“Priya, are you sleepy?” boomed the voice from the other side of the screen in the conference room where we were undergoing training via video conference.
“Err, why? No, am right here,” I mumbled vainly in defence.
I hadn’t even realised I had my head down on the table while I doodled away happily, oblivious to the technical jargon that zip-zap-zoomed over my head. Damn! It slipped my mind that even though it’s just a TV monitor, unlike in a television, in a video conference, the people on the other side actually get to SEE what you’re doing!
But I really wasn’t sleepy, I swear I wasn’t. I guess my mind just needed a break from work, so it wandered to somewhere more interesting. Of course, I must admit, this isn’t the first time that it has done so. Right from my chemistry and maths classes in school to boring press conferences when I started working, my mind has often ditched me for greener pastures – where I indulged in fairytale romances and Oprah Winfrey-esque success stories.
Psychologists have a term for it – daydreaming – you know the kind you do with your eyes wide open. And, they have theories on it ranging from neurosis to psychosis!
If an uncontrollable desire to escape from those complex chemical and mathematical formulae be akin to neurosis, so be it. What’s school if you can’t run away from it; or for a brief moment, dream? “By holding my arms out stiff and pushing down hard, I found I could suspend myself a few feet above ground. I flapped harder, and soon I was soaring effortlessly over the trees and telephone poles!” Or, at least, be transmogrified like Calvin to a world with imaginary numbers such as Eleventeen?
If a seeking spirit that transports me beyond the claustrophobic cubicles of an MNC and teleports me to a serendipitous world be psychosis, I’d rather be psychotic than a slave.
Daydreaming is an escapist’s haven, I tell you – where one can not just dream of the impossible but sometimes, even strike on a brilliant idea. You know, have that quintessential “dimaag ka batti jala de” moment. I have written a whole manuscript of ‘The Princess who Wasn’t'(working title) along several such wanderings during conferences and training sessions. Now if only that million-dollar book deal ‘really’ comes through, I’ll put it all down on my laptop.
The catch is, such creativity doesn’t flow when it comes to writing ‘real’ stories. A simple act of filing a news story proves to be a painful act of deliberation. But looks like now I can overcome such writers’ block with a little daydreaming. After all, researchers have “found daydreaming to be remarkably common — and often quite useful.”
See, I toldjaso! Daydreamers are the most misunderstood genius (with apologies to Bill Waterson).
Source:http://in.yfittopostblog.com/
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