Dreams – A Movie Theatre + Brainstorming Retreat + Disney’s Astrologer

When God invented us, there was no movie industry or single screen halls or multiplexes where one could go to and forget the reality for a few hours. Get to see things that are sometimes very real, sometimes very weird, sometimes very imaginative, and sometimes very meaningful. God knew it would take a few hundred thousand years for Homo Sapiens to start enjoying Bollywood and Hollywood, so she invented the next best alternative – dreams!I look forward to going to bed every night, all dressed up in my kurta pyjama, nicely tucked in my blankets, and ready to watch several back to back movies for the next several hours. No one to disturb me, no one to gossip on the seat behind me, and no one to noisily munch on tacos, in the next seat. And then there is the surprise element also. I don’t know what will be the genre of the movies for that night. Might be a romantic comedy or an action movie or a horror flick. Or a combination. And the best part is that I am often the hero also in most of these movies, and invariably always come out alive from the movies (notice how in your own dreams, whenever death is imminent, then some miracle will save you or you will get up!). And all this for free! God could not have given us a better mode of life long free entertainment. Dreams are much more than entertainment though, my friends from IIT often say. Many of them are doing advanced level research on the pattern of dreams, tracking the brain signals to portray the source and development of our dreams. They do agree though that having dreams relaxes the body. Just like watching movies do. So the one part of dreams that is unambiguously accepted by all is that it is a cost free mode of relaxation. I call dreams, therefore, a movie theatre.

We have often heard the saying “a lull before a storm”. And in corporate circles, we have heard a lot about “brain-storming”. Just like the mind goes into a “lull”, before a storm of thoughts, ideas, imaginations inundate the brain. Personally, for my mind, it goes into B-Rain, or Bollywood Rain! Girls dancing, elephants chasing, cars crashing, wife fighting – the whole screen of the mind is set on fire immediately as I start dreaming. But when the elephants chase me in the forests, I notice how the forest looks like in the dark, when the girls dance, I realise that one aerobic exercise I had been wanting to tone my buttocks, and when the cars crash I observe how the flame spreads inside the car. And when my wife shouts, I observe how beautiful her crooked teeth looks. The small insights, the hitherto ignored nuances, the meaningful breakthroughs, the unsolved riddle, the last part of the puzzle – they often get clearer during those entertaining dreams. Corporate brainstorming in a jungle retreat, amidst nature, freeing open all the pores of the skull – dreams are better than that. I hence call dreams as a brainstorming retreat!

The last and my favourite, is the role of dreams as an astrologer in a virtual reality amusement park. The amusement park, with all its water rides and virtual reality games and simulations, is always a fun place to visit. And sometimes in one corner stall, there is an astrologer sitting quietly, with a strange fragrance around him, looking furtively at the passerby, almost knowing who will be entering his stall. In my dreams too like in the amusement parks – tired from all the simulated rides of the night, I often wake up in the morning with a consequential impact like a slight pain in the knee or the wrist, or sometimes even a drop of water on the bed. And behind all the rides in the dreams, I remember a predictive astrologer sitting silently behind the screen of the dreams, just like the one in the amusement park. Sometimes, he comes out and gives an indication, directly or through a collection of hints, of what is to come in the real life in future. We call it premonitions also. Scientifically not proven still, but accepted by many, especially those like me, who have experienced it on a personal level. I love my Disney’s Astrologer, and don’t care for the scientific explanations. Mickey Mouse is real at Disney to the millions of kids visiting every year, and my Disney’s Astrologer is real in the millions of dreams visiting my brain every year!

Gita says if you have to dream, then dream BIG. I think Krishna probably meant BIG = Bollywood + Insight + Groupthink. All together in your dreams. What a beautiful thing – for Krishna to say, and for God to create dreams! Dream on!

Top 7 Reasons Why Bollywood Should be Given Nobel Peace Prize

As an upfront disclaimer, I have no relatives or friends in Bollywood. Though I do hope to make friends there soon. And hoping that someone in the big ocean of Bollywood will spot the small fish that is trying to jump into the salty waters of the sea. Spot the bright colours of the fish that are different from the myriad of other fishes in the sea…. Sorry!Just got carried away by my publishers – wanting me to promote myself everywhere! 

But today I will promote Bollywood only, and nothing but the Bollywood. Main sach aur sach ke sivay kuch nahin bolunga. There itself is reason #1 for the rationale for winning the Nobel Prize for Peace. Which other medium, institute, or a person has drilled this idea so much into our brains – that one should speak the truth, and nothing but the truth. I am disappointed that the new crop of movies do not have this line of truth in their court scenes, maybe thinking it is too much of a cliché. But they forget that the moral depravity index in our country might be rising due to this also. Sachi…muchi. Nothing but sachi…muchi! 

From Amar Akbar Anthony to Bajirao Mastani (liked the poetic twang?), our Bollywood has always demonstrated the benefits of living in harmony. A Hindu and Muslim as the best of friends willing to give or take life for each other, or brothers lost in the Kumbhmela and then raised by different communities, or a Hindu king lost in love with a Muslim damsel. No religious organisation has ever objected or raised slogans or declared bans against those movies that promulgate such communal harmony. With the growing “intolerance” in the country, I am happy our Bollywood is taking another step forward in this direction, and rather than show a Hindu and Muslim separately, they have now merged them together in the bloods of Mastani. And we all loved Mastani, whether as a Hindu or as a Muslim. Is this not a definite reason #2? 

