Interaction with Dr.Binayak Sen

Dr.Binayak Sen

Dr.Binayak Sen, a normal middle class family man and a pediatrician, concerned about his fellow beings, is according to his own sarcastic words different from the rest of the audience in that he has had “the privilege that the majority of the middle class in India have not had: to be jailed and handed a life sentence for sedition”.

A senior human rights activist, pediatrician and now an icon of sorts because of the conviction by the District Court of Raipur guilty of ‘sedition’ for alleged Naxal links and due to the global support his cause received. His work in universalizing health and nutrition in rural India have also gained him wide accolades.

In an interaction at the Indian Institute of Science, Dr.Sen elucidated some of the aspects of his work, the concern he shares with the rest of the population and his take on the current “Sedition Law” in India.

Here is a gist of the interaction:

Malnourishment in India

Dr.Sen being a health specialist and having been part of the Steering committee for the National health policy revealed some data which are hard to fathom.

With about 37% of our population having a Body-Mass-Index less than 18.5, implying malnourishment, India according to Dr.Sen has been in a state of stable famine over large periods time. With this figure today India is the country with the highest number of hungry people in the world.

Deriving from the statistics, Dr. Sen also conveyed the fact that the annual grain consumption per family has declined, and although certain set of people are relating it to increase in consumption of meat, he infers a further worsening impoverishment of the population.

He invokes Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent futile sigh about such conditions where in the PM called it “a national shame”.

Universal health care

Another important aspect that Dr.Sen has been working in and wanted the audience to ponder about was the access to Universal health care to all citizens.
 
Malnourishment interleaved with the lack of basic amenities: starting from sanitation to primary health care at affordable costs has been rendering a huge section of the Indian rural population, scheduled castes, scheduled tribe population into the fangs of diseases such as tuberculosis, diabetes meningitis etc.

According to Dr. Sen, there is no resource crunch in terms of funds, but only lack of planning and reluctance in implementing policies such as health insurance, strengthening Public Distribution system, subsidising prices.

People and politics

When the audience recurrently raised questions on what each one of us could be doing to impact the situation, Dr. Sen had a recurrent answer :
“You cannot stay at an arm’s distance to politics and say no to politics and still hope for change in the conditions.

People cannot outsource democracy to about 500 of their so called representatives and forget about democracy until once in five years. Ordinary citizens should get involved in active politics.”, were Dr.Sen’s views. He also made it clear that he was not talking of any party politics, but only active engagement by people in democratic processes and ensuring that the Government would give heed to the request of its people.

Sedition Laws in India

After having handed a life sentence in the name of sedition by a District court, rejection of bail plea by High court and over ruled bail by the Supreme Court, Dr Sen obviously had a critical view of the current sedition laws.


He said,”In an active democracy dissent should be legitimised, only then can a democracy function. But, according to the sedition law ‘any disaffection towards the government in power’ is deemed as sedition and a life sentence could be rewarded”. This according to Dr. Sen is ironic and a flawed take on democracy itself.

In conclusion, Dr. Sen also hinted at the current neo-liberal policies which allow thriving expropriation of natural resources for profit either by the Government, or the Government in nexus with the corporates. Encapsulating this disparity, Dr Sen recollected a Supreme court verdict in which the Judges analyse the Government’s vision as:
Tax breaks for the rich, and guns for the poor!

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You know when you flow

‘To Flow’ is what I ask people to do. That’s my motivation tagline; Yes, it might be that I can’t do it as well as the current corporate Gurus, but I preach only what I practise unlike them ๐Ÿ™‚

Culture as a flowing stream and stagnation as a peril, I dealt with one of articles for The Hindu. Now with respect to people when I’m talking of ‘flowing’, I only imply unfettered living by pursuing ones dreams, without any inhibitions at all. The term ‘flow’ reminds us of certain adjectives which would do well if observed in our personalities – dashing, hustling, agile, flourishing, moving ahead, destiny!

If that seems cliched, or superficial, you are free to think so ๐Ÿ™‚

My experience is: When you do what you love to do, people love you for you to do; And that precisely is the external metric which one must check up if not contended from within, or is having dubiousness about the life he/she is stuck in.

