Two nights ago while I deliberated on another invective against the motherland I stumbled upon the idea of an apartment building (or society, as it is more appropriately called in some cities) as a microcosm of the nation. The comparison seemed too beautiful to take seriously and too simple to ignore. Ever since, my mind has been in an overdrive drawing parallels between various, ahem, objects and methods of the apartment building with those of the nation. I looked from the angle of anthropology, speculating on how homo sapiens may have come to live in groups. I tried to scale up the apartment building from a duplex towards a township, adding various features that would be necessary to make it smoothly functional, self-sufficient, and with an improved performance (luxury). I felt that I was proceeding in the right direction, and then let it go hoping to stumble upon an essay by some sociologist.
But my mind seemed to have context switched to a similar more hands-on exercise in my sleep last night.
In one of the most interesting dreams I have had in a while, I argued with Sonia Gandhi about the above theory. The argument, I think, took place off the screen. With one menacing spell Sonia broke the land under my feet like the Shaman in the game Populous: The Beginning and left, the distance between us growing. I and Trinath were now on a cold large mountainous island that reminded me of Vizag for some reason. I knew that there were several other inhabitants on the island.
Our challenge was to survive, thrive, and show profits within a set time period. I began considering frozen foods as a possibly lucrative business though I must have meant cold storages, what with the chillingly low temperature of the island. We first decided to start with cooking dinner. We had a small furnished cottage. Its kitchen had two stoves. Trinath prepared something for the two of us and we dined heartily, confident that we had enough time to do what we were supposed to.
The next morning (in the dream) we found a large number of saplings on the adjacent land, all of which seemed to have been planted by different individuals. Looking at that haphazard plantation we realized that people were not capable alike. We decided to start with census, and also collect information about people's interests and capabilities during the study. My mind then rewrote that bit and so we decided to advertise for individuals who would help us in censusing while we could think deeper on administration planning and avenues for revenue. Large posters were pasted on the walls of a few abondoned buildings around.
I can't remember further and I don't want to venture into the possibilities because that seems like material for a novel. My attempt here is to document it, just in case I wish to revisit.
The list of things that could have triggered various aspects of the dream: the theory itself, growing intolerance for the government, growing respect for capitalism, recent thoughts about buying Railroad Tycoon, brief discussion with Trinath about this issue, Trinath cooking more frequently, a short story I recently read where a father gifts Robinson Crusoe to his daughter, regular thoughts about Thoreau.
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