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Showing posts with label Childhood dreams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Childhood dreams. Show all posts

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Goodbye to good old days of Daydreaming!

Monday morning took me to a Park with renewed energy. It felt good to see lively kids and unexpected students this early to a Park. I got there by chance, as I said Monday Morning energy brought me 40 minutes early to office and I had to wait in this small but beautiful park. As I watched the kids hanging and laughing and the students making final minute revision before exam, a strong energy beamed from each of them. Probably they were living that moment and each moment of life. Or may be I had returned from a lazy week to find other people so lively.

Human beings find ways to love nature

While I was watching those people, I started getting visualization. The kids were playing when I joined them as their contemporary age mate. I then turned to my right and found myself studying with the students. I got back in time, I started preparing anew for my intermediate exams. Then I came back to life. The rail of daydreaming had already gained speed. I had abandoned this engine many times but it kicks-in on getting fuel. Today lets talk about daydreaming. Daydreaming not as a phenomenon but a state of mind. It usually crawls in to our mind, gradually but steadily eats up human energy and leaves no room for creativity. It is destructive creativity.

Guess what? I would have touched the highest echelon of being a writer by now had I not given this creature free hand to trade inside my mind. That's true. Oh, you doubt it! Please don't tell me that... Okay fine, I would have been a widely read blogger of my country had I not given up to combat daydreaming . I hope that sounds logical. Or, for that matter I would have developed a brilliant writing style. Happy now?

Daydreaming was my favorite activity of  academic life. I sat in solitude for hours, literally hours, as long as 6 hours a day. During those uncontrolled contemplation I came up with ideas, stories, what-if scenarios and most of the time I emerged as a hero from those stories in the world of my own. There were moments of happiness, success, sadness, pain, suspense, failure, romance and love.

Once there lived this most amazing person on earth. He was so humble, caring and handsome. He took every pain to be part of all the social activities in his village. In a single day he got involved with a group of people digging out channel through a hilly terrain to irrigate the village's field, and the next hour he went to the school for teaching kids from his region. He would then return home for completing some ongoing chores there. It did not stop here, he offered his prayers regularly, and in the night he embarked on academic growth. This gave him a strange privilege and made a content life. Along with the activities what changed was his attire. He wore an old jeans with heavy joggers and full sleeves shirt with its color raised when he was at work with villagers. In school he put on decent dress.

During these activities he became part of the sweet chatters among elders, he listened to them and laughed with them. There were innumerable incidents on the way to work or home. Like, a stone slipping his feet and missing someone below the slope, or a stone rolling down a hill and missing him by scratch. Or, the amazing questions from some of his students about God, Science etc., and his own interesting findings during his study hours.

If you sit with your friends to tell and compile all these activities mentioned, with their minute details, it is going to extend to at least 2-3hours discussion or theater. And, for the above drama the stage was no other place than my brain in idle and busy hours of the day. The person was none but myself in the world of adventures. I went up to the extent of killing myself and I visualized my funeral many times. I saw people gathering; friends, family members and strangers, at my funeral. I listened people talk about me and my life. So strong was the appearance of my family and friends in the visualization of my daydream that their reaction left me weeping for minutes.

Why did I indulge in daydreaming? What was the benefit to me? Well, in the early days once our physical instructor at school (Jahageer) talked about daydreaming and the disease it leads us to, after finding many absent minded students among us.  I asked out of fear, "Sir what if it has become a habit of ours? How can we counter it?" His response was a warning not to let it become a disease to kill our creative brains. He instructed us to remain attentive and keep ourselves busy with activities. So to me the benefit was zero and there was consistent waste of precious time.

Why did I daydream? Because, I kept thinking about doing activities, instead of starting on the ones I wished to do. I have always yearned for keeping a journal in life since school days. But, every time I opened a diary or thought of starting on the first page of my diary, the thinking process kicked-in in a matter of seconds. This led me to imagine many beautiful and memorable passages in my journal 50 years from then. And made me look at numerous decorated stories of my life as a retired old man. When I would be back, a full hour or two had passed with the journal still blank in my lap.

Chase your dreams, it curbs the seeds of laziness

These kids in the park were chasing the idea of having fun early in the morning. A small wish of few friends to be together in the final minutes before their exams led some students to this serenity to embrace nature. They gave each other company before their educational combat. All of the above characters could have easily excused themselves for not coming here. The best possible option for the kids was to remain in slumber and kill the thought of early morning walk. Or they could have delayed it for the next time hence missing the opportunity for a lifetime. Or each student could have excused himself for self-preparation and thus missed a cheerful company. But, they said yes to their inner voice, thus eradicating the seed of laziness. At the same time they did not allow to stock "I wish/want" items in their brain. This ultimately stopped them from seeding daydream. They had the experience of what they imagined and now they won't sit imagining other possible outcomes of the idea which they had already accomplished.

Once we have an idea we should start following its action plan rather than deploying too much energy on thinking how and when to make follow up action. This thinking process once started finds ways to make the idea better but, only inside the human mind. Hence, it spreads the germs of delay; a thought that we might do it later, or next time or when we have proper time at our disposal so that we meet the best criteria set by our mind to complete the generated idea. This is the foundation of daydream. A sea of unlimited thoughts that engulf our mind, seeking possible outcomes for the ideas we wished to do in life but haven't dared to start it practically.