When actions and thoughts are in synchronism, and efforts are effortless, aging through days transforms into flowing. And flow is always good, for the entity as well as the ecosystem; Be it with respect to Mother nature, or human nature ๐Ÿ™‚

Even if I am to write more lines on these lines I would still only be trying to convey the point that, mere surviving is not a life worth having lived, and to flourish in your life all you have to do is instead of crawl through – FLOW ๐Ÿ™‚

Not really apt, but there’s the ocean at the background ๐Ÿ˜›

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Bhagawad Gita, the fanaticism, education and secularism

I have not been following the recent debate of incorporating the ‘mandatory study’ of the Hindu religious text Bhagavad Gita in its entirety, but with my little understanding of the issue I directly plunge into proposing my opinions.

Firstly, the notion of India being a secular state has for long time been applicable only to school text books, and not in fact to the day to day activities in its truest spirit. Further, the idea that a Hindutva fanatic political party is ruling the state of Karnataka, and has incessantly been trying to aggravate the already fragile inter religious solidarity is of anything but grave concern.
 
BJP in Karnataka seems to have nothing better to work upon, except for churning out the ‘sentiments’ based on Hindutva ideology amongst its people. The recent ‘made snana’ debate, the increasing saffron mutts which have now attached themselves onto the nexus between politicians and corporate mafia trying to influence the opinions of the gullible population of the state by divine order, and now the issue of The Gita in school curriculum.

Religion in its pure form might not have been harmful, but we are to tackle what it is now and not what it could have been

The issue of introducing the study of a controversial religious text as a mandatory portion of the curriculum (although it is being claimed to be a pilot project) operates directly at weakening  secularism. It isn’t just about The Gita – no single religious text must be enforced on the young minds.

I studied in a Christian school, and the extravagant propaganda of The Bible in fact eased my metamorphosis to take my current stand of an atheist, which might not be the case with all young minds. Likewise, although Hindus might be the majority population in India (even in Karnataka), it does not give them the right to tread on the religiosity of other sections of people – be it Muslims, Christians, or atheists. On the other hand because they are the majority, it hands them the extra responsibility of not hurting other religious and non religious sentiments.

In a TV discussion, one sane head made a valid point of religious education: Either it should be kept entirely away from education, or a comparative study of all major religious philosophies and texts must be conducted in an impartial manner. And I seem to endorse this point wholly. Although even a comparative study of it also might be futile, only to help young minds to look back at all the stupidity that has been perpetrating for centuries in the name of religions.

The specific issue of The Gita being imposed is an open atrocity being committed in the name of religion, for direct political gain. The nature of the content in The Gita – the varna system and the justification of war etc, have been already debated intensely. It is not only a sectarian propaganda, it also gives immense room for all the fanatics or the puritans to perpetrate more atrocities in the form of moral policing and of course more of superstitions, because of their conveniently wrong interpretations.

If it is ethics that the Government is keen on teaching its students, let it strip off the brand of religion, synthesize only the essence from all religions of the world: Living a good and honest life might not require volumes of preaching from people who lived ages before us.

And to adamantly stick on to the antiquity of those preachings is that special absurdity in all religions that makes them redundant, even before the debate has started!

Let there be light!

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Reading The Kite Runner

Well, I knew the genre I was being led into โ€“ fiction, but with a touch of reality and I have no complaints, only some reservations. The Kite Runner is certainly no bad read at all. It falls into my categorisation of works which I call the โ€œPaulo Coelho typeโ€, whose only work I have read is The Alchemist.
This genre is smooth to read, meticulous in its descriptions, nuanced in expressing emotions and a light read (for sure does not give a headache!). Although this is what is successful international literature, this genre by itself is a clichรฉ as per me. 
 
Now, reading The Kite Runner was a nice walk down memory lane, reminscing my initial years of the usual fiction reading. All you Khaled Hosseini fans, I am certainly not disregarding the quality of the writing that has gone into it, but only expressing my disadvantage of being a bad receptor of fiction of his kind.
Things I loved
 
The Kite Runner is one of the smoothest reads – in all senses; not much to think about, not much to remember, no dictionary look-ups and predictability at about every nook and corner. These are for sure a nice respite from the other kinds of my recent literature. 
 
