Dreams are something, one wants to share with near and dear ones. It is the first thing most of us discuss in the morning. But off late, I have stopped doing that. I mean discussing my dreams with wife. The reason is simple. She is never a part of my dream. All the space is occupied by tigers, leopards, bison, deer and every creature in the wild, but my wife.
Initially, she listened to me with total attention perhaps hoping to find some place in my dreams sooner or later. But when she realised that it was hopeless, she started cutting me brutally, the moment I began saying…… what a beautiful dream it was…. she would immediately open newspaper and start reading. Now I have stopped talking about my dreams or if I do, I make it a point to ‘include’ her in it. But she is cleaver enough to make it out.
Since last 15 years, when I first toured Melghat Tiger Reserve, my life changed and while all my friends used to dream about some or the other girl in the class, I was poles apart from them, always wondering in the forest looking for some or the other animal, plant, insect or reptile. Working for forest and tiger conservation for one-and-half decade and reporting on it since last seven years, I never realised when nature crept in and dominated every aspect of my life, including the dreams. I have now started dreaming that even in Mumbai, concrete jungle is being replaced by the real one, increased incidents of leopards and tigers straying in human settlement. However, there is no man animal conflict, may be because I am an avid wildlife lover. Recently I dreamt about visiting office of an environmentalist in Mumbai. Till I went inside everything was fine but when I stepped out of the office the world was changed. The building was transformed into a heritage-like structure with no elevators, no swanky flooring and ceiling with fancy lighting. That was not all. When started climbing down the steps from the sixth floor of the building, the journey to the ground floor got harder and harder with every step. Walls were covered by creepers, birds had nested there and reptiles passed by occasionally. Though I could not sleep after that, a strange feeling of being in a dense forest gripped me and a desperate urge to run away to forest dominated me again. As it is a frequent phenomenon that I strongly feel like heading straight to my favourite forest – Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve.