How aspirations evolve

Everybody has a goal, a dream that they are chasing. No matter how old a person is, no matter what phase in life they are, humans are always aspiring towards something. And this something is always better and bigger than what they have in the present. The aspiration is always towards privilege and comfort.

Dreams keep evolving and getting filtered over time. For instance, a child’s dream is almost always a little too ambitious while an adult usually has an attainable goal.

Children with innocence in their hearts, always look at the world with rose-tinted glasses. They look at the world as a place where everything is possible. They don’t 

see hurdles or the barriers. All they see is their dream and all they have is an aspiration to attain the dream. Their dreams are full-blown and often delusionary. 

Children are unaware of the tact and wit one needs to conquer the world. They are unaware of the challenges and the hurdles. They are unaware of the blows that might come their way. When children dream, there is no inhibition to what they aspire to become. They dream of reaching for the moon, they dream of travelling the world, they dream of salvaging humanity. They dream of owning huge mansions and a good number of cars. They all are unaware about the real world that lies in front of them. 

Children enjoy the flight of imagination based on the fairy-tales in their shelves. They genuinely believe that they are the hero of the story, and the world is for them to triumph over. Some children want to become the protagonists they see in the famous cartoons and TV shows. Others aspire to become the inventors, discoverers, warriors, and history makers that they learn about in the class. They feel like it is all possible and plausible.

The very same children start growing and then get closer to the reality. They start understanding a little about how the society works and what the society expects of them. They start taking on to more realistic and reasonable goals such as becoming a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, and they wish to pursue a profession that has high value in the society. They start understanding that they need to aspire towards a dream that involves both money and respect. Ask any child what they want to do and almost always, probably 90 percent of the time, the child answers “I want to become a doctor!” or “A teacher”. 

These children grow up further to understand that life is full of challenges, hurdles, and tests. They realise that the road to success is never straight. They start coming across reality checks at every point in their lives and everywhere from home to school. They realise that the distance between their goals and them is determined by a lot of factors including financial status of the family to their own caliber and inclination. 

Dreams eventually start evolving when a person becomes a teenager. For example, if a teenager who has always aspired to become an engineer realises that math is not his strongest suit, he will start aspiring for a dream that doesn’t involve math. This is to say, the dreams start going through a filtration process depending upon how feasible they are.

By teenage, young people start realising that dreams depend upon hard-work and skills, but also privilege. For example, a kid from a rich family can aspire to go to a private college and choose the course of her choice, it may not be the same case for a child from a poor family. An underprivileged child often has to take what is offered to her. 

Dream is a funny thing, it gives a person direction and a sense of purpose in life, but sometimes it also breaks a person. The process of dream evolution can be quite painful. When a person realises that what they have dreamt of all their life is unattainable, they get frustrated. They feel punished and unloved and like their whole life is a lie. 

It is important to encourage children to dream, but we need to encourage them to dream realistically. Life is not a bed of roses, and the sooner the children learn this, the better it is. One needs to be taught from early on in their lives that working hard and honing one’s skills play important roles in bringing one closer to their dreams. 

However, courage and determination can change the direction of the winds and help one move mountains.

Wish

Oh my dear what you did
When I was forlorn you made my world lively
 Oh my dear what you think
 when I met you I found adoring world more vividly

 Oh my dear when what do you feel
 when I observed you I witnessed fact why love happens deeply
 Oh my dear what you need
When I am with you, I feel things made for us particularly.

 Oh my dear Let me feel
flowing of water, singing of air, dancing of trees, chattering of birds
I wanna experience it together If we ever be together,
I wish for whole speak more romantically, more emotionally.

Where are all the fireflies?

