Resurrection of Dreams!

“The old dreams were good dreams; they didn't work out, but glad I had them” – Robert Kincaid in “The Bridges of Madison County”.

We all carry an emotional pain that is ever lurking behind our ventricles. It’s called the pain of dead dreams! Every time there is an occupation of our dreams by reality, it feels like something that you built so lovingly for years has been smashed to smithereens in a second. Dreams! What would we be without them? They lift our meaningless, rudderless lives and gives us reason to an aimless life. Do you remember the endless dreams that filled our minds as a kid-Astronaut, Amitabhbachchan, Spiderman to the eager and hopeful days of our school with dreams of Archeologist, Actor, Dancer, Singer and finally making informed dream choices in college as Filmmaker, Sportsmen, Writer?

What happened to them now? Where did the sails lose its direction? Is it when the lifeboat entered the rough winds of reality? Did we get lost in those winds? Or Did we become complacent blaming the lack of strength to fight inevitabilities? Is there such a thing called inevitable when you are pursuing dreams? Did we burn the dreams because we were surviving? Or did surviving itself become a dream because we were afraid of extinction?

Dreams die! And it gets a special burial in a special place in our hearts. We have learnt to live without looking up at the stars because it reminds of the astronomer who never flew. We have learnt to stop wondering about being Asha Bhonsle because it reminds us of the ambitions of a bathroom singer. We have learnt to watch the awards shows without emotions because it reminds us of the filmmaker who won only in front of the mirror. Old Dreams! Innocent, bold, focused, impossible, assured, confident!

New Dreams! Realistic, pragmatic, timid, cautious, precarious, unsure and even ready to change the dream when the going gets tough! Have we become so weak, scared, and happy to simply exist than actually Dream? What happened to that young kid who had the confidence to cure all diseases and change the world? Has cynicism and skepticism robbed his ability to wonder and Dream?

We can displace dreams, re-define them, change them but we can’t afford not to have them at all! The day we stop dreaming and believing in our dreams is the day we lose our soul! We have sacrificed enough of our dreams over the years. Let’s not bury anymore. Let’s have the courage to ‘Resurrect our Dreams’!

Don’t we owe it to the small kid in us who dreamed Big and Impossible?

Written on:Friday, 03 September 2004