The backdrop of the story. It was as if, I was focusing on the unfocused portions of the scenes throughout. So, how did Afghanistan look? Why did the Russians invade? Are the Talibans like the ones I have seen on TV? The mountains, terrains, ambiance.
Simplicity : As simple a thing gets, more the beautiful it becomes! This almost holds good here. To see such a simple work to have that beauty and to have appealed to a really wide audience is a testimony to the simplicity and the beauty.
And not to mention, one of my quickest reads.
Things I did not love (!=hate)
The story by itself is too much of a repetition to what the Indian movies have fed you by the time you decide not to watch any more of them. The sentimentalism about relationships, which sometimes go beyond normalcy are an overdose to me. And I did not for obvious reasons feel very appreciative about the turmoils and guilt the protagonist undergoes.
Like I said, I liked the background better than the main story, for, there is a weak person as the protagonist. Now, it might seem unreasonable, but yes, in fiction, at least I need an inspiration! Else, come on: There is no point of reading!
And the simplicity is too simple; for there aren’t many memorable lines too from the book! I like witty or profound lines, and was for sure disappointed to find hardly a few.
I might sound like the hungry critic, waiting to chew some cud about a famous work, but no: These are just my personal views as always. Of all the praises you might have heard for the book, not many would have had a perception such as mine, that could be because of the obtuse nature of reading I am into. 
 
I look at reading as an investment, and I am not a happy customer this around.
Well I have The Thousand Splendid Suns, and yes will read it, but not in the near future.
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Accommodating myself amidst people and their expectations

Sometimes I wonder whatever that I am, is it because it was always there in me and I have been only discovering it, or have the people around been operating on me and compelled me to invent these traits in me as seen today ?
I consciously try not to cater to the expectations people would want to adorn me with, although with the truest of their intentions. Or, maybe I do absorb some of their aspirations about me into me, and then try pushing my horizons.
Once I have expanded my boundaries mentally, I then have always tried to fill it with efforts and as it has transpired hitherto, I have been able to expand myself and to fit into those larger shoes, and thus my growth.
Is it that I am trying to position myself in the image other people have envisaged of me โ€“ Maybe, yes! But, only when I am convinced that it would be something congruent and natural to what I have already embarked to do. It should simply align to my evolving ethos.
It also happens that sometimes these expectations might bog one down under their burden; While I believe there is a mental threshold which is dynamic, and clips these external aspirations in order to fit the true person I know I am.
This post is not to criticize all the real well wishers I am fortunate to be surrounded with, but only to project out the reality to myself, so that although sweet I don’t get deluded in an illusion. These expectations serve as an incessant source of inspiration and for sure keep me motivated.
All I can assure to others, and more so to myself is that I will always strive to get better, with no fixed targets, for, who knows even that might become a dead end and halt my growth.
I will flow, and keep expanding.
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Metamorphosing out of 2011

Every year, the year that breezes by feels like the most eventful year of my life, and this year ain’t no exception: Better, this has been the best ever in my life! Metamorphosis or rediscovery I am not sure of, but the feeling right now is right and great!

Metamorphosis
The first half of this year was the time when I made some serious structural changes in my life, in all dimensions and have tried fitting myself into a long aspiring role, which has allowed me to rediscover, reinvent,reinvigorate myself and to some extent inspire others.

Long term consequences of these changes although will be unfolding in the numeric change awaiting tomorrow, I will be looking forward to it, as usual.

I have also transcended into the next level of my commitment towards the change I want to see coming around, and will work more effectively come ‘new year’.

I am also playing a mind game of sorts with myself: If I want to endorse “unfettered freedom”, or “get bottled up”, or strike an “unlikely balance”. While one of the contender seems to be tipping off the balance big time, I will wait until I bring it to reality.

People
The biggest surprise I bestowed on myself has been the whole bunch of people I am getting to know.
Am i not surprised!
In this regard I was turning into a cynic. Glad now, that people of all nature and kinds, some real close, some working at deeper layers of thought, some resonating with all the action, and some outlawed from my field of interaction are all available, and if not in plenty but in adequacy.
Discovering new wells of resonance, ideating and implementing the collective vision have all had a good start, and within my constraints will sustain them.

