By Nazia I Bashir
In the name of Allah the most merciful the most gracious !
The only way is “To Move Forward”
Do you know what seven billion people in this world have in common, well I think it is our ability to dream. Though dreams are different for every individual. Maybe summing up few categories won’t be wrong; Funny and hilarious, energetic and unapologetic, kind and humane, change and adaptations, acceptance and rejections, achievements and damage control. In all it’s glory dreams are our alter reality, because reality as we all know is to wake up next morning and to move forward. All this is not different for any of us. I work all the day go home in the evening finish all my evening chores and dose off. Sometimes I start dreaming as soon as I sleep and some days. If I put it as, for many days I just sleep without living an alter reality. These are the days when I have loads of work to do so I allow my mind to be less active during the night. But not all our dreams collide with our respective lives. As far as I see I conclude realistic life is a dimension which is going parallel with our dream world. In our day to day life we see people fighting their battles unbeknownst to any of us. Sometimes giving a glimpse of their misery and agony on their face or through their words and actions. Oh! No kindly don’t consider me or yourself as a victim because we are equally judging them without having any right to do so. Moving forward here is my story of being judgemental about a young boy I always see on my way to work. I don’t know who he is what his name is but I see him so I judge him about the world or status he comes from. For my and your convenience I will name him the right window boy. Named after my seating arrangement. I work six days a week, don’t jump to judge or presume, we all do in someway or the other way. Nowadays it’s hard and a bitter reality to moderately manage our expenditures. I strictly adhere to my seating arrangement.
Sometimes it makes me look cynical but only if you judge me that way. There is a signal where the traffic comes to a halt for a little more than we all can handle, keep calm and maintain our positive demeanour. This is where I see this boy. The right window boy comes from a elite gated society and is mostly driven in a semi luxury car to school. That’s when I see him, a cute lad aged about seven or eight years, wearing an impeccably neat and crisply ironed uniform of a high end educational institute. A bag full of books lying next to him on his car seat, he sits their when his chauffeur is driving him, if any of his parent is driving him that time only the bag full of books is on the rear seat, he makes it to the passenger seat next to the driving parent. Those are the days I see him giggling and throwing his arms in the air as if reaching to the stars and trying to catch them with his tiny hands. But this is a very rare sight, most of the days he is sitting quietly in the corner of the rare seat, gazing through his car window and innocently questioning or maybe dreaming about the world he sees outside the glass. A thin line drawn by so much finesse. I wonder how far he wanders through his imaginations, does he dream of shattering the glass and run away in the openness and vastness of these crisscross roads or does he dream about whiffing the heavenly smell of earth when the first rain drops come pouring or maybe he dreams of getting drenched in the rain or jumping through all the puddles on his way. Perhaps he dreams of walking under the sweltering sun and get soaked in his sweat. Buy an ice candy from the roadside vendor and enjoy the temporary cool and feel excited about his tongue color. As I can see him, I see his imaginations floating like fluffy clouds above his head, I cannot see them for real, this is my part of imagination about his imaginations and dreams. Midst of all this sudden and loud noises of traffic starts growling, breaking his and my trans of dreams and reality kisses his head and the rumbling noise kisses my ears, as I see his car zooming ahead towards his school. Here I am safe to say he doesn’t get any time there to cling or drift away in his dream world, this is a very competitive place where he has to burn himself to ashes to prove his abilities, he has to prove he is made and moulded to be what is expected of him maybe beyond that and more. This reminds him that in order to survive, achieve and deliver the obvious and expected he has to keep his tiny fluffy dreams at bay and from there he sees that his only way is to move forward.
P.S: Sticking to reality is necessity and living our dreams is freeing in itself. Try to find a common ground and strike a balance between both. Do what is necessary for you to keep going and giving yourself and your loved ones a decent life, but don’t give up on your dreams ever. Keep dreaming and keep moving forward. The momentum should be kept alive.
Nazia I Bashir.
By Nazia I Bashir