Testing Waters!

Dream catching: First Run

Today, on the 2nd of April, we went out for our first dreamcatching session in Hennur. We divided into two teams:

Team 1: Siddharth, Sachin, Nigel

Team 2: Me(Ananya), Rhutuja, Sudipto, Samyamoy.

As it was our very first day, approaching random individuals on the road looked quite daunting at first. But then we decided to study a person for a few minutes before talking to him for our shot. And so we started out!

We mostly talked to people who were comfortable in Hindi as we ourselves are handicapped in the regional language department! 

We decided to start off with someone we have a casual acquaintance with, our hostel watchman – Patrick. It was easy conversing with him and he spoke of his life before he joined our hostel. He had been working at a factory and upon closure of the same he tried his hand at business which sadly did not work out. He said his dream was to see his children being educated properly.

We then walked a little away from our hostel and met Rehman, who moved to Bangalore 3 months ago from Howrah, West Bengal, to earn a living. He works at an automobile furnishing store as a tailor. He did not have much of an interest in politics or current affairs and said his only wish was to be able to save up enough and start his own tailoring business.

We next talked to K. Gurender who works in his small laundry shop. He is originally  from Bangalore and is married with two children. He informs us that his youngest son who is two years old, cannot talk and is undergoing therapy. His only dream is to provide well for his family and see his two-year-old regain full ability to speak.

The next person we met was Gautam who was working as a store assistant. Originally from Rajasthan, he and his family moved here some years ago for better earning opportunities.

Next Shubhamma came to our notice while she was walking her dog and we coaxed her to talk to us. A very friendly woman, she talks about her time working as a teacher in a montessori previously and in an NGO for the disabled kids now. It is her dream to see all these physically/mentally challenged children to gain a better position in society in future and is happy to work actively in making it so.

Then we met Mohammad Musimmmilah from Jamshedpur, Jharkhand who has come Bangalore some six months back for perusing MBA. He comes from a large family of three brothers and two sisters and is determined to become a CA in future. He is strong supporter of Anna Hazare and his beliefs and dreams of a corruption-free India someday.

We then come across Ravi, who works as a cook in a hostel and had arrived in Bangalore 12 years back in search of work. He dreams of someday having his own house but also says how difficult it is to do so, especially after supporting his parents, wife and kids on his meager salary. But he is also determined to make it happen and work hard to do so.

The last person we met was Mohammed, a 22 year old assistant cook from Kolkata. Having moved to Bangalore five years ago, he was very happy to share his experiences in Bangalore with us. His dream was to start his own restaurant and have his own home in Kolkata.

 As the light was receding, we decided to call it a day and head back to hostel to edit the videos and write about our experience. We may not have uncovered enough to get to the root of peoples dreams but on the whole we had a nice time talking to people and getting to know them. We willl be heading out again, sometime soon and hope to get some better responses. Till later, take care :)