Time
If one thing I have grown disappointed with myself is my time utilisation. My efficacy of performing within time has been getting better, wheras the efficacy of allocating time itself has deteriorated. Will consciously improve this time timing time!  

Writing
It might not be an exaggeration if I could claim that I have gotten more confident of my writing skills. Not because I get to write technical articles for a newspaper, or I am asked to write for various fora, but because I am these days, more than ever before, able to vent out all of my thoughts, as effectively as the language permits, well within my nascent writing. 
Words, are becoming my closest companions, and there’s nothing more to complain about. Will allow it to grow as far and wide it can.

Reading
2011- The most read year, as yet! My book collection is taking shape into a precious library. Reading has hit a peak after my metamorphosis, and the rate of reading and the extent of assimilation I am able to do are better. I have acquired an ability to be able to discern literature and have an opinion about it. It is not about the opinion, but the mind that is able to make sensible criticism on ideas presented in the works and sometimes even the quality of the work itself. That certainly feeds fuel to the aspiring writer in me.

Bouncing off the efforts of the 365 days of this year, I am looking forward to the challenges and the camaraderie at all strata.

PS: Well, yes it is just a number, still serves as the right time to self evaluate ๐Ÿ™‚ 

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Dr.Mulugeta: Inspiration beyond Physics

“I was in prison for seven years, and the first four years of imprisonment, there were 45 of us in 4m x 4m room in the central prison in Ethiopia”, reminisces Dr. Mulugeta Bekele from Ethiopia, not with remorse, but with a tinge of sadness of the time spent then, and a subtle nationalistic pride.
Dr. Mulugeta is an associate Professor Physics at Addis Ababa University (AAU), Ethiopia. He completed his Ph. D in Physics from the Indian Institute of Science, India in the year 1997 and now he’s back at his alma matter for a month. It has been a deeply inspiring experience to have interacted with him, firstly to know the Physicist he is, and with subsequent interactions, I have known other nuances of this humble science and math enthusiast from Ethiopia with a life long of struggle.

Dr. Mulugeta was the only Physics major student at Haile Sellasie University, and he pursued his passion Mathematics via Physics during late 1960’s, as a lone student during his under-graduate days.

After the monarchy in Ethiopiawas overthrown by a military regime – socialist for name sake; although it did nationalise banks, industry and land, it was far from being the encapsulation of people’s aspirations. As Dr.Mulugeta says, “The monarchical hierarchy under which Ethiopia was ruled until the 1974, using military had just lost its head – the monarch alone was gone, and there was a total military oligarchy. With zero representation of the people’s voices, the new military regime had to suppress numerous popular people’s struggles”.

The people’s struggles which were taken up in the form of student movements, workers unions, and other representation of the common man in Ethiopia ended up in a ghastly phase of Ethiopian history. During this time, Dr.Mulugeta was teaching at AAU and did participate in the revolutions during the monarchical oligarchy, and post that against the military oligarchy.

The military regime was ruthless and suppressed all forms of uprisings, and in doing so killed hundreds of youth and imprisoned thousands of them even without a trial.
The Physics teacher from AAU that Dr.Mulugeta was during the people’s uprisings against the military regime did participate in all the youth movements. โ€œAs the educated section of the society, all young students and teachers were actively participating in the demonstrations, and it was natural for me to join in those strugglesโ€, he says. 
 
The ruthless regime in order to curtail such people’s struggles killed hundreds of the young students and put a whole lot of them into prison. Dr. Mulugeta was put into a prison during one such retaliation by the military. He speaks of the uncertainty about the term they would be serving, or even the future of all the captured people, for, there was reckless genocide going on.

