DREAMS AND REALITIES

Remember the good old trick of concealed boxes? The largest box hides all the smaller ones; and what do you find at the lowest level? The real surprise! The entire purpose of a huge package boils down to its roots. The smallest package is the seed, the bearer of all the good that is to be derived out of it, while all the bigger boxes are just the cover-up. This simple game offers an insight into life, that all is but an idea, a dream in the beginning. At the start of each undertaking, success is but an illusion. When a person is trying to open the boxes one-by-one, the real gift inside is an illusion for him/her. While they go through the tiresome and yet exciting at-the-moment process, they can never be sure whether they will get the carrot or the stick (for all you know, they might receive a punch pouting out from the last box!) but it is hope that takes them forward, each time. It’s the same hope that becomes the wind beneath the wings of every person who dares to dream.

While many claim to have meticulously chalked-out their path well in advance, life continues to remain a mystery for the most of us. In fact, Life itself can be one large illusion. It’s the mirage that reflects our dreams, ambitions and perceptions of ourselves and those of the world around us. Why, even the most ardent planners find themselves pondering over the mystique of life, when they find themselves at the receiving end of one of it’s yet another U-Turns! And still the term, “Illusionist” is considered derogatory. A dreamer doesn’t get to hold his head high in this materialistic world. Everyone wants results, fast growth, easy money; the society lives with a lottery-mentality. How easily people forget that whatever exists in the material world once existed on the conceptual plane only. “Dreamers” like Einstein and Edison faced similar dilemma.

 Illusion is a dynamic concept. With the exponential increase in the security threats, even the smallest of expectations like, hoping to go to work as on any normal day and getting back safe and sound, are fast translating into illusions. The small practices that people often carry out after waking up in the morning, like praying or getting up from the “right-side” of the bed instills the illusion of having a great day in them, the materialization of which depends on a plethora of factors. What happens when something goes wrong and the bubble bursts? The hope dies, taking away with it the valor to face the varied oppressing challenges of life.  The “Good-luck Charm” is no longer seen as working. In such circumstances, even the most cheerful n motivated employee will maintain a low-morale throughout the day. What we see here is an example of how some illusions often referred to as, superstitions work; a small thing goes wrong and one can see a building turning into rubble! So, at times like these living under an illusion is better than coming out of this shell. We can also say that, the usually happy-go-lucky employee’s morning gets “sad” and he spends the rest of his day under the illusion that now everything will go bad. Such illusions or disbelieves are to be avoided.

                                                                                                            

Since time immemorial, dreams have been associated with fortune-telling or the occult. In the management vocabulary, this can be translated as forward-planning. Dreams have been believed to be myths. In the ancient play “Julius Caesar”, the death of Caesar was predicted by a dream that his wife had just the morning before his death. This just impresses upon one thing, dreams are associated with or reflect the future. The line between dreams and illusions is blurring. Dreams are the roots of all inventions and discoveries. It’s because one day, one dreamer conceptualized ideas by perceiving the world in his own peculiar way, that it became possible for those ideas to materialize.

 The biggest quality that all dreamers have and is in general required for dreaming is, Courage.  It takes strength to imagine something out of the ordinary. There’s grit involved in living a life based solely on one’s dreams. This ability sets them above and ahead of the people with a pragmatic approach towards life. If there’s one thing that requires utmost courage and determination, it’s living one’s dream, or the ability to believe in one’s dreams. “Miracles happen when you believe in them”, is an old but true saying. The greatest example of strength and great courage comes in the form of a person who lives to his heart-felt desires while facing great oppression from the society and more specifically, family. The term ‘Family’ has been highly “traditionalized” in the Indian culture. Family is the circle within which an average Indian spends most of his/her time. It works as the governing body, the final ruling authority in their lives. So, there’s binding and restrictions and rules and regulations based on lineage, religion, state-specific culture, “acceptable norms” of behavior, etc.  Unfortunately, the plight of an average Indian dreamer is not unknown to any one, in any part of the world.

There are two types of dreamers. The first type are satisfied to stand politely before the portals of fortune and to await their bidding and the second type are those who push forward and employ their enterprise, who on the wings of their worth and valor, seek to embrace luck and gain favor. The courage to pursue your dreams, come what may is pivotal to a person’s success in life. There are always two paths-the easy one and the right one. The right one is always simple, but never convenient, whereas, the easy path is complicated but far handier. Ultimately what is needed to soar high in life, zeros down to a crazy, impractical illusion and setting on it bubbling with passion, even when it appears to be a wild-goose chase at initiation.  

 Mother Nature gives out best lessons about illusions, for those willing to lend not just their ears, but also heart and soul for its cause. It requires utmost patience to imbibe from nature. When a seedling enters the core of Earth, or the womb of nature, the possibility of it ever becoming a blooming tree is just an illusion. With the warmth and care of Earth, the seed develops roots. It takes a lot of effort for the roots to break the hard upper-crust to come out, but when it happens, a plant is born!  Miracle! Or maybe, just nature.

Another example is that of an eagle, which has the longest life span of its species and can live up to 70 years. But in its life, an eagle must make a hard decision. In its 40s, its long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey which serves as food; its long and sharp beak becomes bent. Its old aged, heavy wings, due to thick feathers, become stuck to its chest and make it difficult to fly. Then, the eagle is left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of change which lasts 150 days. The process requires that the eagle fly to a mountain top and sit on its’ nest. There the eagle knocks its’ beak against a rock until it plucks it out. After plucking it out, the eagle will wait for a new beak to grow back and then it will pluck out its talons. When its’ new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking its’ old-aged feathers. And after five months, the eagle takes its’ famous flight of rebirth and lives for 30 more years. This transformation can’t take place in the absence of an illusion, a mirage, a myth, a belief with which the eagle takes its first steps towards this painful process. The dream that it has is that of living longer, adding a few more years to its glorious life, for an eagle is a mighty bird!

Much of what a person accomplishes in life is courtesy, his/her dreams or illusions. In the words of Robert Frost,

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood;

  I took the road not taken.

  And that has made all the difference”

Life is what we make of it, how large we live it and how big we dream. One thing to be remembered under all the circumstances is, the bigger and more impractical the illusion, the grander would be the opportunity and its result. So, one should never give up on dreaming, for one can never tell which of these beautiful flowers in the garden of one’s mind, carries the seed to help a person make it truly big in life!