Dream on...

Its been a while since I scribbled something on my blog.. I realised its been rejected far too long and if you're thinking this is probably an prologue to a new story I've written.. you're wrong... my mind's completely blank on that front ..and if you're waiting for one then its going to be a while. ( im guessing you dont really care, who am I kiddin!) However if you are interested, then I must tell you I am on a reading spree.. I recently joined the library at work and that's been keeping me busy But I'm not going to talk about the books I've been reading ,no matter how entertaining they were.

Ever since I finished the last story.. (one that I'm not really excited about) I've been wanting to write a highly charged, emotional and thought provoking story.. No! nothing heavy like lost family values, poverty or the life in war torn Afghanistan .. I'll take my time getting there. Recently I watched this movie on HBO - "The Ice Princess" The story is about Casey who is in high school and who's one & only dream is to be an Ice Skater. She lives with her mum who strongly disapproves of the sport because of its short shelf life and wants her to focus all her attention in getting into Harvard. So,she sneaks out whenever she can to practice skating and during this course comes across a teacher and daughter duo. The teacher is a perfectionist and is coaching her own daughter to be a skater.The story progresses to show how both these young ladies are striving for something that is not thier dream but thier mothers'. The teacher's dream was to be a ice skater and since she could'nt realise that dream she pushes her daughter to pursue it . Same bieng the case for Casey, who's mother's dream has been to go to Harvard and wants Casey to complete that dream for her. As the story progesses further, Casey realises that even though she loves Ice skating , she's just about average at it but since she is passionate about it she wants to give it one shot.. one big effort to see how far she can push herself. So, she rejects Harvard and tells her mum " I'm giving up on your dream. I'm going after mine." Her mother is heartbroken and thier relationship is strained from there. Even though Casey realises that she hurt her mother, she continues with her skating in the hope that if her mother just saw her skate one time, she would realise too how passionate she is about it. Anyway, at the end, all the hardwork and commitment pays off and she gets the silver at a Interstate ice skating competition and her mother is there to witness it. All's well that ends well.

In India (i'm sure it happens elsewhere too), most parents want thier sons / daughters to pursue a field of thier choice, live a dream they had to abandon because they had to do something that got them the money but no job satisfaction. So, they slogged all thier lives to be financially secure and then looked upon thier children to realise thier long lost dream of becoming a Doctor or Engineer or something else. Considering all that our parents have done for us, taking on thier dream seems like a small price to pay or maybe its just easier to give in or maybe seems selfish not to do so.It definetly takes a whole lot of guts to stand up for your dreams when there are so many expectations out of you. I'm not saying one should go against what our parents want out of us, but one should atleast make an effort to reach out and have the courage to stand up for one's dream. If not anything, atleast a chance to know for ourselves if the dream we had is our destiny or not. We owe that much to ourselves.

“The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream.... It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is sin."
— Benjamin Elijah Mays, American educator and president of Morehouse College (1895-1984)