Everyone is a dreamer and every dream is like music. I feel as if my dream process is similar to holding an electric guitar and playing it away to glory just like Slash of Guns n Roses fame. I believe music is all about sensation. Music defies logic, exudes sensation and makes you feel just the same as a warm sunshine on a cold winter morning. It’s just the sensation that you enjoy.
Anyways, at times I dreamt of being a pilot who touches the sky, a rock star, a sports star, a business tycoon and at times, politicians. But none of those characters in real life seem to instill sensation any more. In reality, they are flying in helicopters but neither do they have the heart to look down nor the courage to touch the sky. Every one is tied in between their commitments and issues where in the desire to bring about a change is only restricted to their own personal glory. My dreams did not portray such characters. In fact, they had an aura which enabled them to represent men among mankind, the growth of which has always been affected by people who can influence. But to what end?
Today, I have stopped dreaming.
Today, the world is in a state of perpetual chaos. People are consciously and unconsciously unaware of a lot of things, including the present. We can say that today we chose to ignore the chaos for the sake of fulfillment of our own necessities and desires. Everyone hopes that everyone should do something but everyone ends up doing nothing because no one makes a self conscious effort to bring even an iota of change to the present. Everyone is waiting for some one to make a start and every one is rather looking for a hope.
On the contrary, I feel that the world is a very large place to talk about. Let’s talk about our own home, BANGLADESH. Today, the responsibility holders and the rein bearers of our mother land chariot are sitting on mounds of gold and following their single pursuit of happiness – the road to Authority. The four legged platform, proudly called as the “godi”. Some of them advocate the backwards or the “previously” crushed class, the dalits. Some advocate the x community, y community, z community and so on so forth. The difference is that the alphabet doesn’t end at ‘Z’. Our ‘elected’ members of parliament have the time and money to resurrect infinite statues of them selves and celebrate their birthdays. They have the stomach to eat kilograms of cakes and the strength to wear garlands made up of thousands of flowers. They DO NOT have the money for cleaning up the rivers, no money for drains and none to offer when there is a condition of drought. There are no proper schools for children and no shade to cover their heads but unnecessary construction in form of innumerous buildings just for the purpose of a organizing a rally. This is the time when they don’t do anything except complaining about each other. With no strength to visit people living in NO electricity land and stay there for even a fortnight, they don’t even have the courage to present their people with a flower when they waste thousands of them in a single birthday celebration. When the drains of cities are overflowing due to blockages and the people of all the castes, race, religion and region are suffering. When the slums and villages are flooded by the rains or burning in fire, they fly in a helicopter to inspect the site of suffering and comment: “Sorkar apnader sathe ache…”
The fact is that… I am extremely sad.
The desire of glamour, money and power are worsening the so called ‘Kali kal’ and eating up our nation backwards. Mere mortals and public servants are draining the public to a state of lesser and lesser mortality and we have been living in a constant hope of change, to be exclusively brought about at time ‘T’ by Mr. ‘X’. The war of desire and its fulfillment has been taken to such a level where only TRPs matter. The media has a lavish some fucking indian drama to telecast and news have all the time in the world to re-telecast and summarize the same. Also, our ministers have the time to discuss petty issues of small serials even in the parliament.
I fail to comprehend the very concepts of our polity and I give up. Sorry for making the mistake of thinking that media is being operated by extremely intelligent and educated people.
Let’s move on. Today, parents have all the money for smoking and drinking and gulping mouth ‘fresheners’ but not enough to buy their children a book or two to study. Girls are encouraged to take up Home Science as a subject against their wishes. Yes, this is a reality, dint you know? Come on, get out of your room and interact. The so called entrepreneurs have loads of money to shed on building engineering colleges and medical colleges and institutes for MBA and other degrees but not enough to hire proper teachers. No morals to get the college accredited. The ever-growing population and upcoming students take a refuge in these colleges because either there is reservation for various casts , groups, & politically pushed , I wonder,where is the merit list?
Ohh… there it is, in your pocket…!
You are wise you have it in your pocket. Some years ago there was a movement by students and their parents with the list in their hands. I am glad to re-notify you, that they were crushed with a heavy hand comprising of canes and jets of water followed by bloodshed. No, they just wanted reconsideration because they felt that they deserved or may be they ‘thought’ they did. The resulting quality of education has stepped down from bad to worse since there are no teachers to teach and no students to study. So even students today are aiming to grab a degree and move on. The respect of teachers has been submerged and so have emerged a new class of teachers, who have time only for gossip and analyzing the monetary worth of a student’s examination answer sheet. Innumerous students have resorted to studying abroad and innumerous others are doing what they have been forced to do by their parents or society or reservation or better say, the state of opportunity. All of them are gravely frustrated and so our next generation doesn’t want to pay attention to anything else except surviving. They are now busy in realizing and manifesting their destiny. Some are busy wasting their life in search of jobs, another set in drugs and so on so forth. Even this field is run by educated people of the highest order who have ousted Saraswati out of ‘Vidya mandir’.
How nice?
The system is being eaten away alive, by termites while we sit at home, watching some stupid serial or drama or hindi movie and enjoying the comfort of our fan / air conditioners and puffed cushions. The honest chunk of people has been surrounded by hounds from all sides so that they have no space to breath. The upcoming generation is busy celebrating friendship day and Valentine’s Day as the state of today continues to howl and scream in pain. Sadly, all of us today use earplugs with hundred percent noise cancellation so that we can enjoy our own music.
At times, in moments of despair, when I faced my personal problems or when I helped some of my friends in theirs, I had a question in mind. When I read novels like Shantaram and The White Tiger, I have a question in my mind. TV programmes being aired on CNN, BBC, Discovery or History channel show a lot of biased things about Bangladesh and one question haunts me. At night, while walking back home from a party, I notice poor people sleeping on the black mattress of charcoal and I question myself. In class during lectures, on a motorcycle, while watching a movie or be it any where now I have started to dream of that question.
And the question is that:
Everyone has a purpose in life, what is that, which I have been given birth for?
Either you can keep standing and keep watching or kindly wake up and desire to know it. The universe will provide you energy and means enough to realize it. Everyone has a destiny which one talks about. We talk about what it is, how will we fulfill it and other questions and keep running after them. But we leave the question of our purpose untouched. Some of us ignore it and some of us run away from the same. No one makes an effort to realize it and try to touch it. Can we not take the initiative to find out the purpose of our life while moving towards our destiny? Can we not help ourselves?
As Ayn Rand puts it up in The Fountainhead: “A man who can’t help himself can’t help anybody”
May be it is yet not time and I have not been able to realize the answer to my question, but at least I know the question now. All I want is a medium, to communicate and light up the minds of hundreds and thousands and millions and then may be billions of people with my question. I feel that today we need this question more than we need hope. All that we need is not influence but education and the rise of a responsible world.
I feel a voice in my throat, wanting to come out and spread around. Why can’t we afford a heart or courage enough to let it out? We have no medium to let it survive. Sensation breeds action. Right sensation breeds right action. If we could device some sensation so as to keep the voice alive, bring the people of today out of their perpetual coma and make them see what responsibility they have for themselves, may be then a responsible world would be a better place to live in. A place where every one wants to take an initiative and do something, not merely complain. A place inherited by educated people who know themselves and have the ability to mentor the tomorrow.
Today, I dare to dream of such a medium. I dream to contribute by making a difference. For now, at least I dare to dream.
May sunshine soothe all…
_Zahid hussein
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