Day 4: How dreams work…

…is really bizarre. Just when you either forget your dream, or you think it’s never going to happen, pop it comes to life!

Back in 2014, a few months after I joined Accenture, I was catching up with a friend from college. He had been a long-time Accenture employee, and after I got the offer letter from Accenture, I was planning on hunting him down on Lync (now Skype for Business) and saying “Huha!”

Only, I joined, and promptly forgot all about him. A good two months later, he pinged me on WhatsApp asking “You work at Accenture?! And you never told me!” Took me a good while to convince him that I had been just too busy. He kept going, “Busy? So soon after joining? Aaaand you expect me to believe that!?” Let me be honest, I did try to find out what team he was part of, that did not have to work like mine did.  He gave me the name of the team, and I promptly forgot that as well.

So anyway, we got to talking about life at Accenture…and he asked me how I’m liking it. I told him I could not be happier. That’s when he said he is not just happy for me, but also rather proud of me for having achieved my dream. “Eh, what dream?” I went. He chuckled and told me about how, while in college, I was totally gung-ho about Accenture and totally confident that “I will work in Accenture someday”. I was stunned when I heard that.

And it all came rushing back. Those days of the Tiger Woods advertisements — which signed off with “High performance. Delivered”, convincing me every time that this is where I should be working some day. Those days of “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” and I always had the same answer: Accenture. Those days of going “Accenturrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre” every now and then. I could not believe I forgot about all that, or that he remembered! In fact, he went on to tell me that when he got his offer letter four years before I did, he was apparently reminded of me!

Those were the closing days of college life. Also a reality-hits-you-whack-on-the-face period when you realize that dreams aren’t always enough — and that Accenture isn’t quite at the next corner, waiting to frisk you off. Somewhere between end of college and a wrong placement and “God, why me!?” moments, the “accent” on my dream seemed to have lost way.

I do not quite remember when exactly the thought of becoming a copywriter in an advertising agency popped into my head. And once an idea pops, there is no turning away.  There was a period of job-hunt, where agency after agency turned me down for having “no relevant work experience”. I still remember how I got so exasperated at a big-shot advertising agency (I shall spare the name) during the interview, looked furiously at the Creative Director and said “Unless one of you give me the damn job, how will I get this damn experience you’re looking for!?” Needless to say, that interview wrapped up very quickly and I did not get the job!

Well-meaning friends and relatives asked me to take a shot at BPO firms. “What! How can you even suggest that to me!” Why there was an aversion, I do not know. No one in my family ever worked in a BPO firm. None of my close friends did. There was really no first-hand information about how life would be in a BPO firm. For some strange reason, I had this terrible picture in mind of being a BPO employee. Never; a BPO firm is one place where you will never find me, I swore to no one in particular.

Well, persistence paid off…and I finally got into advertising and became a copywriter. I enjoyed it so much, I think I subconsciously washed away all “IT companies” off my must-work-at wishlist, wanting only to be in a highly creative, buzzing advertising agency. I worked at that boutique agency for over two years. On most days, I saw stars, constellations and many galaxies, all at the same time. It was grueling, like how (but there is nothing I’m more grateful to in life today than my “orientation” and tenure there)!

Anyway, I moved on from there into the digital/online marketing space. And then I changed track from pure “copywriting” to “marketing writing”, and then to “business writing”…which lead me into the world of technology companies. After a point, I’d written so much about complex technologies and servers and storage and hardware and software, I just could not call myself “technologically challenged” any longer!  Fact remained that I still did not remember the “Accenture” dream!

Somewhere, I always hoped I could get back into the world of fun and frolic and endless work that’s the standard recipe in an advertising agency. I wanted to once again be part of a highly creative, buzzing place: where work could drive you crazy and the lack of it could drive you crazier!

Let me tell you dear people…the last place I expected to find a place like that, was in an “IT company”, in its BPO vertical! In Accenture, my once-up-on-a-time dream company. Aaaaand, in a highly creative, buzzing advertising agency snugly cocooned in a corporate setup! If that’s not the coolest, what is!?

Dreams — one that was forgotten and one that was fervently wished for — both came true together! Woohooo! This is where I say: life’s been good!

