Dreams can teach us resilience, guide us through adversities and keep us striving for something more

All of us dream with our eyes open. It matters not whether we succeed in all of these. The beauty of the journey also enriches our lives in ways that we may not immediately fathom. My innumerable dreams keep me moving. My father got me a comic adaptation of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens when I was 6.

I was impressed by the way David tackled the adversities in his life. He was sent to the boarding school by his stepfather and was saved from being bullied by James Steerforth. The two formed an unlikely friendship that ended with the death of James.

Steerforth was a rakish scoundrel, but David looked at all that was good in him. My dream at that tender age depended on my frame of mind. Sometimes I would want to be like David, overcoming all adversities, other times I would want to be a loveable scoundrel like James, ready to help friends.

I guess I imbibed a bit of both. I had studied mostly in Hindi medium all boys’ schools in my formative years. I was shy of speaking to girls the first time that I went to a co-ed school when I was only 12. I would look enviously at boys who could speak with girls in fluent English. I would want to be like them. In later years, I understood that it was important to communicate, language was secondary. Two heroes entered my life around this time. Sunil Gavaskar from the cricket world and Bjorn Borg of the lawn tennis fame.

I looked enviously at their ability to display no emotions whether winning or losing. I was and continue to be sentimental. My face is transparent and displays all my emotions. However, I have come to realise that being sentimental is also akin to being passionate about your goals and is not a weakness.

My dreams were not so spectacular in my intervening professional years. They were the routine dreams about going up the career ladder to reach the top, whether in the government sector, where you are bound to move up at a steady pace to a point predetermined by your age and seniority; or to earn better money in the private sector.

Then I quit the system. Free of the invisible shackles, I went berserk with my dreams. I spent a lot of time in the kitchen during the COVID-19 days, baking bread and making wine. Surprisingly, even my wife stopped objecting to my presence in a space that she had always considered as her private domain. I started harbouring dreams of recognition as a renowned chef.

I also started writing at this late stage in life and another dream was born. I started thinking of winning a Booker prize or a Sahitya Akademi award. Once you have crossed 60, you want to be immortal. What could be better than to be remembered centuries after you are gone?

My dream is for my books to occupy pride of place on someone’s bookshelf in the 23rd century; like the books of my favourite author, Charles Dickens, on my bookshelf, 200 years later. I now understand that no dream is irrational, outlandish, bizarre, or not worth pursuing.

What is this life if we do not dream and strive for them? We may fail to attain many, but we will succeed in a few. That is what makes life extraordinary. Lee Kuan Yew’s words are apt, “If you are just realistic, you become pedestrian, you will fail. You must be able to soar above the reality and say, ‘this is also possible’.”

(The author is an electrical engineer with the Indian Railways and conducts classes in creative writing; views are personal)