- A story of nurturing dreams and rarefied chambers
“There were many tears, many unsure times, many troubled moments. The fun memories were only a few, but even so, those memories will shine bright like stardust, and continue to shine on in my heart.”
Mika Yamamori
A few days ago, I was speaking over phone with a friend in Lahore. We went over many phases of our friendship and how times were like in olden days: uncomplicated, happy, and laced with immense hope and promise. The discussion encompassed things one would do for fun which would bring no harm to others.
An incident that he reminded me of generated a host of comparisons. On the threshold of a practical life, this friend of mine, MZB, had a Suzuki to drive, but he always looked forward to buying a more up-market brand some day. To keep reminding himself of his dream, he somehow retrieved a Ferrari steering from Bilal Ganj and replaced the one of his Suzuki with this contraption. As of that day, his car got ‘elevated’ to a higher stature and would always be referred to as the car with the Ferrari steering. MZB became the proud owner of that vintage fabrication. He could have bought a car of his liking even then, but the fun of nurturing a dream was what made the whole thing so special. Through the later years of his life, and many cars after, the one that lived his dream remained his identity and recognition for a long time. All of us friends in the group partook of the luxury of getting a feel of the Ferrari steering at some stage or the other.
There is another classic that I would like to share before proceeding further with the discourse. A couple of days ago, I called up this other friend who is a senior practising lawyer in Karachi. The discussion moved to the subject of incessant judicial incursion into the executive domain and whether it could be justified under any pretext. While referring to the judiciary’s role, he came up with this absolute gem: “They live in rarefied chambers. No virus can reach them there”. This should be understood as “They can do as they may please. No harm can ever come to them”. Well, only a few occupy such a be-knighted place anywhere in the world!
Times may change, but dreams don’t. Dreams are eternal. They inspire us to soar. And dreams have no substitute either
In current times, be it the dream associated with the Ferrari steering, or living in a rarefied chamber, we are getting farther and farther from the grim realities that surround us. The problem that has gripped us imperceptibly is that we have turned innocent dreams into vicious pursuits and the rarefied chambers have assumed a monotonous permanence. In the process, they have mutilated the essence of life. We have forgotten the simple pleasures like going to the school on a bicycle, treasuring a small pocket money, spending quality time with family and friends, enjoying our meals at home, the hearty laughter, and generally living within our resources. We have also divorced ourselves from the idea of aiming for excellence in our field of preference by employing the virtues of honesty, hard work, dedication and perseverance.
We don’t want to take the long and arduous road and wait for our rewards. We want it all here and now irrespective of the methods we may employ, or the tactics we may use. All would be kosher as long as our goals are realised even if this were to the disadvantage of other more deserving people. We are not pushed about that. We are not pushed about the harm that our actions may cause to others, or the dreams they may shatter. What drives us is our self-centred infatuation with getting what we consider to be our inalienable right, notwithstanding whether we secure it by pursuing a legally correct and morally upright approach, or by the use of methods which may be dishonest, coercive and demeaning.
It is virtually the entire society which wears the colours of the chameleon that they could change as and when it would be expedient. May be, it reflects adversely on the way they have been brought up, or the extent to which they are caught up in the currents of the times. They are convinced that there is no other way that would provide them the short-cut to their much-cherished destination. So, the thin line that divides the right from wrong is eliminated. It is a mammoth tragedy which stalks the entire nation and there is no hope in hell that things are going to be any different in the future. It is like one is irretrievably wedded to the espousal of a sinister objective over and above the means and methods employed to achieve it.
Simultaneously, we insist on continuing to live the pretensions of the sage and the righteous and propounding our virtuousness to the world. We try to cover up our crass indulgences with our charitable pretensions. It is as if sharing a few morsels of our illicit earnings with the poor and the needy will atone for our myriad criminal undertakings. Strangely, our visits to the holy land also increase in numbers in direct proportion to the levels of deceit and falsehood we espouse and practice.
The greed to accumulate remorselessly and the penchant to over-indulge and manipulate our rarefied chambers constitute the twin-scourge that afflicts Pakistan. Everyone is inclined to becoming the omnipotent without being human. In the process, we stretch ourselves beyond the farthest limits of hubris and cruelty. We kill the very instinct within us to be compassionate and kind. We start enjoying our evil transition.
We are happy in this role because where we stand, we are not alone. We are among the unworthy company of hordes of people suffering from varying degrees of degradation. It is like squeezing the entire ambit of ambition into an evil ball that one would gaze into to get on course to perdition. Along the way, obstacles would be razed to the ground, innocent ambitions would be bludgeoned, the deserving, the more competent and more eligible would be bullied away and members of various mafias and cartels would be inducted as liaisons. What a dingy pit we have fallen into! What boundless humiliation we have brought upon ourselves!
But, we don’t realise that. So complete and so poisonous is our degeneration. There is no hold to restrain us from our despicable undertakings to promote insensitive interests. In the process, innocent dreams are fractured and hope banished. While the number of people surviving on the fringes of life increases at an alarming pace, the beneficiary elite remains smitten with their motley collection of sordid ambitions.
It does not mean that we should let our dreams die. A nation without dreams is a nation without a future. It is in such times that we nurture our dreams even more resolutely, with ever more resilience. Let there be a thousand dreams shining across the skies. In the end, it is not this bunch of evil diggers who will succeed. The future belongs only to those who are able to sustain their dreams through adverse circumstances.
Times may change, but dreams don’t. Dreams are eternal. They inspire us to soar. And dreams have no substitute either.
