coronados de gloria vivamos

'there is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that on the application of this technique, every dream will reveal itself as a psychological structure, full of significance, and one which may be assigned to a specific place in the psychic activities of the waking state'

- the interpretation of dreams (die traumdeutung) - 1899

- sigmund freud (1856 - 1939)

its been a long time since i saw dreams. a longer time since i saw nightmares. nice dreams do help me sleep better. yesterday i saw a beautiful dream.

i dreamt about the night of july 11, 2010, a saturday. a total solar eclipse had passed over the pacific ocean. i was in johannesburg, among the 95, 000 seated in the soccer city stadium, formerly known as the first national bank stadium (fnb stadium). from the outside, the fnb stadium looked like an african melting pot, the cladding on the outside is a mosaic of fire and earthen colours with a ring of lights running around the bottom of the structure, simulating fire underneath the pot.

the fifa world cup had previously travelled across five continents in its 80 year-old journey. a world cup in antarctica is seemingly impossible. so the only continent left is africa and fifa has done it this time. it has chosen the land of nelson mandela - the republic of south africa - one of the 17 countries in the word known to be megadiverse - meaning it is a host to 20,000 different plants or 10% of all the known species of plants. it is also the home of barbecue, vineyards and kwaito singers.

read somewhere recently, mahatma gandhi had tried and failed to be a delegate of the natal football association during his stint as a barrister in south africa. if he did make it, the world would never have known about non-violence and hey ram. but then, the independence struggle for india would have been through the extremist methods of bhagat singh and subash chandra bose, which, i would have preferred...anyday...

anyways, back to my dream.... so i was inside the stadium with blue and yellow all around me. shakira had just finished performing her snake-dance. akon had the crowd on their feet. reminiscent of the african spirit was the performance by safri duo. i was witnessing a historic moment. the finals of the 2010 FIFA World Cup between two-time champions argentina and the five-time winners brazil. maradona and dunga, two players who had lifted the trophy in 1986 and 1994 respectively, had come with their warriors to repeat the record of franz beckenbauer.

the teams came out to the field and stood facing the crowd. i felt like a roman emperor giving the thumbs-up for the gladiators to fight it out. the himno nacional argentino and hino nacional brasileiro had me on my feet with the due respects that should be given to the national anthems. the claps were thunderous. the teams took the sides. my heart stopped its beat and... then burst out along-with the kickoff. mexican waves and the samba filled the stadium.

i vividly remember the goals. kaka scored the opening for brazil in the first half. in the second half, juan riquelme hit a scorching free-kick which fooled the brazilian custodian and kissed the nylon. towards the end, sergio aguero passed the ball to messi some ten metres inside the blue half. messi started a 60-metre, 10-second dash towards the brazilian goal, passing four outfield players – dani alves, kaka, ronaldinho and robinho. messi finished the move by dribbling round julio cesar to make the score 2–1 and lift the silvio gazzaniga designed trophy for the third time ranking them along-with germany at second slot.

i was out of this world. from where i come, we have a saying that dreams seen at dawn do come true. i saw this dream during sunrise.... it should come true.

nice dreams do help me sleep better.
i hope this dream comes again and again.
well, i can make a compromise for the scoreline (the more the merrier).
eventually, diego armando maradona should lift the gold.

sean eternos los laureles; may the laurels be eternal
que supimos conseguir; the ones we managed to win
coronados de gloria vivamos; let us live crowned in glory
o juremos con gloria morir; or let us swear - with it to die.