Queen of Dreams - Chitra Banerjee

In QUEEN OF DREAMS, the author, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, spins a spellbinding story of transformation.

This story is about Rakhi, a young divorced mother and an artist living in California. She is struggling to keep her footing, with her family and her world in alarming transition.

Her mother is a dream-teller. She was born with the ability to interpret the dreams of others and foresee and guide them through their future. This unique gift fascinates Rakhi, and also isolates her from her mother's past and the dream world that she inhabits. She wants something to bring them closer.  After her mother's death, Rakhi discovers solace in her dream journals which open the doors to her past.

To quote Rakhi's mother, 'A dream is a telegram from the hidden world'.

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Chitra Divakaruni Banerjee is one of my favourite authors now. She writes writes stories, where the chief protagonist is a woman - and the story is how she views life and how she handles her relationships. Her stories also have an element of charm or magic.

This one is the story of a woman whose mother is a dream-teller! A strange occupation, you would say. But that is how the story moves. I like the end, where the protagonist overcomes her fears and inhibitions to move on in life.

I believe the author's books make wonderful reading for the womenfolk, I don't know about the men. But this one is an average story to read after her Palace of Illusions.

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The dreams comes heralding joy.

I welcome the dream.

The dreams comes heralding sorrow.

I welcome the dream.

The dream is a mirror showing me my beauty.

I bless the dream.

The mirror is a dream showing me my ugliness.

I bless the dream.

My life is nothing but a dream

From which I will wake into death,

Which is nothing but a dream of life.

Dreams are an integral part of our lives. There are numerous myths & truths flying around dreams. For e.g. dream at dawn comes true, to dream that you are in an accident, signifies pent up guilt and you are sub-consciously punishing yourself over it. 

Some dreams are so real that you carry them back with you after getting up.…in those times what I feel is that may be somebody was there to tell me what does the dream meant. However I haven’t yet met anyone who could help me. But Chitra Banerjee Devakaruniweaves her story around this dream & turns my dreams into reality.

Mrs. Gupta, Rakhi’s mother dreams, not for herself but for others. She has the magical powers of dreaming more than a normal dream and the power of interpreting them, she is a dream teller. She sacrifices everything for her profession which is more than a profession for her. As is said in the book

“The place right at the center of her-that was reserved for dream gods or demons, whoever they were. She never shared it with anyone, not even with you, my daughter.

Rakhiis a divorcee & mother of Jona. She is as normal as me and you. She is generally suspicious, pessimistic, and quick to think the worst of people, hates her ex-husband getting close to her parents and tries finding fault in anything Sonny(Her Ex) does. She is a painter by profession(not getting anywhere) & runs a Chai Shop with her friend. The Shop is under threat because of the opening of Java, the coffee shop, just across their café. To add to her woes she is not on very good terms with her father.

Will her mother’s special power help her in getting her store back in action? Will she inherit her mother’s magical power? Will she reunite with her father & at what expense? Will she look beyond her limited views and accept Sonny back in her life? These are question which the book answers.

.:. My Take .:.

The book has Chitra Banerjee stamp allover it. It talks about magical powers, dreams, old stories, love, redemption, Indians settled abroad their trails & tribulations. But what makes it different from her other novels is the marriage of traditional & contemporary world.

When she talks about Mrs. Gupta she moves back in old times & with Rakhi she is in present times. The bond between the mom & daughter pair is distinct and in sync with time. Take this line for e.g. So much for wisdom from the mouths of babes.

In her signature style Chitra has written about the emotions in a magical language. Her one liners are enchanting, worth more than a thought “I’d been defeated by the oneness of blood”, this is how the mom feels when her magic can not interpret her own daughter’s disturbed dreams.

A distinct style appears in this book, she talks about something & tells what will happen in future but then takes you back to the present. It’s like teasing the reader with a glimpse of what’s there in impending pages. For e.g. In the car we talk, but not about his offer.(Later I will wonder where the money came from….). I ask him about the journal entries.

The book is narrated through, Dream Journals(Journals of Rakhi’s mom) which are set in old times, Rakhi’s views & third person. These changes in narrations are very swift & keep you hooked.