 We are becoming a country of ruthless people, with no emotions, almost like animals. This is dangerous for the peace of our country. Just like the fat cells in our body that become rigid with time, the emotions have also become rigid, tighter, and hidden deep under the layers of our fat cells maybe. So just like we use the treadmill to shake our fat cells, we need to tread on our Bollywood mill to shake our emotional cells. Imagine the climax scene of Barfi, when Ranbir Kapoor is about to go without meeting Priyanka, and then Illeana lets the love birds unite – how could one not cry in that scene? I needed two handkerchiefs to wipe my tears. My emotional cells were mercilessly juggled, shaken, and stirred, and squeezed so strong that it let out all the liquids from its bonds into my poor wife’s handkerchiefs. So the point is that Bollywood can make us cry (come on the nasty minds – I am not talking about the real bad movies where you do WANT to cry!) – and purge our repressed feelings. Bringing the balance back in our minds, our bodies. Making us calmer and more peaceful. How can this not qualify for a reason #3 for the Nobel Peace Prize?! 

Nuclear weapons. Likely to destroy the current modern civilisation, at some point in future. And where does that risk most lie? Ask South Korea, and they will say North Korea but ask any other country, and they will say it’s India-Pakistan. Both having very intelligent people, capable of making these nuclear weapons. And both having very emotional people also, capable of triggering that dreadful red button. So what keeps both the countries in check? The innocence of the little girl in Bajrangi Bhaijaan who is being as much loved by the Indians as the Pakistanis. The smile on that innocent face makes people across both sides of the borderline wonder why a war is necessary; why can’t we have smiling children like her everywhere, happily escorted and helped by people of any religion or community. Let’s live like one big nuclear happy family, and not nuclear war families. Who can touch the hearts of people with such a message? Yes, you guessed it right – Bollywood. And reason #4 why it deserves the Nobel Prize. 

Love your parents, and you love your country. Someone said this once. And if you don’t believe me, go and watch Piku. If Deepika doesn’t love her father so dearly, I don’t know who else does. She was willing to put up with any s..t that her father, the great Bachchan, produced. She loved her father, and loved her country also for allowing her father to carry the commode all the way to Kolkata! A big endorsement of our Swachh Bharat campaign. Love your father, and love your country. Parents bring peace at home – do we not feel ashamed to spar with our partners in front of them? Parents bring sanity at home, they bring the heat down at home – how many times have we resisted our urge to take a hasty or violent decision after being counselled by our parents. And who teaches us to love our parents, respect them..? Bollywood! For a peaceful, and clean India, Bollywood is critical. My reason # 5. 

If there is despair, no hope, there is violence, retaliation. Who controls that? Bollywood. Whether it is for a young boy or a girl hoping to make moolah even more than their father’s CEO in the company, or earn a fame beyond that of the Prime Minister, Bollywood is the natural choice. Hope keeps us from going berserk, the hope of making it as one of them, one of Bollywood. And for the more snooty ones, who do not want to join Bollywood, there is always the sneaky Sunday movie, hiding from their friends and colleagues. And for them too, the Bollywood gives hope - the hope to change the system, hope to become the boss of their boss, the hope to find true love – in marriage or outside of it, the hope to win against all odds. Dhanush lived that hope and dream in Shamitabh, and we live our hopes and dreams every day in Bollywood. Keeping our minds occupied with positivity, and keeping negativity and non-peaceful behaviour at far distance. I hope you will agree this is a good enough reason #6. 

And now to the last and most important reason for Bollywood being the most suitable choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. The one message that has been consistent in our movies from the time I have been watching them till today, is the message about revenge and karma. Often hunting together, the implied Jai and Veeru of our celluloid screen – karma and revenge. Earlier I would not qualify this aspect as one of my top reasons for the Nobel Prize, not when The Bachchan was an angry young man, bashing up all those who caused him, or his family, or his friend, or his dog, or his country, or anybody or anything any pain. Wrongdoing was avenged violently. But now the Jai Veeru bond has been broken, and karma hunts alone most of the times. In a family movie like Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo or a violent movie like Badlapur, the revenge has become more karmic now. Why hurt yourself, and spill blood all over, and waste bullets, when you can sit back peacefully and enjoy karma do it all for you? That is the new message of Bollywood, and will bring world-wide peace. Leave it all to karma, don’t fight amongst yourselves. If karma does not get the bad guy, destiny will. If destiny doesn’t, then fate will. And even if fate doesn’t then we can always rely on our Bachchan! But only as the last resort. I unhesitatingly, and with no bias for my books around the similar themes (yeah right!), nominate the last reason #7 as the most important reason for Bollywood laying its claim for the Nobel Peace Prize!

About Dhiraj Singh

Dhiraj Singh has successfully established and led several businesses in the infrastructure, services, and financial sectors in India and abroad. He is currently part of the senior leadership team at the largest Indian business support services group. Dhiraj holds a Master’s degree in International Management from The American Graduate School of International Management, Thunderbird and an MBA in Finance from Tulane University, New Orleans. Dhiraj did his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai. Born and brought up in a small town from where he travelled to study and work in different cities both in India and abroad, he has always excelled both in studies and sports while remaining a big movie buff! 

He is a keen observer of people from different cultural and social backgrounds and enjoys interacting with them and listening to their “stories”. He has had major personal and spiritual transformation over the past decade due to many accurate astrological predictions and personal premonitions, including the death of his father, in his own life. Being an engineering and science student, he found the new “dimension” very baffling as well as interesting, and started to study and believe in “alternative science”, a science which he now believes exists but is not understood.

His books in the series “Fables of Fatal Fate” are interesting fictional stories that are inspired by real life experiences and have a unique mix of drama and thrill creatively woven around the fabric of his “alternative science” views.