Driving Blind. In Dream and Reality.

19 may 2016.

4 days ago, I’d had one of those heavy afternoon sleeps. The dreams are so real you wake up and don’t know where you are. In that dream I was driving through heavy traffic with zero visibility. Rain water blurs the eye. Lightning crackles. The dark street fill with smudges of staggering unclarity. Lights shine blindingly. A ghostly cyclist in front of me weaves and takes me through the streets.

I interpret it as being uncertain. But what is the white cyclist? Ghost?  Old man?

Yesterday we are recording a song that focusses on caring/uncaring for animals, with Ruth & Kamaan  in Indiranagar. A dark sky turns darker as we enjoy a coffee… then head back.

Roughly 6 and the downpour starts. Sheets of rain. The roads turn to rivers. Frenzied autos, lost bikes. Cars maniacally moving. The windscreen turns into a black & white patchwork from a German expressionist vampire film from the 1930’s. Blood like splotches are all you see of the car’s rearlights ahead. A security guard crossing the road unwisely ahead is less than a smudge.

Then I remember my dream. And realise that the cyclist is a spirit guide. The inner consciousness. The 10-15 odd kilometres home was one the journeys that seems straight out of a Greek myth. And yet, because I had driven through it earlier in a dream, I realised all I had to do was focus, stay tough, play safe, unleash my intuition, listen to my guides, and enjoy the drive. 

And it was magnificent. The water falling on the windscreen formed the bunched lace of Count Caligostro’s necktie. Lightning dances across the sky in miles of crackling filigree. Each driver’s intent became utterly clear. I see from above and below, within and without. The everpresent danger is never forgotten yet never overpowering. You let no idiot overtake yet stop for every stranded grandmother in the road’s middle. Every little thing, every drop, becomes real.

Reach home safe.

For an hour and some I drove through zero visibility traffic. As did thousands of others. But if that were all, well, that is all. But that is not all. For I did not drive once through it. I drove twice. Once in dream. Once as physical being.

We drive twice. Once on earth. And before in that space we call dream. And God calls the underwear of reality. We do not just drive on earth. We drive here and there where white cyclists may show us the way. We drive here where we may reach home and there where reaching home, really means home.

We drive twice. And if we remember we drive twice through life we can drive better and enjoy the ride more.

 -- Tarun Cherian

Ps: Incidentally, 10-12 days ago at the height of sweltering heat, the trees told us there would be a terrible storm 10 days later. Today, a tree-friend told us that it would rain heavily again tonight and tomorrow.