Dream On -1

Place :Hyderabad

Time  :9:20 Am 

Date  :23/03/2030

Michael was entering the green sky scrapper with  huge 3D screens boasting                  

" Eden - Reap what you haven't sown "

He couldn't control his anxiety not just because of the catchy tag line but because of this unique concept.

He enters the ground floor and follows the sweet trail of Washington apples' smell just like whimpy following the trail of hamburger smell in the popeye show.He plucks a dozen of apples from the 5 foot tall apple trees.He turns around to see almost every fruit hanging from the branches welcoming him to take them home."This truly is The Eden garden except for the tree bearing the forbidden fruit", he thought.After gathering peaches, oranges and strawberries he asks the "humanoid harvester" where he could get harvest wheat.

 

The humanoid takes him to the third floor disk. He could not believe his eyes,a huge Wheat Field is floating in air inside clean transparent white glasses being developed with the Aeroponics method. The humanoid takes out a laser scythe and slices few clusters of wheat crops with dry and brittle straws indicating their maturity.The wheat stems are processed giving Michael his required amount of wheat and the dry branches are piled up to be used as raw materials for handy crafts robocrafts.

Now he is taken to the vegetables disk where he could see the carrot and tomato plants floating in water being grown with the Hydroponics method.He pulls out a few carrots sheds off the green foliage and puts it into his collector.

Michael could see the excitement and smile everywhere. A cute little girl was splashing water at the small humanoid that came to assist her parents with the harvest. She saw Michael noticing her and since he seemed more real she took some water in her pink little hand and splashed it at him.Michael smiled back and shook his head to let go the droplets of water trickling down his face and when he opened his eyes he could see his sister hurrying out of his room with a mug in her hand yelling "amma Mike is still sleeping!"

Michael! Michael! – All I want to say is that…

Michael was entering one of the busiest railway stations of India; he looked up at the rectangular digital clock that read 21:10 hrs IST. His usual train arrives at 21:30 hrs so he went to the nearby “subway” to get his cheese sandwich. He showed his anger on the poor sandwich which would never retaliate to his feelings. He had the whole world to vent out his anger but not his boss. He reached his usual bench and sat on the right corner as usual.As he was munching his sandwich, his cerebral neurons made him think of the recurring dream that he has been having for the past few weeks.

The Dream:

            Michael finds himself as an old man with white beard in a lush green farm amongst several white coated youngsters inspecting the health of the lovely field with sophisticated equipments. The youngsters are beaming with pride as they listen to good old Mike.

Every time he gets this dream he jumps out of his bed with goose bumps and profuse sweating. As he had some more time for his train he started sorting out the odds of that dream coming true, he started asking himself several questions and let his inner voice answer them.

Michael        : Why should this happen?

Inner Voice  : There is more to your life than monthly salaries, ratings, pay hikes,BMWs, luxury apartments, love, marriage, children and death. Though you have achieved and earned most of these material illusions, you are not satisfied because you are not doing what you wanted to do.You are doing something that is miles away from you heart and dream. Your dream is to bring about a change but you are toiling hard to bring some one else's dream a reality.If people say you are greedy never listen to them. If you are gonna bring about a change “stay hungry and stay foolish”(Steve Jobs). Just keep in mind “a satiated soul loathes honey”(King Solomon) don’t be satisfied until your dream comes true and that dream is to bring about the change.

Michael       : So if change is what I need(not want) where should it start??

Inner Voice : Not just a change my dear it should be a sustainable and scalable change. so if you start somewhere in the middle it wont be sustainable and if you start at the tip you wont be able to scale it to next level so the obvious choice is the root. Start at the root level you would be able to sustain and scale it. But to be able to change the root you should reach the root level and become the change yourself as Gandhi pointed out “become the change you want to see”.