Morning Park and Bliss



The kids were embracing nature and nature was embracing them. They found happiness today, and they will aim for more blissful day next time which will lead them to experience nature in different ways. No matter how trivial idea you possess, keep chasing it and act to materialize it. If you want to write a poem scribble it, if you want to draw create some shapes, if you want to play go out in the field, if you want to walk get out of your room and if you want to smile do it before anything else worries you. They are your inner voices which directs you towards a destiny more aligned with your 'being'. Locking the voices inside your mind will only cause damage to your existence, your creativity and your life. Laziness is the only natural compliment of daydreaming. The opportunity cost for daydreaming is a human life itself. And daydreaming is not worth any human life on earth.

Do before you get lazy enough to destroy your God gifted resources; your life, creativity and future. Act, do not give life any chance to regret.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

1988 & 2012: an equidistance journey to and from millennium 2K


In 1988, when I was born, I was 12 years away from the new millennium and in 2012 I am again merely 12 years away from the new millennium.

The difference off course is nothing but the morphological changes.

Today I ponder over an amazing topic, a question and the most romantic idea: “I want to become a (profession) when I grow up.”

It’s amazing when you hear from children about the future profession they want to choose. It feels as good to hear as to imagine the child one day achieving that professional career that s/he utters. I never knew (neither did I inquire) about my future ideal as a child. May be my school teachers would remind me. I do remember that by grade 8th I would reluctantly respond to the question “what is your future plan?” with “doctor”.

Time slipped and so did matriculation. Perplex with the option of deciding between Pre-Engineering and Pre Medical, I consult few of the best career counsellor and professionals and somehow cling to pre-engineering. Well, to their question “what is your future goal?” I respond, “I guess I want to study management sciences... or maybe I want to become a doctor... no I feel like becoming an engineer...”

Finally, I am in Lahore and in the first day of the college our Urdu professor sir Tahir Masood asks a million dollar question during an introductory dialogue. “Please one by one introduce yourself: your name, your region, your school and what do you want to become?” Why would the teacher ask us our future plan? Doesn’t he know that we are pre engineering students and we will become engineers? My heartbeat has already raced off, as I for the first time in my life hear the words “Electrical engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Civil Engineer, Electronics Engineer, and Computer Engineer” while students in the front row respond and Tahir scribbles every detail on his file paper.

It’s my turn and I haven’t yet decided my specialization in engineering, I speak “...I don’t want to be an engineer (50 students and the teacher startled at my statement fix their eyes on me) but, I want be academician and I plan to do PhD in Physics” This was brilliant; it not only surprised the audience but myself. Now the biggest joke to share with you all, the same year I drop physics in examination.
 
Well, this is 2012 and I stand here with a degree in my hand. I am not a doctor, neither an engineer. It is as if I have done everything and yet nothing. While I travelled the first half of the equidistance to the year 2000 with my parents and teachers, I wandered in the next equidistance journey from 2000 to 2012 on my romantic ideas. That made the 24 years of my life. I do not regret for not having a clear goal all these years, I wish to start anew, with clear and defined path for the rest of my life.

Happy New Year- Happy 2012


Towards a destiny with clear road map

(P.S. I loved art and Architecture)

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Experience-Lesson a proximity



There are exceptional moments in one’s life which can never obliterate from a person’s mind. Specifically speaking, moments of joy from childhood, that of teenage games and sports and other extracurricular activities as a youth are few moments to cherish in every one’s life. And the interesting part, that enthusiasm dose not repeat itself later. While doomed by few momentarily unimportant realities I flip pages of my diary and encounter one piece of writing which was written keeping a specific topic in consideration that goes like…

Unforgettable moment of my life

In reference to the given topic, people may present an account of a special occasion or a day that appeals to them too much. But, rather than a particular occasion or a day, I have chosen an extended two months period i.e. April and May, of each year 2004 and 2005 of my life to be an unforgettable moment. During the year 2004-05, I was doing my secondary education from AKHSS Gilgit and at the same time I was a resident of Shah Karim Hostel, adjacent to the school. These were the months when we were given self-study break for our final examination and, it was the routine during the vacation which made the whole span an unforgettable moment of my life. Firstly, I used to get up when the Azan for Fajr was called. After offering my prayers in the prayer hall, I would go to the woods at the back of the hostel, with my Islamiat course book. For 1 hour I memorized verses from the Holy Quran. Secondly, I usually did my breakfast on my way back to my room from the woods at 6:45 am. Then, my next spot happened to be the bank of Gilgit River, which passes along my school and hostel campus. There I sat under the shad of a shawl (which I made to avoid direct sun light) and studied my course books. Time and again I used to place my foot in the flowing water to get rid of boredom or, I simply stood on the giant stones by the river from where the beauty of the city could be seen. I could see sitting there people playing and swimming at the other side of the river. Furthermore, having achieved my targets by 2:00pm I would take lunch. Afterwards, I rested for at least an hour and 30mins. By 5pm I preferred either to play cricket or go to the old gymnasium for exercise. After 6pm I used to offer my evening prayers and have dinner. During the night I studied till 12:00am and finally rested peacefully for having a contented day. This routine repeated it self and, it gave me a feeling that I never found anywhere. Thus, became my unforgettable moment of life.

The question is why not now? For a mature person things should be easier as compared to his/her childhood. Sometimes childhood offers great lessons.
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