Selvan" is a Tamil historical novel by Kalki written in 5 parts. It's set in the late "Chozha" Period and gives an insight into Raja Raja Chozha's early history.A fine thread of historical events interwoven by an intricate plot, a strong characterization,a dash of adventure held together by a beautiful language,makes this a most delightful read.I've always felt deeply for my friends who lost out on this book because of the language barrier and a barrier for reading in general.(an English translation does exist, but I heard that it’s not close to the original though it stays true to the plot). Hopefully, with the making of this movie,the barriers shall break down.
          The filming of this novel poses quite a number of challenges in terms of screen play, casting ,historical sets, dialogues etc.(It’s as tough as directing LOTR , but only twice as harder). Let’s leave it to an expert like Mani to deal with the interesting hurdles and sit back to see how much of the original magic he can re-create.

Far is not the day when the King shall return and rule :)

A different dimension...

                A silent river flowing in the backyard. Stepping lightly on a half-submerged rock, I reach the middle of the river with the water rushing all around me. Flash. An emergency storm warning. The quiet river turns into a raging monster with huge waves, as I stand watching from my window. Bang, a huge sail boat tossed mercilessly by the waves. (Wait a sec, how does a huge sail boat fit in the river?!) A jet ski suddenly pops out of the sea (!!!) and lands, colliding with the parked vehicles on the beach and I stand wondering who is mad enough to ride a jet-ski in the storm...

               Before you start questioning my probable sanity, let me assure you that I have not lost it all. This is one of my recent dreams that I have finally managed to put down in words.

               Experts say that a dream indicates a restless sleep. While that may be medically true, for me, dreams are indicators of my state of mind.  When I am too stressed out, my dreams are mostly colorless and convoluted. But when my mind is in a blissful state or in a creative-high, it spews forth an array of vivid and colorful dreams. For instance, when I was slogging day and night in the early days of my job, I mostly re-created the stressful day in my dreams and ended up being twice as tired. I even got one where I was stuck in an infinite loop (Imagine that!).

                Since I love to observe the paths that my wild imagination takes, it's often a delight to look back in the mornings and try to re-construct a dream with all its details. But, dreams start fading out as soon as you start explaining them to others; the colors are not so vibrant, the scenes not clearly defined and the effect is not quite the same. The more you try to grasp it, the more it slips away.

          

Surprisingly though, some dreams have come with me a long way…

Imagine a city with pulsating (yes, pulsating!), tantalizingly painted buildings and suddenly they start transforming in and out of odd shapes at random intervals.(Yeah, that was the day I read about Transfiguration :))

There was this other one where three rainbows were intersecting with each other.  (Intersection of arcs!)

I even managed to conjure up a whole chapter in Mechanical systems but promptly forgot all those wonderful theories that I had formulated, in broad daylight. (The world will never know what it has lost, sigh)

Location: SFO, Time: Early Evening. Point out to my sis, the distant view of Niagara. (Quite a stretch of imagination, I should say)           

          

            Well, there are some more dreams clambering for this space. But I would say my readers have had quite enough of my dream space by now.(Shared dream space? Well that's another post :))

            With all due respect to Freud and others who have studied the psychology of dreams, I would say that dreams provide a parallel universe of infinite possibilities, unhindered by rational, well-worn thought processes and hence may provide a much needed vent to our creative thoughts and even hold the key to some unanswered questions. 

             Thus said, dreams are also quite fun to reflect upon and might even contribute to a blog post when you are desperate for one. So, dream on ... :)

How true...

... Loneliness is a state of mind. (quote source unknown to me :))