The Tale of Dreams

Long long ago, among the deep dark nerves in my brain, there lived many Dreams at various secluded corners. Some were big, some were small, and some were really huge. Their job was to keep reminding me, at every opportune moment of all of the good things that I wanted in life and to keep me working, albeit letting Sleep and Fun, rambunctious teenage bullies from the neighbouring town, cower them down sometimes which, of course, caused me to shut down the Work factory every once in a while. Now, some of these Dreams were very gentle with me, but many were persistent and one or two were totally impossible. Yet, they lived in perfect harmony with each other, filling my childhood and teenage with a sense of purpose and rightness.

Then along came High School. Tension surged in that peaceful community and some of the gentler dreams, especially those which wanted me to sing, make music, be a writer, go to Rome and find my Prince Charming were suddenly under attack. The scientists, engineers and blue collar entrepreneurs among my Dreams were gaining hold. It was like a civil war had suddenly broken out. What for many years had been just a community of Dreams existing side by side, now changed to wannabes fighting for authority. Poor, poor me. I was caught in the crossfire and growing more confused by the day. Reality was not supposed to take a break now, was it? And so it jumped into the fight, beat all the feeble dreams of Rome, music (And mind, the Prince Charming too) to a pulp and declared the Dream of an Engineering Degree (let’s call it the E-Dream, shall we?) the ruler of them all.

Now I only heard leers in my head, whenever I thought of those beaten dreams. Meanwhile, in the world that you and I live in, the exam results declared : “She may be an engineer”. That is when the E-Dream flexed its muscles but lost its focus. These days I live in college, among peers - fellow runners on the road to accomplishment. My Dreams have become kind of sleepy. Blurred and obscure from the stress of an everyday routine. Broken by the long list of disappointments that life has dished out over a pretty short time frame. There are waves of resurgence, when there are shooting stars in the sky or when, all out of nowhere, a spat of good news floods my heart and mind with happiness. But they are in slumber nonetheless..

Is this how one knows one is an adult? When you let your dreams sleep away and let reality rule? Or is this one of those stretches of empty landscape in the portrait of life? Can you ever have a life with all your dreams fulfilled? Of course not. But would I be happier if I held on to those lost dreams instead… ?

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

To Sanity, In An Insane Land

This is dedicated to the bunch of geeks that I ran into in my first semester at IIT Kharagpur and who, today, in their own stupid ways, make me feel like alive and kicking, even when I'm "Rock-Bottom-Ten Feet of Crap and then Me" :D

I know you will beg me to sleep if my eyes look too red

When the gate's locked, you'll make me jump over the wall instead :P

When you finally get hold of that bike, I know you'll take me for a ride :)

And when the crowds are all around, I know you will be right beside ..

You'll just point and laugh when I'm all covered in paint,

And then buy loads of turpentine to make it grow faint.

You'll grow a beard just to be in character,

And message me in the middle of the night because "Pyramids are better" :)

When I'm all down and out, you'll shake a leg with me

And declare nicknames right where the world can see

You'll make me so frusst I'd call you "Totally headless"

And then you'll play that song you know makes me speechless..

Even if its from oceans apart and different time zones, you'll call me and say "I'll help"

You'll point at a stupid doodle I make and with pride, you'll swell :D

When D-Day is just around the corner, you'll whisper in everyone's ear

"Always keep paper soap, no time to bath, dear."

You'll fight the moneyed men tooth and nail,

So we too can have a bigger sail.

You'll creep up and click a photograph when I'm all in glee,

And make me feel so conscious of my ":E"

Then will come the brilliant lights and not-so-sleepy noons

The night long soirees that will flow by, too soon.

Four days out of every Three Sixty Five,

I know I shall have the Time Of My Life.

Team Robotix Forever :)