Dreaming on........

“What travels the fastest?” asked my classmate in eighth grade.
“Airplane”, I replied immediately. She shook her head saying no. I came up with Tornado, the response was no.

I was confident I had the right answer when I said Light,….to my surprise she once again shook her head saying no.

“It is the human mind, can’t believe you didn’t get it” she said.

Hmmmmmmm….. I didn’t think much of it at that time. But later, on a rainy day as I sat listening to my History teacher talking about the British rule in India, I drifted away to a place almost two hundred years back, when Elizabeth Bennet walked all the way to Mr. Bingley’s house, Netherfield, to meet her ailing sister Jane. She walked three miles through the mud to visit Jane. I wondered what kind of boots was she wearing, were they comfortable ?And how did she manage to clean her gown of the mud stains, especially, since in those days there were no detergents.

A split second later, our shrilly school bell rang, the class was over and I was out of Pride and Prejudice and back in the twentieth century. Mind is the fastest, hands down; it can be anywhere any moment. But it is not the speed with which mind can bounce off places; it’s the ability of mind to wander anywhere that fascinates me.

Now if this happens constructively, with a purpose in mind, it would be called thinking, but if your mind is bouncing off, like mine was, imagining Ms. Bennet walking to Netherfield one moment and thinking of detergents the next, chances are it would be called day dreaming.

Unfortunately daydreaming is frowned upon by many, but I firmly believe it is one of the main foundations of human evolution. Think about it, discovery of fire as expected was an accident, but the invention of wheel was definitely someone’s dream, someone who was tired of walking or tired of lifting heavy things. Even when it comes to language, at some point someone among our ancestors must have gotten tired of waving hands and gesturing and would have wondered if there was a way that would make communication easier.

Perhaps in a different world, some one else also, like me, thought of Ms. Bennet's muddy gowns and came up with detergents. Thats the beauty of day dreaming, nothing is off limits; it doesn't make a difference whether you get laughed at or patted in the back in appreciation, in your dreams, you are free.