Dreams To Die For

"Think big, achieve big". I always associated my dreams with this ideology. It never crossed my mind that dreams cannot be classified as big or small. For me my dream was my ultimate objective which I wanted to achieve and would continue to change over a period of time.

This incident changed my perspective completely and was an eye opener for me. I was Visiting a small town Akura in Rajasthan, with population of not more than 250-300 people. Entering the village the first thing that you see around yourself is sand and the next thing your eyes fall upon is a big banyan tree in the center and the mud houses all over the village. On the far corner is a small tea stall but what catches you off guard is the smell of garbage like the rotten vegetables along with the stench of sulfur. After entering the first thought that comes to mind is "how soon can I leave?", but taking a few courageous steps forward I once again look around and I can see the beauty of fresh grass, open space. I started talking to the panchayat members and asked what are your dreams about this place? Why not go to the cities and let it renovate. His answer was "this place is my dream for which I can die, we are working on it and will build it better than our so called cities."

There was a small barefoot boy of around 6 passing by and heard out chat. He asked me what do you mean by dreams? I smiled internally at the curiosity of the boy I told him its something you badly want and can die for it and asked him what is something you want and can die for it. he scrunched up his nose, got frown lines around his forehead and thought for few moments, then replied "I dream of having nice pair of shoes and I can die for it". His answer shocked me and my eyes immediately went to his feet and I saw that the bottom of his feet was covered in cuts and I felt guilty of wearing such nice shoes. This piqued my curiosity and then I went on asking various people about their dreams for which they are willing to do anything. Some replied I will die for a plateful of meal, some said a beautiful house with a maid. These all answers made me realize that dreams for which a person is ready to die for is the dream which will give him happiness and fulfills his wish. There is no such thing as small dream, people can die for those small dreams.