“We weren’t given a trial or anything; Directly dumped into the prison and we did not even know for long….And when one of my other physicist got a trial and was sentenced seven years in prison, we started thinking of the same luck for each of us. We did not know how long could seven years in prison be. The first year is Sunday, second year was Monday, third year was Tuesday and so on, like the seven days of the week, each year was to become a really long day for each of us…โ€, recollects Dr. Mulugeta from his prison experience.
Describing the inhumane conditions of the prison cells and the tortures they had to endure he says that the cell in which he spent his first four years of term was 4m x 4m, and 45 people had to live in that! With very little time when they were allowed to go out from the cell, it must have been really hard. Although he does not talk of his own difficulties at any point of time, he says that before he could be put into that cell, previously there were 88 prisoners in the same 4m x 4m cell!
Apart from the imprisonment, severe torture on the prisoners was common, where they used to be chained, beaten, broken and several severed to death.
After four years in the central prison, where he was moved to a larger main prison where each prisoner the space alloted to each prisoner is more or less similar to the central prison, but the solace was that they could walk around the prison compounding walls.
When Dr. Mulugeta was released in 1985 at the age of 39, after spending seven years in jail he went back to AAU and in 1991 he comes to India to pursue his Ph. D at the Indian Institute of Science. Today he is one of the most respected Physicists from his region and in recognition to his efforts in contributing to Physics and his struggles he is being awarded the Andrel Sakharov prize by the American Physical Society, about which he says,โ€ My Ethiopian students in the USA recommened me for this and I am happy about itโ€.
A simple, humble, erudite physicist with a life story which moves and inspires the young, not only of his own country but well beyond.
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The inverse nature of aesthetics and ratification

Well, in this post I try to give shape to an ongoing discussion about the essence of aesthetics and ratification.

Before I present my views, let me make it clear that although I can be in awe and savour the aesthetics of reasoning (which actually is more gratifying), I am delving into the other realm of aesthetics which is primarily dominated by senses and the ‘gray areas of the gray matter’!

Casually many a times in my interactions I put forth a point,
“To sustain interest, intrigue is mandatory; Absolute comprehension is ruthlessly disconnecting!”, or something on these lines, correlating the amount of comprehension with the interest on subject.
Take a minute, dwell on this idea, and read on ๐Ÿ™‚

Irrespective of you being convinced or not, the point I am trying to convey here is that aesthetic sense (previously interest) needs a dose of obscurity to attain the ‘tending to irrationality’ sensations it renders, for its grandest impact. I am not contradicting my previous discourses about reasoning and logic; if so, let it seem so, for now!

Analysing art and photography should give us a good test case, and it shall be a very personal outlook of the debate and I do not intend to take it beyond; nonetheless if one feels coherent – feel free – tag along!

Art as in creative painting is what I mean in this context.
Painting is purely creative. Everything on canvas flows from the mind of the artist, even if inspired from reality – I as an observer has not seen the reality, and I am more than glad to look through the artist’s prism. While being immersed in savouring a ‘good'(by my perception) painting, the sea of emotions unleashed by the painting could be varying from anything that is euphoric to morose; personally, these experiences would have little explanations, or rather I wouldn’t want to pursue it, because it would burst out the bubble of that profound sensation!
I’d rather leave the comprehension away in this case, and let myself be lost in the sensations of aesthetics.


Talking of photography, yes, photography is art. But the amount of impact it would have is lesser than that via artisitc painting. The ‘obscurity gradient’ inherently is lesser here! In a photograph ‘the moment’ has been frozen – it is quite remarkable and all. But my mind knows that it existed as it is there, and it is only  the perspective that has been altered. Reality is never all that exciting to the aesthetics- it needs something beyond reality – fantasy, something beyond the realms of common sense and that is what is aethetically pleasing to the mind!

And painting, or music churn out things which weren’t already there! They create and render the influence of the artists persona and that confluence is what makes all the difference. Surreal!

Take for example that Picasso one above, and imagine a deeply saddening picture of a malnourished kid in African countries (which have been more than adequately photographed). Both make me sad. But I know the reason for the latter – there’s a logical chain my mind is already thinking on – famine -govt apathy – policies -exploitation -…. I can explain my sadness here – empathy.

But, the painting I don’t know why! It is still inexplicable to me.

The post is not about disregarding the mind boggling skill that photography is,but only analyze in relation to artistic painting. Even in photographs, the perspective offered by the photographer conveys beyond what the reality is.

For instance in this one by me (not a great pic, but the purpose seems to have been conveyed)

It is my perspective and not the reality itself. You would still be seeing it through my perspective, but I haven’t created the reality there – it somehow lessens the thrill is my argument.