Michael        : If a sustainable and scalable change is what i need...what should i do?
Inner Voice  : Follow your dream Mike.The recurring dream that you are getting is your suppressed purpose. You are supposed to change this country’s perspective on agriculture. Devise a business model to bring about a corporate (not at the expense of farmers)agriculture that should lure the next generation to agro based industries.. The inclusive business model should make agriculture the best paying sector of this nation. When Australian and American farmers are rich why cant that happen to Indian farmers too. Understand that the Indian farmers are fed and kept alive in the same plight just for the votes. You are gonna change that.

Michael        : With whom should i start this?
Inner Voice  : It is funny that you ask me such a question after watching "It's a wonderful Life" 10 times.
The answer is your 'friends' Mike. Remember? "No man is a failure who has friends".They are your friends because you have and share something in common. Gather your friends who have the same line of thought. They will bring theirs. There are plenty of youngsters wondering "what am i doing in front of this stupid machine?" and this count increases day by day. They are ready to walk along (not follow)a guy with big dreams. Your ability lies in the search to find and pick out those people. "Seek and you shall Find".

Michael       : Now that I am convinced by the why, where, whom and the what part, the next obvious question is how….so how do I go about all this?

Inner Voice : Its all about hope from here on Mike. Assume, you are driving down a highway at night. you would be able to see only the strip of road that is illuminated by your car’s halogen head lamps at any point of time does that make you fear and take your leg off the accelerator? No. It’s the same hope that should drive from now on. Just hope that the road unwinds itself as you move forward. All that is needed is the first step of hope in the right direction at the right time with the right people and purpose. You know the direction, people and it’s always the right time for you; so it’s easier for you to keep your first feet forward. It may be a small step for you; but it might become a giant leap for the Indians.Just remember you can always connect the dots looking backwards not the other way around.

After all this cerebral activity, Michael decided to pursue his dream. So he decided to discuss about his resignation with his boss tomorrow and start off pursuing his dream to provide a sustainable and scalable change to the woman he loved the most.

Before he could come to his senses his neurons intercepted the blaring horn of his train. He jumped off the bench as if he was enlightened and the whole station looked like a bodhgaya to him. He started walking towards the train with hope and confidence.

All of a sudden his nerve endings freezed on hearing the rattling bullet sounds, he turned back to stare right into the eyes of a handsome young man who will be later identified as Ajmal Kasab.

                                                                                        The End!

P.S. Pardon me if there are any blunders, am writing it after gulping down a beer!

It's a Wonderful Life

Sitting here in hyderabad it's very difficult to set myself aloof the YSR mourning.I can hear people singing the threnody(song of grief) in 'sundara' telugu.Need not mention the TV channels.

Since this lamenting keeps me awake, my thoughts start to wonder about life and death.
some of those random thoughts are here.

What will happen if we die?

Will we be able to see our relatives and friends cry and lament?

Will we see someone other than our relatives shed tears for us?

A normal man becomes a hero when there is someone/something called villain(person or situation).

Likewise, life is made special and wonderful through "death".

If we did not die, if our existence did not unravel in the endless darkness of death, would life be quite so precious, so extraordinary, so moving? asked Andre Comte-Sponville.

If we are given a guarantee that we would never die we may not be doing what we are doing right now.That doesnot mean we have to live for the destination instead live with the awareness that we hav to reach the destination.If death/ultimate destination gives fear, lets take inspiration, strength and courage from the likes of randy pausch.

Life is like a car, we drive it into the unknown future heading towards the ultimate destination, the rear view mirror(past) guides us and gives us hope.we cant afford to keep looking into the past or future we have to do something in the present to move our car forward. So the best way is to keep workin on our present eyeing the destination with guidance from the past.

So why do people cry in a funeral? it's because the mourner's life has been touched by the dead person some way or other.

Now, if we can think of atleast one person in our life whose life has benefitted from ours, then we are worth a living :) and we can proudly say 'it's a wonderful life'.

Do watch "It's a wonderful life"- a classic inspirational movie.