dreams

Your dreams, my dreams - - -

It is interesting,
this communication with the new generation,
I find myself reacting to it, commenting upon it more these days. It is interesting. How the situations are contemporary but the same old fears are playing up. How the insecurities are the same even the context is the same most of the times, but the setting is new, the stage and the props are latest and the players are young.
When I was growing up, as one of three children of my father,- a teacher,- I had this constant urge to make some thing out of my life. My concerns were simple. I must start earning as soon as possible. There were after all, two more in line. I eventually got my first salary at age twenty four. I used to think of being relevant, important and the first among equals in my circle, professional and personal.
It used to be a simple world those days, comparatively. A government job , a decent salary was the only dream of parents for their children.
All though I had my own.
I did try to suggest to my father of becoming an artist ; to join art school, to pursue fine arts. He asked me how would I earn my daily bread and I didn't have the heart to tell him that bread will have to wait, that I would rather pursue my dream, and that, you, - my father,- may have to foot the bill, till then.
His concern was not lost on me.
There were after all two more in line, growing up fast ; presenting the same dilemma to a father with modest means. I didn't encourage the artist in me. I put my dream to sleep. I went for the 'Bread' instead, as soon as I could.
It is all so long back in life, yet it seems only yesterday.
I see the same fears, the same dilemma playing up in same measure in the present generation. In fact more forcefully. And even greater urge to dream and go after it. Jumping with joy one day, being morose the other day. Feeling important one day and neglected the other day.
One can identify with the insecurities.
It is after all a world of instant noodles, five minutes fame and one day celebrities. Reality TV has encroached every day life. Life is tough. Every day struggle to remain relevant is almost a survival issue. One who is not relevant is not in the reckoning, one who is not in reckoning may well be dead. Hence the unnecessary controversies, the real life situations played out in public, the tears, the betrayals even death, whether some one else's or one's own ( and I refrain from taking names because I don't want to be judgmental ) is a means to remain relevant. These are cruel times. These are difficult times. The underlying fears, the concerns are same, the magnitudes have multiplied many fold, the implications are more severe, in the minds of this restless generation.

Yet some thing is different

at least in our context,

To you my dear, who brings me to these questions time and again, I have this to say

I put the artist in me to sleep and went for 'Bread', not because my dreams were unreal or I had any less confidence in them. I too was young and I too needed to be relevant. Only the 'Bread' at that point in time took precedence. And no hard feelings ' Papa Ji'.
You don't have to suffer such dilemma, for this old man knows the worth of 'Dreams' and the pain of unfulfilled ones. And also the fact that 'Dreams' must precede every thing in a young man's life.

You will get what I didn't. A chance to go after your dreams.

As regards me ,

I draw solace in the fact,

KABHI KISI KO MUQAMMAL JAHAAN NAHIN MILTA