I Have Dreams

Disclaimer: I’m not inspired by MLK’s historic speech to write this blog.

You can name any number of people or things if someone asks you “What’s closest to you?” Few names quickly come to our mind. Of people. Of our possessions. Of our achievements. But I believe the closest thing to you is your Dreams. Aren’t they?

Dreams are personal. Very personal. I mean, how many people are there with whom we can share all our dreams? There is always one or two which we won’t share with anyone. Dreams are reflections of our fantasies, our wishes, things that we cannot achieve and things which we can achieve and will achieve in future. There’s no confined spectrum for dreams. And that’s the best thing about dreams. We can let our imagination to fly high in those moments when its only us and our dreams. Some of my favorite dreams over the years are:

• First on the list is the one where I’m the best batsman of the history and have scored a triple century in ODI’s and broken Lara’s record of 501 in first-class cricket at least 10 times (most of them against Pakistan). I can bowl as well. Have taken all 10 wickets many times (who’s Kumble btw?). I’m the best fielder and have ran-out batmen from the boundary after directly hitting the stumps. I don’t endorse carbonated drinks (as in reality also I don’t like them..burp…). I use my position to make people donate for different social causes. I have an opinion about everything and I don’t play diplomatic about them. I’m the one who lashes out at media for its silliness. And yeah, people listen to me.

• Second on the list is of a politician. I’m the most admired personality in the country. I take decisions. Tough ones. I’ve jailed all the crooks practicing the politics of fear (religion, region, caste). I’ve solved most of the problems my country is facing (Kashmir, poverty, terrorism, Maoism, Pakistan and to an extent China). Have taken India on the path of prosperity. Now, the Americans dream of going on an Indian onsite assignment. India is the best country in the world.

• Third on the list is the greatest movie director ever. I have directed many blockbusters. Top actors can give their right hand to act in my movie. And I occasionally act to bag all the awards.

And the list goes on. Our dreams are caricatures of what we wanted to achieve, what we want to achieve and what changes we want around us. Some of those represent spark that was never converted into a wildfire. Barring the politician one, the remaining two are those that had some spark. I played cricket at district level and have written, directed and acted in several plays. Hey you IMTians, you are witness to my portrayal of frustrated customer and top militant (I still have those 50+ chits of compliments with me as souvenir..hehe).

The most fascinating characteristic of our dreams is that they allow us to change the unwanted endings of some realities. Obviously, not everything has happened the way we wanted it to. For those few moments only, we live our 'un-lived' dreams. Of course, we are living many of our other dreams and some of those are the ones that others (parents, friends etc) wanted us to live.

Today, I’ve those things of which I dreamed some day. In that sense, I’m living my dreams. And then there are some dreams that I’ll live in coming days. But there are some unfulfilled (impractical?) ones that became nightmares but are softer now with time. And we all make our compromises. Or say accept the reality?