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.
