It is a new Dream
It is fortunately a public holiday, I woke up very, very late.
In fact, it was after three attempts by my dog telling me, it is pretty late in the day, as far as he was concerned.
Why don’t you wake up?
That was his message.
He has got used to a good routine with me all because of our prolong industrial action, he knows all my routines by heart.
He never put his front feet on the bed but he did it toady to see whether I was really late but not dead on my sleep.
I had a nice long dream too.
Thanks to his interruptions I can remember it very well to relate it here.
I have to take a little detour this time round, not sending it to Maha Brahma first and come back with an interpretations.
In fact, I have not had any communication with him for a long time.
He will have a very long list of questions and a prolong interview (internet chat wise and not a direct contact with him-for those of you who do not know my modus operandum) and I should have quick answers and with the Sri-Lankan Telecom as slow as it is, to respond to his celestial contacts, not having a satellite of it own.
It is a big toll.
I do not want the readers to stay for another day.
The interpretation and the long internet chat I will have with him, I should pen down later.
For a change, I want you to interpret it, in your own ways in the mean time.
The Dream
The dream goes backs to about 50 years.
It was in the Peradeniya Campus.
It was in the evening and I was doing my own jog around the campus.
I was on the side of our physiology don’s house, who was a burgher gentleman.
I climbed a little soil mound and peeped over the window to see whether the madam was in to tease her.
To my horror she got into a panic mode and loudly said,
“Leela, the thief has come, catch him”.
Leela is the wife of another don in the Faculty of Arts.
She got hold of a broomstick (that is the recognized weapon and no T-56 then) and moved sideways and I followed her instinct for a few steps and quickly took a about turn and ran behind her house and the neighbour’s house, knowing well if I enter her front compound I could be caught, perhaps with a broomstick in her hand too.
I took a detour and came round by another route to see Mrs. Leela was coming down across another alleyway with a big pole in her hand.
I took to my feet swiftly like a horse and was down a steep hill that lead to a small paddy (yes we had a little paddy filed inside the campus then) field.
When I approached there well away from my attackers, I decided to have a pause to catch my breath and little peace in my mind.
I was in a pensive mood when an middle age woman approached me clad in muddy cloth with some kind of grass in her hand.
I thought she was cutting grass for the cow she had (yes we had cows in the campus then).
She asked me whether I was a undergraduate.
I said, Yes.
Then she asked me whether I know the Vice Chancellor personally.
I did not know what to say.
Those days the VC is such a big stature, we undergraduates have no contact with him, unless we have done something very nasty and grave that we get a resound warning without any inquiry or criminal court.
I did not want to accept my predicament but said to her I knew him very well.
She said, “Aiyyoh Mahathaya Ahenum Baridha Ahanna Thawa Kananayakata Wapuranna Denna Kiyala”.
Could you please ask him whether she can have another season of paddy cultivation instead of the special grass she was asked to grow.
I asked her what is this all about.
She told me that she was asked to lay the special type of grass on her paddy field instead of cultivating rice.
I asked, Why?
“Ane Maha Ragina Enawane”.
Queen is visiting the country.
I told her I would try and had a few seconds pause to gather my composure and make good the fundamental error of “Peeping Tom” behaviour.
I walked back the long route I had taken back to the house of our don.
On my way, I found the long pole ,Leela had dropped and I wanted to return it back in case she needs it.
As I was walking up with the pole in hand, I saw VC coming down the lane.
There was no way of avoiding him.
I raised the pole as I was carrying a flag on top of it.
I walked toward him bravely and the second running to escape him was not in my mind.
He came down slowly with a majestic imposing posture.
He was wearing a British hat.
He paused having come down to where I was.
I had become stationary by that time with the pole erect on my hand.
As he approached me I lowered it as if I was a pole vault jumper.
Are you practising how to carry a flag on a pole.
I said, No.
I was practising pole vault, I said.
I ordered a new one from England.
It is very heavy and of British standard, I told him.
This is of the correct weight for me.
Then he said, I see about your need anyway.
Thank you, Sir.
Where are you taking it?
I said “to whom it belongs”.
He said Good Old Boy.
By now I knew, I was in a good working relationship with the VC, I took the courage to ask the question that poor lady could not ask from him.
