The Sky Is The Limit

Once, there was a boy, studying in seventh grade, who was a bit shy. One day, the teacher decided to organize an essay writing contest. So, he gave a topic to write.

“What is an ‘essay writing contest’ papa?”, the six years old curious mind asked interrupting the flow.

“It is a simple contest dear, where you are given a topic. You just have to write on it”, said the father and continued to narrate.

So, the teacher gave a topic to write – ‘Dreams to die for’. It was supposed to submit by next day. He said that the winner would take home a beautiful trophy showing it to the entire class. It was large and glossy. The boy wanted to win that at any cost. But, students of all the other sections were participating too. Hence, winning was very tough for the boy. Moreover, he was not so good in writing at all.

The boy was very close to his brother – very close. They were like best friends. Whenever he used to face a problem or trouble or anything, he would go to his elder brother and ask for help.

So, returning home, he went straight to his brother and said, “Dada, dada! Would you please help me write an essay?”

When the brother asked about the topic, the boy said, “Dreams to die for.”

“No, I won’t help you”, said the brother. He was doing his own homework.

Listening to his brother, the boy was surprised. He had never seen his brother denying to help him.

“Please dada!”, the boy pleaded, “It’s for an essay writing contest. I want to win it at any cost.”

But the brother did not agree at all. “Bhai! I’m afraid, you have to do it by your own!”

However, the boy did not lose hope. He went to his father and said, “Papa, papa! Would you please help me write an essay?”

But, at that moment, his father was preparing for going out to meet his clients. He was supposed to return late at night. He politely said to the boy, “Sorry son! I can’t.” and went out of the house.

Still, the boy had one more option to go. He ran to his mother, “Mommy, mommy! Would you please help me write an essay?”

Unfortunately, his mom was too busy to help the kid. “Oh dear! I have lots of work to do today.”, mom said. The boy desperately begged his mother to help him telling her how important the contest was – but in vain.

Ruffling his head affectionately, the mom said, “I am sure my genius will figure out by himself!”

The boy lost all of his hopes and got tremendously frustrated. He could not decide how he would finish his essay. He went to the rooftop where no one could see him. He sat there alone silently being heart-broken. Soon the sun drooped below the horizon darkening the sky. Just staring above, particularly looking nowhere, he started crying.

But his brother somehow observed him crying. Hence, he sat beside him and tried talking to him. But the boy, being intensely upset and angry, looked away avoiding his brother. After few minutes of convincing, the boy angrily asked his brother, “I told you how important this contest was. Why did you disagree to help me? You don’t care about me. Nobody cares about me.”

“Never think like that”, said his brother, “Do you know what ‘Dreams to die for’ actually means?”

The boy nodded his head being confused. But the brother informed, “It means something precious, something that you aspire – for which you’ll even dare to die?”

Astonished by his brother’s words the boy asked to explain a bit. “What do you want to be? What do you want to do? – that is something entirely upon you only. You have to decide your own dreams – your own aim”, asked the brother.

“I don’t know”, the boy replied, “What’s your dream to die for?”. So, his brother said that he dreamt of being a writer. He wanted to tell the stories to the little children and bring smile to their faces. He wanted to spread love and harmony to this world full of hatred.

“What can I dream of?”, the boy asked staring at the little twinkling stars up in the sky and thinking by himself.

“Oh! You can dream anything brother! There’s nothing stopping you”, the brother said looking straight into the boy’s eyes, “The sky is the limit. Even you can go beyond that.”

Thereafter, the boy figured out the essay by himself and wrote his dream quite beautifully.

“Papa! I know the ending”, the little kid stated smartly, “Then the boy won that BIGGG trophy! Isn’t it?”

“No dear!”, the father said smiling at the kid’s innocence, “The boy never won the trophy. Someone else did.”

“That’s sad!”, the boy said with his sullen face, “What did he write about?”

“He wrote about something VERY BIGGG… He had a sky-touching dream”, the father said, “He didn’t win – but that’s not sad because he figured out the most important thing – he figured out his dream.”

The mother who was working at the kitchen till now, observed that his husband’s eyes were becoming wet. She informed everyone shouting, “Hey! No more stories! It’s dinner time now.”

But the kid continued to ask his father what the boy had dreamt about. So, the father said that they all would be seeing that just after dinner.

Finishing dinner, they all sat together on a couch in front of a big TV screen. The mother brought a small DVD; putting it inside the player, she turned it on. The boy was eagerly waiting whatever his father had told to show him.

The video starts with an image of giant rocket-ships turning the kid totally spellbound. There were massive aircraft, gigantic machines, huge buildings which he had not seen anywhere else. There were people working there on extraordinary gadgets and complex machinery. There were some images of earth and some other wonderful planets which the kid had never known.

Suddenly, a person started talking about his mission to a group of reporters. He was explaining things to them. Pointing the person on the screen, the father said, “This is ‘the boy’”. His eyes were filled with tears as he could not control his emotions. The child was surprised to see such amazing things which were doubtlessly beyond his imagination. A heading showed up: “Mission to the Moon: ISRO”.

The kid astonishingly inquired, “What did ‘the boy’ do?”

“He went to the moon”, The mother replied increasing the kid’s curiosity, “He was an astronaut”.

The kid heard the video saying, “The first Indian to land on the moon – Sarbajit Roy” and saw everyone in the center started clapping together. They were all happy for their success, at the same time proud indeed.

“Do you know, who this boy was?”, the mother whispered into the kid’s ear. The boy turned to his mother with his confused eyes as he still had not understood who that boy was.

“He was your uncle”, said she, “And today is his birthday.”

“Where is he?”, the boy asked out of immense excitement looking straight into the mother’s eyes.

“He died”, the father suddenly replied, “He died while returning from the moon – his aircraft was burnt into ashes”. He became nostalgic recalling the past memories and last few moments he had with Sarbajit.

“But he made a history”, the mother consoled him wiping the tears from his eyes, “He made us proud – he made the whole country proud.”

After few minutes of silence, the mother ordered the kid, “It’s late dear. Time to go to bed and dream.” Before going towards bedroom, the kid ran to his father and hugged him saying, “I want to dream like my uncle papa!”

“Oh! Of course, you will son!”, the father said gently kissing on his forehead, “The sky is the limit. Even you can go beyond that.”