Sharing a dream.

[Text by Manami Chakravorty, photo by Mayank Austen Soofi]

In a not-so-happening phase of life, I once saw this dream where I was perfectly dressed up and waiting for my ‘love interest’ to notice me and pass a compliment. This dream inside the dream was soon crushed when I realised he was not even looking at me. I kept walking all over the place and I saw a woman crying, surrounded by well-wishers trying to console her. Adding to my misery, I saw I was back home and my ‘love interest’ was there at my dining space with that other woman, hugging her, wiping her tears, trying to calm her down. Tears kept rolling down my eyes, both in the dream and in reality. The tragedy of being present and yet absent at the same time, the art of seeing and yet not seeing enough. This dream was the memory of a heartbreak.

Manami Chakravorty, 21, Calcutta