Sir, May, I may, make a request for somebody.
Who is that somebody?
He was very attentive and inquisitive.
I said I met that woman and she wanted another season for rice cultivation.
That cannot be done he said abruptly.
Then, I looked at him very politely and said rice takes only three and half months to maturity and the grass only half that time and the Queen is coming one year from now and there is enough time to do all that.
Is that so?
You seem to know quite a lot, “are you an agriculture student”.
No Sir, I am a Medical Student and put a little substance to my pole carrying adventure.
Then he said go and tell her she can have even two seasons but by the time Queen is here there should be a posh growth of green grass over there.
Then he went onto say if I see you carrying poles instead of looking after patients, I will make you a pole bearer of the university and not in the parliament.
That is the type of environment we had when we were in the University.
It is quite different now.
I walked up to the house and met the lady and handed over the pole.
She was puzzled.
She had seen me in a bit of a long conversation with VC and she did not know what to say.
Then I went to the house of our burgher don and talked to the lady as nothing improper has happened.
She invited me for a cup of tea with cookies, which was my original intention which was interrupted by her panic and commotion that followed.
I cannot remember how many lies I told her over the cup of tea.
That was a survival need as a young undergraduate, otherwise we would have been expelled within the first term of our academic year, if everybody knew what we did off academic hours.
The lady was a typical Victorian type.
I told her, if I was her, I would not invite the VC for a cup of tea if my teacher was not at home.
She did not ask why?
Then, I said, VC was trying to enter the neighbour house’s from back door and he detoured having seen me with the pole.
Is that so?
Yes, I said loudly.
Mind you that was the biggest lie on that day.
By that time, I have begun to hate Leela for carrying a big pole to hit me instead of a broomstick.
Everybody, knew VC was a ladies man and there were enough in the Art Faculty to prey at that time but not in the Medical Faculty.
We exchanged pleasantries and I was a regular visitor and she was like real aunt to me.
She is no more but probably in heaven.
Now this one is for you.
How many lies in total.
Unlike politicians who lie for a living in broad day light I am entitled to lies in my dreams.
If you can help me to count them.
I have lost count of them.
Dream is a good recipe for people like me and we have this satisfaction of lying in our deep sleep mode.
That is why dream are for us and not for politicians.
I am told that the politicians see their lies in their own sleep get terrified and wake up ever so often not knowing how to coin the next lie.
I will come back with Maha interpretation of this dream very soon.
Maha Brahma’s Interpretation
As I promised I sent the above dream by email to Maha just after my very late light dinner.
He promptly replied.
We had a long interrogation.
It went on like this and some bits and pieces are edited and summarized to make it shorter.
He wanted an explanation for me not sending any dream for over one year for interpretation.
I said it is a very short space in his timing but it was a horrible year for me.
He was taken aback with my reply.
I said I did not want to send some boring and mundane facts.
1. The world was supposed to end by December.
Did you believe it?
I said, NO,
Then why?
All the others believed it.
2. Then we had a long industrial action.
Did you want to get a salary increase before the end of the world?
Yes and No.
Yes, some of our young union guys believed that it is better to enjoy a salary increase before the end of the world.
The vagabonds like me never believed that they will increase anything and also predicted that it is a long drawn out affair and painful too.
Did you get a substantial increase.
NOPE!
3. I did not want to share my intellectual property, that included my dreams during that period.
It is improper to share the intellect when one is on strike.
It is a bane in academic circles.
You thought I will leak the dreams to the media?
No, no, nothing like that.
I trust you.
It is my memory and email habits.
If I posted those dreams by internet, I won’t have any to share with my fellow beings at the end of the strike.
I am losing my memory a bit and I even momentarily forgot my emails passwords.
How come?
I have never had such a long time away from work, really not working, I started enjoying life, in spite of no money in my pocket.
With this loose habit I started forgetting and was sleeping a lot.
Do you record my dreams.
No my dear.
Do you have good memory.
No my dear.
There you are, that justify my position.
But then, I have no fun in between, Know?
Did you dream a lot?
To tell you the truth not a lot.
Why?
When somebody is off work he or she gets a good sleep without dreams.
So you dream a lot when you work.
Yes, that is why I am coming back to you.
