Meeting Tilakaratne Dilshan

Gifted Dilshan a copy of 50 Not Out which he graciously accepted. He's a very grounded guy and very helpful. 

Plan to chat with him some more. Will do it and share more insights.

The Interpretation of Dreams - Sigmund Freud

 I am not too much into interpreting dreams but I felt its useful to know when I picked up this classic by Sigmund Freud - it was published in 1899 and brought the theory of the unconscious with respect to dream interpretation (which later became the theory of  the Oedipus Complex). I did not really get a full grip of how to interpret dreams but got an idea of how Freud went about it. 

The book starts with a concise report of scientific literature of dream problems up to 1900. Earlier thoughts aboout dreams were that they were god-sent and were either prophecies or such stuff. Freud tried a psychological technique to interpret dreams with every dream having a structure, assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities  of the waking state. He tried to connect them to the waking state, thus addressing memory and sensation as well.

Many dreams of various people are interpreted and most are Freud's own dreams that have been analysed by himself. The primary dream under analysis is that of 'Irma's Injection' which is a dream about a patient whose treatment went wrong and the dream is about how he seeks to be exonerated from the mistake by blaming it on another doctor. Freud says that dreams have two mental processes 1) unconscious forces that construct a wish expressed by the dream 2)  process of censorship that forcibly distorts the expression of the wish. Somewhere it is said that all dreams re about wish fulfillment. 

One can differentiate between manifest content (remembered narrative) and latent content (underlying meaning of the dream). During sleep the unconscious condenses and displaces and forms representations of the dream content, the latent content of which is not recognisable upon waking.

Every dream, Freud says, has a connection with an experience of the previous day. The dream content can be selected from any part of the dreamer's life. There are four possible sources of dreams 1) mentally significant experiences represented directly 2) general recent experiences consolidated into one 3) one or more experiences represented by contemporary but different experiences 4) an internal experience represented in the dream by a mention of a recent but indifferent impression.

Freud discusses the aspects of wish fulfillment, distortion, censorship in dreams etc. For the material and sources of dreams j=he looks at infantile experiences and somatic sources 1) embarrassment dreams 2) dreams of death and 3) exam dreams. The actual dream work consists of condensation into symbols - hat as a man, little one as a genital 3) being run over as sexual intercourse 4) buildings and stairs represent genitals 5) people represent male organs, landscapes rep female organs etc. The psychology of dream processes includes forgetting of dreams, how our memory falsifies through psychic censorship, regression, suppression etc.

Thought impulses that continue to sleep are 1) those that haven;t been completed such as unsolved problems 2) those left uncompleted due to accident 3) those that have been suppressed 4)indifferent impressions of the day.

It is an interesting book and may warrant a second read to get deeper into this subject. But for now, glad I read it and got some idea into how Freud tried to interpret dreams and how he connected dreams to the waking state and how our wishes are represented as symbols etc.      

21 Days to Decode Your Dreams - Leon Nacson

Leon Nacson is a Dream Coach based on Australia, a pioneer in the self-help movement, and the publisher of the Planet Magazine. He had written three books on dreams. The book is about how to decode dreams in 21 Days, decoding them one concept at a time. Some of the key concepts he covers are about the language of dreams, emotions, popular expressions etc. He explains the difference between feelings and emotions - emotions being a state of feeling and feelings being a sensate experience of the emotion. 

A few key ideas

We speak in metaphors, but we dream in symbols

We match dream symbols to popular expressions and metaphors

We wake up with feelings

Dreams are like onions - there are many layers to each symbol

We solve problems in our dreams

We live our worst fears in our dreams

Death in our dreams means new beginnings and regeneration

When you're being chased in a dream, you're running away from yourself

If you're falling in your dream, you're feeling unsupported

If you're flying in your dreams you want your spirits to be uplifted, or, you have a desire to get a bird's eye view of the situation

If you dream about celebrities, we are dreaming of symbols of who we think they are

Always recount your dreams in the first person and in present tense

Consider the relationship between your dreams and a situation that's occurring in your waking life

Emotions create dreams, dreams balance our emotions

When you get erotic dreams - most of the time you discover you are only making love to yourself

...

And so on and so forth. Some nice insights that I can show off next time someone talks of a dream or a nightmare.

Anjali - Happy Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day and A sent me flowers, a lovely card with a beautiful message that made my heart tighten. And she sent me some instagram stuff that pretty much made me cry. 

Daughters are the best. Somehow make you feel that they understand you, all that you go through, more than anyone else. 

Love you A.

Unposted Letter - mahatria Ra

Guptaji shares books that he reads and like with me and this is perhaps the 6th or 7th book he had couriered to me. They are all of a spiritual nature. I remember seeing this book in Ratnadeep Stores, maybe a decade ago, and was intrigued by the novel way of distribution - in a grocery store. It was sealed but it did appear interesting. 

Mahatria Ra is a spiritual leader and the founder of infinitheism path which helps create breakthroughs for people in all aspects of life. Born as TT Rangarajan he became a software trainer in Pune at a young age, started a software company, was impacted by the suicide of a friend and went into teaching life skills through a training organisation called Alma Mater. Later on he started the spiritual organisation Infinitheism, wrote three books, publishes a magazine called Infinithoughts and runs spiritual retreats.

Some of the ideas he presents in the book, in a nutshell are:

Today is his gift to you. 

There's no easy way to the top.

You are the most important thing here.

The 80-20 rule holds good everywhere.

The need to be respected is greater than the need to be guided. 

Don't postpone life

Experiences are our teachers

Let the good people make more noise

Be someone's greatest gift

You are the most precious resource you have

Do anything with devotion

Constant and never ending improvement is the key

The end is beautiful - keep at it

Don't take on any labels - you're more than enough

Acceptance is equal to positive emotion

Quality lies in that invisible detail 

Don't bother about having the last word - let go

When was the last time you did something for the first time

Tell the negative in two sentences and the positive in five sentences

Ask the right questions

Happiness is the way

What you don't use, you lose

When ego goes, everything else comes

Be happily dissatisfied 

Let go of hurt, let in peace

I CAN - motto

You don't get what you desire, you get what you deserve

What you resist, persists.

Every good human has the moral responsibility to be rich

Change when sustained and monitored becomes culture

...

Interesting book with some nice insights. I liked what he says about every good human being having the moral responsibility to be rich. And that good people should make noise. And to be happily dissatisfied. 

Thanks Guptaji.

TG20 - Anvita Khammam Aces

The TG20 is the Telangana Premier League. 8 teams, 160 players in the mix. It is the right platform for many youngsters to make a claim for IPL teams. Anvita Khammam Aces is one of the eight teams in the fray.

Grand Arena Days

I have been to Grand Arena once, a couple of years ago, to give away prizes to the Interior Decorators and Architects cricket teams. I really liked the cricket ground, the rooms around it and all the facilities there. I always felt it was a great place for teams to stay together, bond and play cricket in a camp. I remember Vidyuth had once had a camp there with the women's team of the HCA.

Morning walks around the ground or even in the neighborhood - it's kind of isolated. Bird calls, lots of birds, a nice open dining area, good food, lots of playing options, a lovely swimming pool, good friends, conference rooms for meetings - what more can you ask for. 

For cricket, one would have liked a couple of nets as well which were not yet there (under construction), the lights aren't really that good, wicket needs a bit of preparation, but that's a separate story. 

I really enjoyed my stay. Perfect for group outings - corporate, large family outings and so on.