As we move on…Day Dreaming..
‘The Place between your comfort zone and your dreams is where Life takes place” – Hellen Keller
I never believed in the power of day dreaming till I realized I stopped day dreaming. I realized with that I wasn’t looking forward to anything. My life became a routine passage through waking hours , exercising a bit,eating when I had to, working as hard as I could and in the evening I slumped my shoulders and walked home, showered and watched TV till the clock and my medication dictated when I went to bed. Nothing to look forward to. Scared to hope – what happens if it all went wrong? Wasn’t there a time in my life when I wasn’t scared to hope?
As a young child, while in Kollakadavou, the village/town where I came from, I day dreamed a lot. I had time on my hands and while playing cricket by myself – three sticks as wickets against the cowshed wall and a cricket ball in my hand, I bowled, in my mind to the greatest batsmen of those days, Dennis Amiss, David Steel, Boycott, Glen Turner, Richards and Lloyd. I got them caught at slip ( which was the place where the smallest cow was tied in our cow shed ) bowled, retired hurt, caught behind the wicket by Kirmani and time flew past. Then I batted by having a ball in a sock tied to a rope hanging from the tree near the cowshed. I mentally handled the deadly swing of Hendricks, Chris Old and Arnold, the searing pace of Andy Roberts and Keith Boyce. All the time hearing them cheer in the stands as Varghese stood between victory and defeat. ( Somewhere while I write, I will tell you why I preferred to be called Varghese and not Koshy) In later years of course I tackled the viscous late swing and pace of both Imran and Wasim Akram. My dreams changed from cricket, while I sat on the steps of the SNDP Mandiram and waited for the line bus to take me to either Mavelikara or Chengannur. There, as I watched the odd car, a Fiat, or an ambassador or a Herald whiz by,I dreamed of having my own car one day.
When I sit back and think it is these dreams that kept me sane. They gave me a purpose in life, they were my own creations, creations that no one could destroy. I passed my free time ( and we had a lot of free time in those days) day dreaming in between reading and re reading books we had at home. Today, I see how so many of those dreams came true, in various ways. No, I never bowled to any of those legends, never batted against the fierce bowlers, heard no cheers from the stands but I was acknowledged by my bosses, my peers and my clients when I did my work properly and succeeded in difficult situations. The desire to win was honed by my day dreams. What was singularly important was that none of these dreams were negative . They were all positive ones.
Whatever I write is my view and it may not work for others. It’s just a viewpoint. Today, I somehow believe that youngsters do not have the luck to day dream because their lives are filled with so many things to do. If you do not dream what will you look forward to?
I’m almost 58, why am I not dreaming? Have I stopped having a desire for anything? Do I find day dreaming difficult as there is too much of everyday noise filled in my head? Don’t dreams fashion your plans? I urge all of you out there to never stop dreaming. Every stage of our lives brings with it different fashions and dreams and fashions also go hand in hand. I’m going to start dreaming again.
As I go on I will mix my articles with personal thoughts, my work and random stories that shaped me. I’m just an average bloke but the world is made of more average blokes than sensational ones. So, maybe you will connect with me…
Before I end, I will share a small exchange with a young guy a few days ago. He said, after reading some stuff I shared, that one should not repeat a mistake. I said I believe that repetition of mistakes is more common than we realize. What we need to do is to ensure that we have the antidote to mistakes we commit, the next time it happens. I guess it means we must learn from mistakes…the best teacher ever…
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Beautifully written. So true Sunny about day dreaming. Life’s circumstances makes you stop dreaming. Recently I was telling someone – why are we in this world? Purpose of our life?
Well Leah..no one has answers sadly but that doesnt mean that we should stop searching and enjoying life while we search.
We are contemporaries I can relate to some of your memories….life was so laid back and we had a childhood that was so special. Thank you For taking me down memory lane 😊
Yes, wasn’t it? Simple pleasures in life , nothing macho but we handled whatever was thrown at us when we grew up…so something must have been right in the way we grew up..