It is long time after the settlement, you would have had some dreams.
4. Yes I stored them in summary form for year 2013.
That is naughty of you.
No, no there were other reasons.
In history when they reflect on humans on year 2012, there will be lot of the theories to record and my dream won’t have any currency.
That is a very good point.
Have you got enough for a book?
Yes but not until I get your interpretation.
I will be posting at least one a month from now onward.
THANK YOU.
5. Then we had this CJ affair.
What is it all about.
I do not understand Sir.
They call the law is an ASS or ARSxxxxxx.
Is it TRUE.
Yes as far as Sri-Lanka is concerned.
The dreams during this period was all political dreams.
Nothing worth recording.
It is not realistic to talk about those dreams.
Why?
I. On the one hand, it is the breach of trust and contempt of court.
One can go to prison.
II. Then on the other hand one is breaking the parliamentary privileges.
One will go to hell on earth if one breaches the parliamentary privileges.
III. Then there is the constitution to interpret.
If the dream is not according to the constitutional requirements one is not able to publish it in a proper intellectual forum.
It is very complicated know?
It is not like that.
We make simple things like fair play a complicated issue.
Then we make complicated issue like sacking somebody for no reason with academic credentials but no prudence what we need is a simple majority and a simple signature.
How did you digest all these.
I cannot.
That is why I am not a lawyer but a simple doctor who knows pain, suffering, anguish and loss of face and faith of ordinary people.
How is your dog?
That was very unexpected diversion.
He knew that I was not happy discussing the issues at hand.
6. My Dog.
He had whale of a time with our strike.
I must thank him for this dream.
If not for him, I would have forgotten the dream.
He woke me up three times today but I continued to go to sleep mode.
He was checking whether I was dead or not I believe.
Well you do not need a dog to keep you occupied but your doctor friends would have kept you interested in your habits, including financial affairs.
I am ashamed to say none of them sent me even an email, never mind a phone call to see my well being.
They were busy doing private practice and were really undermining it, expecting to pluck some benefits from the private medical school.
Was it that bad?
YES.
But some of my doctor friends and other friends even visited me from abroad knowing I was at home all the time.
How did you survive?
I used credit cards and they were very generous since the interest is very attractive to the bank and not to me.
I am still trying to make good the outstanding payments.
It is not rosy then.
That is why I told you it was a horrible year.
Interpretation
Then I wanted an interpretation of the dream.
Do you really want it?
Bloody well yes.
He was hesitating.
Then, is it a good year, 2013?
It is not that bad year altogether but future of the university is not going to be good.
Your dream is all about the University which you were a part for long time.
Is it that bad?
YES.
I will put that in a few steps.
STEP 1
It becomes almost like a police academy.
We are already in that framework with lot of imported security officers and guards.
I do not find it that threatening.
It is not like that you will be monitored as suspicious elements in every day of your life.
Even when I go to the loo.
Yes.
Why?
That is they way.
Unless the VC gives all these information to the minister he will be thrown out.
STEP 2
Then it becomes like a academy of army cadets.
In this stage one does not need any academic qualification but only the rank.
STEP 3
Reorganization of all academic activities and is called curriculum reform stage.
In this sage 90% of the departments will closed stating they have no national contribution.
The physical structures and even the land belonging to the university will be sold or vested to outside elements for reorganization purposes.
STEP 4
Recruitment phase
They will now introduce the Entrance Examination conducted by the University itself as was in the past.
It is good know?
Wait till I finish.
Over 90% will be reserved for the University staff holding higher offices, the rest from the minor staff.
It will like the Medial College and Law College of the colonial time.
STEP 5
It is the most interesting phase.
It is called “NO FREE EDUCATION”
Now the officers will sell their allocation for a price like duty free cars for the highest bidder.
Will they get any education of any worth.
No but they get a certificate of competence after one year, to enter into a foreign (university) country with a proper education system.
How fast will it be, this change?
It will be faster than the way they had the impeachment motion dealt with.
OH, NO.
That is what you call progress.
Then he disappeared in a flash saying see you with the next dream.
He did not give any room for cross examination of the details.
I have to believe that this will happen in my life time.
I thought for myself.
It is time for me to leave it anyway.
