Monday Column: Looking for wonderland

There are times when I feel that I would like to separate every grain of sand in this vast desert of Oman. Of course, that would not change my life but it would give me a great feeling. The need to do something extraordinary once in your lifetime always lives on.

While most of us live a very ordinary life, there are times our minds drift to a wonderland of some sort. I guess the escape door is always ajar and never far. It is like going to the movies and spending the next 90 minutes living somebody’s fancy. Except that in our own minds, we write the script the way we wish. Very few of us actually walk on the world of our dreams. The rest of us just get to enter our worse nightmares and struggle to get out of it.

There are no exemptions when it comes to bad experiences. I wish there were. When you squeeze out the last thought and get nothing good from it then it may be time to make your dream a reality. We see it happen all the time but people risk absurdity when they go for it. Let me give you a quick example. I saw a man wandering in the office block where I work every morning for the whole week. I guess he covered every step of the stairs and knocked on every door in that five-floor building.

Then one day, out of curiosity, I asked him what he was looking for. He said he was looking for a friend who was living there. Of course, I did not believe him because it would not take anyone a week to find the right apartment. He seemed a bit nervous if not disturbed.

So I thought perhaps he might be looking for some kind of distraction to take his mind off his troubles. “There is a massage parlour on the first floor. They know everybody who is in the building,” I told him and continued with my business, avoiding his reaction.

I met him in the lift three days later. He looked much happier and there was a refreshed look on his face. He just nodded his head at me and I kept my mouth shut. The lift did not make a long journey. It stopped on the first floor and he got out like a shot. His wandering days were over, I thought.

I like to think he now lives his dream and the massage parlour in the building has become his wonderland. I am now tempted to recommend it to any man who approaches me with a sad look in their eyes. If I muster enough courage to do it, then I would need to ask my commission from the management. I might even go a step further and try out the place myself.

You see, when you lower your expectations about your best fantasy, then you might not need to travel the globe. Of course, there are always risks involved. Normally, you would not want people close to you to know about the fantasy.

They would either get the wrong ideas or make you feel stupid. So you conduct your fantasy with discretion because your secret is only safe with strangers.

There is always a price to pay of course, when you reach the climax. You find it boring and look for another excitement. Then the cycle repeats itself. As for me, my dreamland is a very strange one. It has a few people living in shacks ruling a community in a thousand palaces. A land that defies logic where every grain of sand is put to good use.