How Long Will You?

Photo by Léonard Cotte on Unsplash

How long will you deny yourself the smallest of pleasures? How long will you let demons play with your mind? How long will you pick everything above your heart's desires? How long will you wait to take a leap of faith? How long will you lie to yourself? How long will you allow your brain dictate rules? How long will you not listen to your heart? How long will you let your insecurities take over you? How long will you make someone wait for you? How long will you walk on the sideways not living your dreams? How long will you hold on to self-made fallacies? How long will you wait before you own your story? Will you ever? How long will you stop yourself from falling in love? How long will you not let someone love you for who you are?

Look at your reflection in the mirror and ask yourself. Maybe even tell me, how long will you?

Tune for the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHNNMj5bNQw

Would You?

What if you woke up one morning to realize everything you did so far is just a dream? What if you woke up one morning and realize that the 24 years of your life is just a bizarre dream? Not a good dream. Not a bad dream. Just a tough dream.

What if you woke up one morning and realize your life is the version of 'normal' you've always craved? There is a picture perfect family and that the things that are broken are not really broken for real. I mean, what if you woke up one morning and realize that you are not what you are and that your miseries aren't yours?

But would you want such a day to come your way and let you change your life in one go? Would you then deny your story, your struggle, and your essence?

Would you?

Dreaming Under The Starlit Sky!

“Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true.” 

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

It has been a long day. I had a tough time explaining the cab driver the route to my office.

My morning coffee wasn't strong enough. My evening coffee wasn't even warm.

My feet ache. The high heels have paid their due. The radio played the music I hate. And my phone stopped working for an hour. 

It is a Monday. It has to be dreadful living up to its name, I reckon.

Just when I assumed that, things changed. 

I was stuck in traffic listening to a song by Maroon 5. As I was slightly obsessing over Adam Levine's voice, I look outside the window to see a world brimming with different people.

Bantering couples, children going home from tuition, teenagers on their way home from college, a bunch of friends laughing wildly over coffee, women looking at showrooms in awe, a child dressed in bright yellow with an ice-cream in her hand and glee on her face.

What would their stories be, I wondered.

I go a little further to see a different set of people. The working class--men driving through a terrible traffic jam, women waiting to board a cab, people walking to their closest destination with a laptop bag, and some with a bag full of groceries.

But you know what was the common thing? It was the fatigue that was written all over their faces. 

What do we work for?

Is it for the corner office? It is for the even cushy corner office? Is it for that much coveted lifestyle that our friends take pride in? Is it for fulfilling the dreams of our parents? Is it for paying our bills? Is it for the ailing children at home? Is it for creating a name in the society? I don't know. There could be a lot of things.

No matter what we do and what we say, I believe that we all work towards that one dream that has been giving us nightmares since childhood. A dream that has been simply pushing us to make our lives beautiful. I mean, it is just a small dream that keeps us awake in the night. Of course, it is a tiny dream that influences everything we say, and every step we take.

And sometimes, it is just a vague dream that makes us let go of our relationships, tampering them, and ends up being a sour moment between our parents as well; a trivial dream that never leaves our mind though we hide it under the fibers of our brain hoping it would wean away. Someday.

But guess what? That dream is here to stay!

And if you have no clue on what your dream is, keep exploring and experimenting with a lot of things. You will get there. 

Because we all deserve that lovely story that we can tell our grandchildren under a starlit sky.

Should You Sell Your Dreams For A Lucrative Corporate Job?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” 

― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You

You remember how as a child you would dream, dream to do wonderful things, and as you grow up, you cling on to these dreams, hoping one day you will achieve all those innocent dreams you have had as a child.

Sadly, reality comes into the picture when you turn into an adult. The dreams you've had as a child eventually fade and sometimes, you give in to the pressure that is thrusted upon you by your parents, family, extended family, and oh, how can I forget, the neighbours. 

You have mortgages to take care of, bills to pay, and you know, the dream of turning into something awesome takes a back seat. You are confused! Questions like "Painter? What will you earn? Ten cents? Not everyone can become a Pablo Picasso, you know", "Why can't you become an Engineer? Software industry has a better prospect", "Musician? You should get an MBA degree from an Ivy League." become a part of your life. And as much as you want to chide the people who confuse you with questions like this, you cannot help but agree that they are realistic too. Aren't they?

Should you sell your dreams for a lucrative corporate job? is a million dollar question that we twenty somethings face almost everyday. 

Dear parents, we are clueless too. We want to chase our dreams. We want to be a Jane Austen, a Pablo Picasso, a Bruce Springsteen. We want you to understand that we want to stand out and as much as absurd it sounds to you, we do not need riches. Practically, we all need money. Yes, we all do. But we are struggling here, trying to voice our opinions, and yes, we know the repercussions of not taking up a software job. What can we do? Our childhood dreams haunt us. They do not let us sleep in the night. They remind us of what we are and what we can become.

Oh, we totally understand that neighbour aunt's elder son is an investment banker and has a swanky car in his garage. We admit it, we cannot afford it. Not for the next ten years at least. But we are alright with it. 

So the next time you ask us how we would manage our rent, we want to ask you few questions too. When will we find time to travel and gain beautiful experiences? When will we meet intriguing people like us? When, just when can we do major goof-ups and blame our juvenile phase for it? When will we fail majorly and learn all the lessons? When will we fall in love and experience a heartbreak? When will we experience anything, just anything that is remotely different from what we are doing?

Not all of us here are meant to work under corporate honchos, and turn cynical by the time we turn 30. Not all of us here want an Audi. Not all of us here want an insanely ludicrous bank balance. We are happy to live our dreams. We are happy spending our life creating something beautiful. We are infectiously glad doing what we are meant to do. If we spend an eternity living your dreams, when should we live ours? 

We want to take a leap of faith, and is it too much to ask you to believe in our dreams? Because we are wired differently, and we believe in the beauty of our dreams.