I suppose when the sleep’s been had well, even the best of dreams comes to an end. Only to make way for the next night’s sleep, and a new dream. 

So it happened. Another dream I’d tucked away into the “never going to happen” box sprang to life. The one of moving out of India. I had been nurturing a long-time dream of moving to the Europe. Or Australia. Or Canada. I guess if you’re not clear about specifics, the dream decides where it wants to take you.

So, while the route map didn’t work as well as I thought it would, I still realized half of that dream. It landed me in Kuwait. No worries. I’ll just ask Google to re-route me. I’ll be on my way soon. As for how I’m liking it in Kuwait, that’s a whole (number of) other post(s)!

Now, there is just one more in the list. If that one comes true, life in its entirety will be a dream! Hope, hope, soooooo hope!

How dreams work…really is bizarre. Ever had any of yours come true so without warning like these?

Have the stars come down?

There’s a lovely, mesmerizing, sprawling estate. That’s where she lives, all alone, by herself. This estate has the tallest trees she has ever seen, and they’re all so close together, creating a dense forest-like atmosphere. The sprawling bungalow stands proudly somewhere in the centre of the estate, covered on all sides by these tall tress at a radius of about 100 metres. Within these 100 metres, sway hordes of beautiful flowers, croton plants, and some certain lavendar flower bearing trees.

It’s slowly getting dark outside, and the colours fade away politely to bring in the pitch black of the impending night. She puts away the book she’s reading, gets off her rocking chair and switches on the porch light. The feeble incandescence barely lights up the steps that lead down to the courtyard.

As she gets back to her rocking chair and takes the book in her hands once again, she realises she’s hungry — she hasn’t had a morsel since breakfast. So engrossing has the book been. She drops the book back on the chair and walks in.

The bungalow is a huge one. Most rooms in the bungalow are not used — yet, she opens all the huge, grill-less, open windows very morning, closes them before sunset. Today, however, she’s been caught up in the fast-paced pages of the book. That was a mistake. But it’s too early to realise that.

She walks into the kitchen and stands there for a moment, relishing the cool breeze that floated in uninvited. She fixes herself a nice, warm, yummy dinner. As she inhales the aromas of the various spices, it invigorates her, making her feel ecstatic.

That’s when the power suddenly goes out, leaving her in a kitchen lit only by the low flame of the stove — and as she looks out through the kitchen window, she sees only pitch black. And it looks like the stars have come down. As her eyes adjust to the moonlight, she freezes. For, what glitters like stars are glinting pairs of eyes — of many black panthers making their way stealthily towards the bungalow.

As the blood in her veins slows down its mad rush, she grabs at the windows, swing them close. She runs from room to room, swinging them all shut. And as she goes from the rooms facing east, to west to south, she realises the glittering pairs of eyes are covering the distance quickly, all around. The bungalow is surrounded by them!

As she closes the last but one window and turns to close the last one on the opposite wall, she sees lithe paws springing off the window sill, landing sexily on the room’s granite floor. 16 extended, sharp nails click on the cool granite.

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I’m a person of very few dreams. I dream rarely — yes, really RARELY. And when I do have dreams, they’re extremely vivid, of undeniable details…sometimes extremely shocking.

Some are so real, I wonder if I was actually dreaming. there are incidents I’ve believed have really happened, only to later realise it was but a mere fragment of my imagination at work while I’m dozing! And these realizations strike when I discuss those incidents with other people who were with me “then” in the dream, and they look at me blankly, saying “What? When?”.

Of all such dreams, the one that has given me shivers every time is the one with the estate and the bungalow! This is a recurring dream, one I’ve dreamt at least 15 times, and I’m NOT exaggerating! I’ve had the same dream that many times, and it was always the same setting, the same time, the same bungalow, the same glinting eyes *trembles*. And every time, at that same moment, when 16 extended, sharp nails click on the cool granite, I wake up, heart thudding away, super-glad to find that I’m in my safe bed, on the road-side house in far-away Trivandrum or Bangalore (yes, I’ve had this dream while I was in Trivandrum, and after I came over here).

I do hope my dreams don’t come true! Shudder!