Both art and photography quench the lacunae of daily life by filling us with inspiration, joy, agony, awareness, love and beauty; No ratification can balance out the emotions, it can only mellow down some of the impact.

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ITEC Movie Club scores from Offside!

ITEC‘s long standing aspiration of getting a movie club running finally and in a special manner was realized today. The purpose of this club is to watch and discuss progressive movies which would sensitize and increase awareness about issues which many a times go unnoticed.

The first movie screened today was the Iranian brilliance “Offside” by Jaffer Panahi. This being the first screening, the team had hoped to rope in a famous cinema person for the inaugural show.


Prakash Belawadi who obliged to be part of the first screening was the most apt person; with his cinema experience and critique on the IT culture was impeccable for the occasion.

Prakash Belawadi made a couple of interesting remarks about the IT work force and their ethos, which I think is in fact a less propagated reality of the IT culture. “Stuck in crowded work places, reaching via congested roads, slogging more than adequately- having a hellish lifestyle” was his perception of the IT community. Also, the corporate social responsibilty mask under which the euphemistic social endeavours are taken up by the IT diaspora was also retorted by him. IT community, the small community that it is has run away from the realities of the society in India, and without defining which society their social responsibility would be catering to, there would be little sense to their ‘responsibility execution’ was his straight forward view.

Talking about the need for movie clubs, and apprecating the efforts of ITEC he mentioned that benefits of watching a movie in an audience when compared to watching it in on DVD – the interaction and the commune emotions that are churned out are the things which are not to be missed.

Jaffer Panahi’s Offside

Islamic Republic of Iran’s oppressive regime and the nature of state controlled media with almost zero freedom are quite well known. Working in such an environment, Jaffer Panahi, has tried to bring out certain important issues via his movies. Currently, Jaffer Panahi is serving a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country. All this for making progressive movies in a severely constrained society.

Offside is a heart touching story of a bunch of adolescent girls who disguise themselves as boys, so that they get to watch the World cup football semifinal match in Iran, which the Iranian women are not allowed to! A simple tale, captured on film in a documentary style with some exceptional performances by the cast renders Offside as one of the best movies of recent times. As Jaffer Panahi is known to be a neorealist film maker, Offside is a remarkable piece of work which more importanlty portays a retrogressive social practice persisting in a regressive social structure, in the most appealing manner, with subtle and sarcastic mock at the system, while projecting the aspirations of the female protagonists in various dimensions.

Although the direct idea might seem disconnected to our circumstances, it is a symbolic questioning of all the discrepancies of gender inequalities. The suppression imposed on the female population in many of the countries even today is of deep concern and the discussions which followed the movie did show that there is a lot that could be done! In India although with all the freedom we boast of, excpet for in urban scenario the condition and treatment of women is certainly not at par with men.

Prof Chatterjee from Indian Institute of Astrophysics, who was part of the audience discerned India and Iran based on his experiences: India is a country although with advanced consitution of law, women have a regressive mentality, as a whole; whereas, Iran although has a rudimentary consititution, women there have a lot more progressive mentality.

These are the kinds of debates and dicussions ITEC is looking forward to instigate by making the Movie Club consistent.

Offside is a must watch to everyone, and if interested to know more about the Movie club, the movie itself or about ITEC do visit the website http://www.itecentre.co.in/

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Day dreaming in dreamy days

Without getting into the specific time as to when, although many of you might well be able to guess it, last few days have been really conducive for this gratifying, involuntary creative act – Day Dreaming!

There is something unique about day dreams, in that they are not in entirety based on the subconscious and hence most entirely implausible. These are perfect confluence of subconscious’ aspirations substantiated by the ratification and planning of the conscious mind,yielding these wondrous mental states.

Deepest longings emanating from the core of the self, take shape and present themselves as realistic and hopeful projections of the mind, seeking whatever it really craves for!

Another important trait is that one does not forget what transpires in these dreams unlike their subconscious counterparts, which many a times need Freudian analysis to recollect and decipher!

While I cherish reminiscing and hoping for these day dreams to see their day, you try working on yours ๐Ÿ™‚

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