Approaching the dream...

Relativity influences so many aspects of life.

We always say how things appear so different than they actually are when we look at them from a long distance. I just happened to experience a very simple example about the same quite recently.

I was traveling in a taxi after having a fairly good day at office. I was feeling quite alright, having had a tasty afternoon snack. The weather was nice; it was indeed a pretty pleasant evening. Feeling nice and happy, I started observing things outside. While passing by the Marine Drive, I saw a beautiful formation of clouds in the sky. The sky was blue with a pretty interesting design of clouds in it, as if they were arranged around each other by the King of Sky. Grey and white were the clouds, which seemed to have a good communication between them so as to appear as aesthetically pleasing to viewer’s eyes as possible. The sun had placed itself quite perfectly behind a bunch of such clouds. It was appearing in bits and pieces every now and then from behind the chunks of the clouds, but the sunrays always came out of the clouds very gracefully, somehow creating the illusion of the sun stamping its authority of being the one who was ruling them.

It was indeed like a scene that we all must have heard about in the fairytales or experienced in a painting that we once admired. If not that, surely most of us must have noticed a similar description in some romantic songs, especially when we had had our very first crush on a girl/boy. Walking in the clouds, may be hand-in-hand with somebody special, looking at the colorful world from above like a free high flying bird, trying to savor every glance at the never-ending horizon….

But after a few minutes of admiring this beauty, I said: Wait a second. Here I am, enjoying this moment, trying to write a poetic scene, but something seems to be missing. Its pretty ok to write about a dream scene when I am coolly sitting in a cab, living in pretty decent conditions, able to breathe fairly fresh air (despite Mumbai’s pollution), having access to some more facilities if I really need them.

What if I were actually there? I mean right there! Thousands of kilometers above earth, in those clouds. What if some scientist actually manages to create a thin10x10 feet platform, just for me, right there, just to enable me to actually be in that dream-like situation? Would I be feeling the same things I am right now? Would I be living my dream?

I probably would not. For starters, I would really need to find an oxygen cylinder to stay alive. I mean, up there, with air so thin, I would surely have trouble breathing. Also the temperatures would run far below zero. Plus, who knows, I might just get very scared because of the height and me being standing on a thin 10x10 feet platform. Who knows how the wind will behave up there, it may just blow so violently that I may fear losing my balance and fall down. The sun will be closer, so I may have to have additional protective gear with me. Protective cloths, eye-gear, gloves, may be some good shoes and so on. Basically, I would no longer be the cute little boy with a cute cartoon-shirt, dancing around, singing songs, and chasing butterflies as described in our childhood stories.

In fact, even after getting all the necessary equipment, I would possibly enjoy the moment of being there just for an hour or so. If I happen to have mobile network there (what an opportunity for the service provider to market its network!), I might call my family or friends to describe the view. I will take some snaps for my Facebook album or may be a few more things like that. But soon I will get bored. I might get hungry and would crave for Vada-Pav. I might get irritated since I forgot to start the washing machine because of which now my mother would probably nag me. I might want to get back to earth at the earliest, so that I can practice some guitar before my Tuesday class, so that my sir doesn’t beat the hell out of me.

Leaving the exaggeration aspect aside, the point I am trying to tell myself is that the dreams that I see might be wonderful for a moment and from the a place where I am standing and imagining. But having actually reached that point, it might not be that great at all. It may be good, but may not be worth leaving all the other things in life behind. So why not just try to enjoy every small thing that I still am able to enjoy?

For the record, I request you to take the above descriptions purely in a symbolic way – something that I used to get my point across. I know that to achieve one’s dream, one must give up lot of other things and it is worth giving all that up once you achieve that special something.

All I am trying to say that there are sooooo mannnnyyy different factors – some of which can’t even be thought of until we actually get there - that matter to us. It is simply not wise to compare one situation to another, just in isolation. There are so many things that we should take into consideration. Many of those are just taken for granted by us. Only after leaving them behind, we come to know about their importance. In fact, we realize their existence only after they cease to exist!

On a personal note, I need to tell myself once again that I should also focus on smaller things in life while trying at the same time to achieve a dream. Like one of my friends recently said: Let the journey also matter - not merely the destination!

Meaning: A brilliant distraction

Through his humorous, sarcastic yet very interesting and thoughtful way of telling stories, Woody Allen has had a tremendous impact on me. He has simplified many complex concepts for me.

I do believe in what Woody Allen said in one of his interviews: Life is meaningless.

One takes birth, lives life – happily, sadly, brilliantly, disappointingly etc, and dies one day. It is as simple as that. Humans do it, ants do it, dogs do it and so do many others. Only thing we humans might be doing different than the other animals is that we use a lot of distractions to make ourselves believe that life is something more than just a birth-death cycle.

For the record, I would not like to call myself a pessimistic. I am quite grateful for lot of things in my life. I need not necessarily be in an amazingly depressing situation to think like above. I might just be sitting in an arm chair in a nice warm room during a beautiful rainy monsoon afternoon, having a cup of hot coffee, looking at the huge tree in front my house rustling around crazily while I am thinking how my life has absolutely no meaning, no meaning at all! :)

Coming back to the point, to distract oneself from this pointlessness of life, the man invents lots of things. Some are outright funny, some crazy, some interesting; basically something that gives your mind a way to find a meaning, or possibly an answer to some of the eternally unsolved questions. It may be money for some while involvement in a relationship for others, sense of achievement for some while god/religion for some others. (Please, o please, let’s not get into the discussion about the existence of god. If you think god is/gives the meaning of/to your life, you are free to have your belief. I respect that. But please let me be free to have my own belief.)

But ultimately, it all goes to a point where everything comes to an end and you are just dead. Finito. All the interesting things you were doing all this time – whoosh – they are not there anymore as far as you, my good ol’ dead friend, are concerned!

So, like others, I too want something, just to sway away from the pointlessness. Some thing which will keep this thought at some remote corner of my mind while replacing it with some other interesting stuff. (Of course, I will visit that corner some times, just like that, to have an interesting discussion between the two opposite forces.)

If I am lucky, this new-found thing might just make me believe that what I am doing is indeed the purpose of my life making it all the more meaningful. That sort of thing would be an ultimate drug, but till then I would be happy even if I find something that at least creates an illusion of giving life a meaning.