Dream on!

Enough has been said and written about the role of dreams in sculpting a ‘success’ for an individual or even for that matter a nation. Though I am not sure whether the exhortation to dream includes the license to day-dream, there cannot be any trace of doubt about the ability of dreams to awaken the creativity of the mind’s eye and galvanize the body to act in the desired direction. It is, by definition, something removed from the realities of the world, harsh or otherwise and hence necessitates movement from one state of existence to another. Unfortunately, in our haste of getting to the dream double quick, most of us hardly spend any thought at all on what path we embark upon to realize the dreams. Wait a minute…. maybe we do-How short is the path??
In this context, I would like to share the disturbing message one gets from the movie ‘Requiem for a Dream’ directed by Darren Aronofsky. This gripping and indelibly chilling movie is about an aging widow and three unremarkable youngsters whose lives go on a devastating downward spiral of no return when in the pursuit of their dreams their obsessions consume them. The lonely widow gets a phony phone call (pun intended) promising her an appearance on a television show. She fantasizes getting into a gorgeous red dress she had worn for her son’s graduation. To her dismay, she no longer can fit into it owing to her bloated waistline. Appearing on the TV show and dazzling the TV audience becomes an idée fixe and she starts on diet pills. But the uncorking of the diet pills sounds the death knell for her aspirations in life. Elsewhere her son along with his girl-friend and a chum steps into the perilous world of drug dealing to earn some quick buck and realize the ‘American Dream’. Fair-weather prosperity shrouds their reason and they don’t see the storm clouds gathering in the distance. Bit by bit their drug-addiction forces them to tear apart their dreams with mind-numbing (pun unintended) efficiency. Going more into the ending would be spoiling the experience for those who intend to watch it. Suffice to say that as the name suggests it is indeed a funeral set to really haunting music by Clint Mansell.
Although the motif for the movie is drug-addiction the message one gets from the movie is more profound if the ‘addiction’ is extended to anything obsessive one gets ‘hooked’ onto with immediate sensual pleasures alone in mind. Bribes and kick-backs are the first obsessions that come to mind when you take up politicians and bureaucrats. In particular, Gautham Goswami’s experience is something that needs mention. Less spectacular
cases are unearthed on a daily basis in the media. Moving onto other domains of activity, bankrupt industries like Enron stand testimony to how deep the fall can be for large enterprises. The case of the disgraced army top-brass who sought to win awards by a burlesque of bravery is pretty recent. Needless to quote plagiarism (The ‘poetic’ justice meted to Kavya) and academic debauchery (the stem-cell research discovery by a South Korean researcher comes to mind). Andy Warhol’s ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ could not have had a truer meaning in this age of instant heroes and exposed celebrities. Coming to our student lives, cribbing answers in examinations readily comes across as a habit that turns difficult to kick later. The list goes on. This big wide world has enough things that can turn into obsessions for the none-too-impregnable human mind.
Most obsessions take root in the human psyche when it seeks to find a shortcut out of the normal course of life where some effort is needed to obtain the rewards that we have a natural propensity to crave for. However, one of the main faculties of the human mind that separates us from the ‘lesser creatures’ is the ability to postpone immediate self-gratification in anticipation of more fulfilling rewards in the future. But as with most of our evolutionary acquirements it is not perfectly developed or perhaps never can be. In contrast, the instinct for survival, or being less basal, the instinct to get the job done by whatever means runs strong in almost all of us. Likewise, the desire for ‘pleasure on tap’ is primordial. This leads us often to think of the ends as justifying the means howsoever ugly they may be. This has been so ingrained in our culture of late that it could be held responsible for most of the evils the country has to grapple with today.
To come back to the moot point, many individuals who choose what appears to be the easy path over the harder path do it with the belief that they can get away with it. The prick of the conscience is short-lived and with the increasing repetition of the offending act it fades away. Conscience, after all, has a breaking point. But what happens when the dream they have sowed in the mind, watered with their misdeeds in the name of the fruits expected later, comes crashing down blighted as it is by the tainted water that fed it? This may not always happen but at least living with a diseased tree and rotten fruit becomes inevitable. Alas, it might be too late to plant another seed!
Enough of pessimism! That is hardly what the doctor can prescribe for anyone. What is needed is the courage to follow the inner voice through the labyrinth of life’s challenges while following our dreams. The path may not
me easy and there would be temptations strewn along the side-walk and even hoardings inveigling us to use the cross-roads masquerading as short-cuts. But once we have achieved the dream through a path we can proclaim as right without a pang of the conscience the joy is ours to savor. May all our dreams come true in a manner we can be proud of!