Yume no chikara

In January every year the earth shifts it’s rotation from South towards North in its usual course. “Makar Shankranthi” coincides with this. To be in Gujarat and here in Vadodara, is yet another connotation with that day. I have been seeing shops coming up on the road side selling kites of all kinds. Informed of this earlier by my cousin here, I was looking forward to see the skies with kites during day and some one else said that even at night, candle lit kites fly the horizon. Along with that is a business that runs in to crores selling dreams of flights driven by the passionate with kites in to the skies. There are kites that have pictures of celebrities like Amitabh and Aiswarya right back on some kites. I started fantasizing about the “UTTARAYAN” festival that lit hope for many including elderly to have the kites fly with their anchored eyes behind each of them. Dreams are all about that. To have the thread in one hand and the flight stimulating paper kite that is driven by winds up in to the skies!

“Yume no chikara”; sounds weird? Must be – it is Japanese. But if you understand the meaning of this, it’s simple. That’s what adds passion to our lives! The meaning is - “ability to make our dreams come true”.

When we read about any achiever’s biography or their interviews on TV, we get one feeling – they all pursued their own dreams! The paths may differ, but focused were them in order to realize their dreams.

How do one dream? “Dare to dream” has been an axiom for the marketing slogan of one brand, and it is true. To dream is to have a passion for life! Whether it is President Abdul Kalam, M S Dhoni - people from various fields or for that matter Mother Teresa whose idea of life was devoted to the downtrodden, they all had dreamt of their paths.

As the kite fly, the hand behind is the driver. But kite is not focused with a destination.
Apply the same thread that dips down water, the driver is focused to get his find in the fish. When it comes to an aero plane flight the pilot knows the destination, time target to reach his destination. Whereas in a flight of dream sequence related to life – it’s a long term wish, a desire to make things happen and an action plan that follows.

Like in any journey, there are road blocks to reduce speed, take alternative routes and OR stop and wait enjoying the nature on the way! For a dreamer, though focus does not get shifted; direction is changed but put on course again, and speed is in the hands of the dreamer. Road blocks should not deter focus and direction. You’re also aware of the fool’s paradise, where dreamers have decided no flight paths! Of-course no plan of action too to be followed with fools dreams! Result - like the kite stuck on the TV cable extending from the 10th floor of Ellora Park building downwards to some other roof – unable to fly anymore.
Change is part of growth and achievement. Winning and loosing are part of the same proposition. But what remains at length is the journey to reach the goals, un-deterred.
There are combinations that get across as you traverse to making a dream come true. It’s the health, a sharp and clear mind, composure and calm, willingness to laugh on the way, to be playful and serious enough to come back after you drop down and fail at times, drive & passion, strength of conviction and enthusiasm till you finally reach your goal.
My solo dream was to be happy! This is where the body – mind combination works together. Rest of the activities and goals are meager merged acquisitions of the solo target. That meant that on a day to day basis, I strived and worked to be happy. If I lost and failed, these were taken as a teachers black board from where I could learn lessons! While on this pursuit to find happiness, the very meaning of happiness took turns as I moved on the scale of time. What I used to be happy with once is not what makes me happy now!

Coining the meaning of happiness is what I have spent my life on! Consequences of this venture that I took underwent some adventures in life – paining at times, retarding at some other. Turning points are when you see something, read a book, witness something else or experience life’s turbulences. Few years back, driven to the back yard of life under the hospital roof in Mumbai, stuck with the disease called Transverse Mylettis, I was re-creating dreams against odds to survive the onslaught of the severity of the health problem that nearly crippled me. That was when I introspected to understand and appreciate that while one is on forward gear, the use of rear gear should be as fluent as that when you drive a car. With a crippled body and crippled hopes, I woke up and started lifting the leg from the bed and later walked only forward (not backward and side ways, initially) inch by inch after nearly 25 days in the bed at Hinduja hospital.

As I read the book – “A history of time” written by Stephen Hawkins, I was fascinated with the dimension of time. More than that, it was the author, who had caught my whole attention. Crippled at the age of 22 with a deadly disease called motor-neuro deficiency and stuck to a wheel chair from then, is still unable to talk and uses a computer and voice modulation to communicate. He on his 65th birth day was planning along with Sir Richardson of Virgin Airlines to make a flight in to skies where the weightlessness as in the outer space could be felt. That’s about life driven with a passion to achieve own dreams.

To be happy is what it means when you are able to make your dreams come true. “It’s good to be just happy. It’s a little better to know that you are happy, but to understand that you are happy and to know why and how and still be happy and be happy in the being and knowing well that, is beyond happiness - is bliss”.

While we dare to dream, preferences come in the way. Likes and dislikes are mental orientations and influences thinking and behavior. Value based thinking help ethical goals in life. Life with the ingredient “dharma” attains a mind poised in balance. Love is the outcome. To free from obstacles of life, we stand committed to righteousness with backing of the mind and intellect to rise above likes and dislikes. Internal resistances to fly with dreams of your choice tend to flow joyously to the ocean of divinity. We then accept people as they are as nature accepts everything. “Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding”.
Looking at the kites that fly in the skies above on “UTTARAYAN”, I am thrilled to foresee the strength of the threads that hold the kites of various shapes, colors and styles. We also see those futile attempts to take on to skies and let go down the roofs and the backyards of our compounds. It’s the never-say-die attitude that still linger in many of us, that sell the kites, buy kites and fly kites in spite of the fact that the festival bring in an opportunity to learn the handling of making a dream come true! And it’s the child in us that make us feel good to fly our dream paths. It’s also when we are children that we form our attitudes and start pecking on our own dreams! “We do not stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing. Let us dare to dream”!