Nobody knows where or how time flies. We take birth, we start crawling, we start walking and before we know we are full-grown adults looking back at our childhood. As I look back at my own childhood, the one thing that makes me very nostalgic is the sight of fireflies. I was raised in my maternal uncle’s little village—Rangi of Rautahat district. As the sun went down, fireflies always popped up slowly and steadily illuminating the village little by little. I loved chasing these fireflies. They amused me. As I wandered off behind them, I always wondered how it was that these little bugs carried little lamps on their back. I always compared the light to the kerosene lit ones that could be found in every household in the village. Fireflies are by far the prettiest and most beautiful insects I have ever seen. Like stars illuminate the sky, fireflies illuminated the earth. They made my evenings pretty and happy too. Even in the darkest nights like those with no sign of moon, fireflies spread light and warmth. They became a sign of hope even when it was pitch black. They brought smile to one’s face even if it was momentary. The best part was they were everywhere—fields, streets, river banks, gardens, houses. And it was a sight so remarkable it always makes me nostalgic. I used to wander around fields and jungles all day long and finally settle down with my friends in the evening to watch the fireflies. Once there were enough, we would chase these pretty bugs. We’d all bring our catch together and put them in a bottle. The illuminated bottle looked spectacular. If we got bored by just looking at these bugs, we’d get into action. We would hide behind bushes and wait for people to come out of their houses. Once someone came into plain sight, we would throw the bottle full of fireflies their way to scare them. As random people scurried with fear, we ran in opposite direction bursting out in laughter. I eventually moved to the city for my further studies, only to realise that fireflies were not so fond of cities as we humans were. As soon as I got an opportunity or a holiday to visit the village, I would try to salvage the experience. I would still wait for the fireflies and then chase them. With time and with urbanisation, I observed that the fireflies were gradually decreasing in number around houses and roads. Accounting to fertilisers, pesticides and insecticides that started getting sprayed into the fields, these bugs stopped showing up there as well. Today, as I long to see fireflies, I fear they are long gone. I am afraid they are close to extinction. I don’t remember the last time I spotted a firefly and it saddens me to imagine a world without these insects. Today, in this age of development we are advancing in all sectors such as agriculture, technology, and commerce. It is important to move forward undoubtedly. But the question is—at what cost? In the name of progress we are destroying the nature, knowingly and unknowingly. The gradual disappearance of fireflies is only a small example of nature diverting from its course. How much are we risking in the name of development? How much are we destroying? Are we taking over natural habitats of innocent creatures that just want to take a flight in the evening breeze? I grew up with fireflies and I wish my children could too. But what can we do about it? What is done is done and there is no going back. As educated people we are in the best position to control hazardous activities and opt for a sustainable development. We are in the process of evolving and we have enough opportunity to make our country eco-friendly. Let’s do what we can, let’s start where we stand.

An introspective day at Patan

One eventful morning, I was getting ready to go to the hospital for regular my check-up. It wasn’t until I reached the hospital, that I found out that my doctor would be arriving an hour late. I couldn’t go home because I would be late for my work if I did, so I decided to roam around Patan Durbar Square. Although I had been to the place several times before, this day managed to change my perspective entirely. I first went to Krishna Mandir and worshipped the god of love and discipline: Krishna. Then I roamed around a little more and rested at a nearby temple. While sitting at the temple steps, my thoughts managed to break the serenity that I was in. I started thinking about my problems and the things that happened in my life. I always had a hard time letting things go and moving on. My problems seemed to weigh me down, and the worst part was I would often let it. I was diagnosed with a disease that would possibly take my life. Reality hit me so hard that this time I wasn’t able to get back up for a long time. Depression and suicidal thoughts loomed over me like black clouds on a rainy day. I tried to cut off all ties with my loved ones thinking that it would not be painful if I let them go. Before I could get deeper into my depressive thoughts, a sight entered my peripheral vision. There was a small kid between a flock of pigeons jumping around with obvious happiness. I turned towards the spectacle and watched as a bunch of youngsters start feeding the pigeons with smiles etched to their faces. I always wondered what joy people found in feeding birds. So, feeling a little bit adventurous, I got up from my place of rest, approached the pigeons and bought a plate full of maize grains. I grabbed a fistful of grains and flung them on the ground. The pigeons soon began to assemble around me like trustworthy comrades. One was particularly brave and came up to my plate and started devouring the grains one by one until none remained. I was delighted to say the least and I chuckled at the sight. I felt at peace and was finally smiling without worries weighing me down. I smiled with content in my heart as I made my way back to the hospital. Oftentimes, we let ourselves be convinced that we don’t deserve happiness and that happiness is only obtained from luxuries, money and youthfulness. We get blinded by our expectations, our problems, and our fears. That day I finally felt as if something made sense. The youngsters playing together and just smiling above anything made me realize how much my friends meant to me. I realized that the little things like these made the most memorable memories and gave me the best life-lessons. That day at Patan might have been normal to other people but for me that day was marked as the day I realized one of the most important things in life.