Prospero , in Shakespeare’s “Tempest” philosophizes on life when he says that human life is such stuff as dreams are made on. Likewise , in his pastoral comedy “As You Like It” , Jaques says that all the world is a stage , meaning thereby that humans only make their entries to play their roles and then make an exit when the text of the drama comes to a conclusion.
It is true that dreaming is integral to human nature and dreams make life more livable than it would be without them. Yet , the crashing of dreams , even while these are neither too ambitious nor beyond the reach of practical attainment , leads to devastating consequences when such devastation is caused by the callousness of a system , social , economic or political. Broken dreams leave you lacerated and undone, especially when you know that what you dreamt of doing or attaining was not in the domain of the impossible.
When dreams crash , not because the dreams were unreasonable , but because you met unreasonable people or were made to confront unreasonable impositions artificially created by a negative society , especially the people entrenched in their vested interests , you find yourself snuffed out in a blind tunnel from which an escape into the world of hope and light seems almost impossible.
We tell our young people that sky is the limit for achievers , if the efforts are genuine and the aspirations are selfless. They live on such altruisms only to find later on that there is much against which they were never warned in time. There are forces as hostile as hyenas which counter all sincere effort by well meaning people. That which does not suit the rich , the powerful and the mighty is not allowed to flourish or come to fruition.
Vested interests of the mighty leave the unsuspecting dreamers crestfallen when they are made to face an insurmountable wall of opposition of every description. Caste , complexion , looks , gender , social standing , religious divisions , reservations , political allegiance –all stand as walls between the nursing of a dream and its actual realization.
If life is no more than a dream and the world no more than a stage , then why are people not allowed to have dreams ? Why is the realization of dreams of some people an anathema to others? Then , in educational theory or religious prescription or political assurances and constitutional guarantees , let there be no formal admiration for the ideal aspirations ! Then , let us be as mute and as hypocritical about it as we are in practice ! Or else give dreams an absolute freedom to thrive !