What I took back with me

The book according to me is not only about dreams and their interpretation. It is also about dreaming what you want to turn into reality. It is not about believing only in yourself but also in people around you.

There are several incidents which happen in our lives and we see them in black or white but sometimes we need to look beyond them. There is something called grey which resides in us, it is this grey that we have to fight and win over. The book creates a mystical world of dreams but teaches you to fight the reality.

This book is a must read for all….it entertains & teaches you.

Trivia

As far as Indian book stores are concerned when we ask for Chitra Banerjee’s books then there are only three books which you’ll find. Namely, Arranged Marriage, Mistress of Spices & Sister of My Heart.

Getting this book had become a dream for me, but it turned into a reality due to Cross Words Dial-A-Book facility.

Finsihed the book in 2 sittings and will be reading it again, soon.:)

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'I dream the dreams of other people,

so I can help them live their lives'

--Extract from the book

There are two kinds of dreamers, those who dream with their eyes wide open called the ‘day-dreamers’. And then there are those who dream while sleeping. Actually most of us fall into these two categories. There is none who has not experienced this third dimension of our existence- aptly called dreamland. Irrespective of the category, dreams reveal more about us than we intend to hide.

I wonder if dreams that we see while sleeping serve a purpose? Or is there a hidden message that the dreamers need to work upon and decode? Or are dreams simply some illusionary ejaculations of human mind overcrowded with thoughts. These queries hold different answers for different folks. Whatever. Dreams definitely play a role in everyone’s life.

Many a times we cross a path, an event or even a moment of which we have dreamt before. However these incidents are minor and we never pay much attention to them. But for a moment ponder over the possibility that a complete stranger walks upto you, tells you about your dreams and the future course of your life. The stranger treats your life as if it were an open book. This is the thought around which Divakaruni’s Queen of Dreams moves.

Chitra Divakaruni is a master storyteller. She has a penchant for creating characters torn between the past, present and the future. As in her other works (Arranged Marriage, Vine of Desire) Chitra paints livid pictures of Indians leading successful but elusive lives in the great America. Queen of Dreams is about reliving the past in order to step in to the future. It is about relationships entangled in these tenses. Relationships that would be unmeshed only when the past and the present come together.

A great contemporary writer, Chitra's skill lies in flouting rhythmic moments. She controls the story and bends it the way she wishes to. Talking about her flaws, I find none. The advantages of reading her work are many. She writes in a lyrical state, picking her own style –which is simply unrestrictive- and rhythm. She weaves an aura around her characters readers find hard to resist. Chitra has spent a considerable part of her life in India and then moved onto America. This is one experience she uses entirely to her advantage. Her stories though not autobiographical do reflect the fact that Indians living their dreams outside India even if doing well are devoid of an identity. This is again a story of east meeting the west.

Queen of Dreams is a story revolving around the life and death of a dreamteller, Mrs. Gupta who is Rakhi’s mother in the novel. Rakhi a young artist and a divorced mother finds her life undergo a major transition after her mother’s death in a mysterious car accident. All her life she has misunderstood her mother. Although Rakhi was aware of her mother’s ability to interpret dreams and was herself fascinated by it, and this was the reason she grew apart from her family and her future relationships.

The transition and reconciliation sets in when Rakhi lays hand on dream journals left by her mother. These journals written in ‘bengali’ – a language not understood by Rakhi- brings closer Rakhi and her father. She notices her father for the first time in her life. His presence seems pleasing to her while earlier she would run from everything. Together they explore the journals left by the ‘dreamteller’. Days progress and in the midst of 9/11 Rakhi finds herself and her natives torn between an identity crisis. All of a sudden the Americans (few of them) turn against them. The event binds Raakhi to her divorced husband, eventually leading to their reunion.

Queen of Dreams is a story running backwards. It starts at the death of the ‘dreamteller’. A story of a woman who has been entirely misunderstood all her life but then she does not regret it, for her power tells her that the misunderstanding will be cleared once she dies. The focus of the story is not the power of dreams but family and relationships. It is about the pride associated with one’s heritage and how we often misunderstand others. It is about growing each day.Highly Recommended.

Finally, Dreams can come true….......You gotta try harder.....

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