The Dreamcatcher

Growing up, Vikram Sood, never showed any signs of the uncanny ability he possessed which would propel him to be the best contemporary short story teller. To a lot of writers, writing short stories is a tedious process. They brood over their ideas for days, some probably months and when their ideas have finally taken a concrete form, they spend time articulating it in a language which would best convey it to their readers.

This is where Vikram distanced himself apart from his competitors. He possessed this extraordinary ability to dream short stories. He would dream the entire plot at night, and when he would wake up in the morning he would remember every minute detail of his last nights dream. Having slept over the entire plot, it took little effort on Vikram's part to depict his dream in words. Although his compatriots cried sore over this feat of Vikram's and discrerdited him of his success, his readers lapped up every story churned by him with delight.

There was no logical reasoning which could explain this phenomenon. Scientists from all over the world had tried to study Vikram and investigate into his mysterious talent, but all the medical books and knowledge fell short in this endeavour. Vikram, himself wasn't sure how it all began. He was probably 36 when he dreamt his first story and things kept rolling ever since. Today, Vikram turns 40 and he has already published a little over 1000 stories in 4 best selling books.

On his 40th birthday, his agent arranged for a big press gathering at the Sheraton Towers in Mumbai. International media had flown down to this event to take notice of this great talent from India, and spread the word around the world. During the conference Vikram explained in detail his daily routine. Everyday he would go to bed sharp at 10:00 pm. He believes that by midnight he is already latched onto his dream story. The next thing he remembers is getting up at 6 in the morning with his brain brimming with the complete story. A quick wash later, he would dive into his laptop and start typing away his way to glory. On most occassions, he would have the story written by lunch time, and he would be on his way to Marine Drive where he worked as a consultant for Accenture.

Last year alone Vikram or should I say his dreams coughed up 296 great short stories. Vikram later recounted that the other 69 stories that he dreamt that year where too personal to be published. But generally his dreams were not influenced by his personal life or the day to day happenings around him. This meant that he was capable of dreaming stories over a wide genre ranging from mushy gushy love stories to the gory details of a horror story. Some people have greatness thrusted upon them, Vikram surely seemed one of those people.

During the pres conference a journalist from UK quizzed him, "So Mr.Vikram, what's your worst nightmare?"

....pat came the reply "Insomnia".