Reality

      As a child the world is your special place. A place where you can make things happen. The colors are bright and vibrant, the days are crisp and the air is fresh. Your dreams are huge and stupendous but still tangible to your mind. When there is so much you dont know about life, when nobody tells you there are things that can't be done, that is when you keep the faith. Then as you grow you are told that you are a frog and you are shown your well. The harsh limitations of reality become apparent by manifesting as your limitations. You learn that you can not fly to outer space, you can not travel into the future, you can not become the president of your country, you can not eradicate poverty, and most importantly, you can not be a singer.

       The world is your oyster as a child. There are no worries that attach to you since every primal need is satisfied by your parents. This gives you the latitude to dream. Then comes the day when you realize that so much has already been done by people that it is daunting to have to learn all that before being able to create something new. Tomes of knowledge assimilated by the human race meet you at every turn. The mind reels and you realize for the first time how insignificant you are in the scheme of things. How little you can hope to contribute to the goliath that is mankind's achievements. Hell, even topping a class of forty odd dunderheads is difficult. 

       You feel cheated. The big promised prize has been snatched from you when you thought that you were finally ready for it. You then start to make concessions to tailor your dreams to your limitations. You settle for Second-in-class, aim at buying a motorbike before flying to outer space, think about taking care of your family before you set out to change the world. Then you find that even these most basic of aspirations require herculean struggle to achieve. Nothing can be taken for granted and most importantly there is no free lunch. The sparkling stream of your childhood has run into muddy waters. You meander aimlessly and seek to adapt your mind to the possibility that you may never achieve what you once dreamed of.  

       Unhappiness provides the spark to the vapors of creativity. It acts as a catalyst that channels your inner sadness into words of anguish. There is no higher truth in the world than expression. When there is so much bottled up inside the pain shows plain in the words you write. 

       However the shadows of your childhood dreams do linger in the dusts of dawn. The red carpets still roll out in anticipation, but the aircraft is empty, no one descends, the flash bulbs go off in vain, the wind rustles past an empty tarmac..