Thursday, December 16, 2010

Dreams for Sale……….

Somebody once said that man has nothing to lose except chains. They are the chains that tightly bind the long and dark hooded overcoat of social norms on his true self. Of course there are a few who are able to break these chains; we know them as great men and women. The others find their acts insane. They feel naked when they try to come out of the social overcoat that they wear. They simply look at the achievers and admire their social nudity but they themselves do not have the guts. The social stigma associated with breaking the chains, that are casted out of the molten iron of social norms are so high. Perhaps this stigma is due to the fear of responsibility. To break the chains one needs freedom and freedom is a great force and one must excavate it from the darkest corners of one’s own mind. In the process of finding this freedom, the mind naturally becomes strong. The mental strength combined with the sense of individual freedom is a very great power and with it comes great responsibilities. It is this responsibility that people refuse to accept or rather fear. It is a disaster when the powers are used irresponsibly and makes the mighty perish in their might.

Man has one more thing that he can call his own, something that was bestowed upon him even when he was cursed with the chains of social norms. That divine blessing is nothing but the ability to dream. It is a gift that everybody has. It can be used in any way one wishes to. It is a support for man in his difficult journey of life. It is a retreat from the harsh realities and moreover dream is the twin brother of hope which urges man to go further and further. It is also an intoxicant that can captivate people for long hours, day and night. People trapped in their own dream worlds either go into a comma or go insane.

This story happens during a time when the world suddenly forgot how to dream. At first people took it as some kind of sleeping disorder and kept this problem to themselves. Then suddenly the problem became a topic of discussion. Some people started undergoing psychiatrist therapies .the problem was without any solution as the therapists themselves suffered from dreamlessness. The problem of dreamlessness became so intense that people found it awkward to go to sleep anymore. People could simply get any satisfaction out of sleep. The world lost its creativity, no more stories were written, no more movies were made, no more painting, no inventions no ideas no progress, no planning, economic slowdown, no productivity. Hunger and famine suffocated human race. Governments fell from power as they could no longer campaign about the “American” or “Indian” dream. The world was suddenly filled with insanity. Crime rates began a steep increase as people failed to hide their evil fantasies in their own dream worlds. More murders, tortures and sexual harassment. The babies stopped sucking their thumbs and staring at the ceiling more and more lady Macbeths walked the sleepless nights. Hopelessness lead to suicides.

Suddenly our hero who led an insignificant life till now came into the picture. His life was so meaningless till now that he did not even have a name, so let’s call him Sid. One fine morning Sid found out that he could still dream and also he could create dreams for others. Sid was not stupid, so he started to sell the dreams that he made. And so Sid the ‘dream seller’ became the centre of the world over night. Sid smiled as cover page for magazines, Corporate and governments made him their leader. People were ready to pay him any amount of money to fill their sleep with dreams. He had dreams for everybody, for the old and young, rich and poor and boys and girls. Famous writers, political and corporate leaders, aspiring actors all of them became his main clients. He made dreams that were sweet, dreams that had new ideas, dreams of sexual fantasies, dreams of peace and prosperity, nightmares and the most violent dreams.


Sid soon floated a private company called ‘Dreams incorporated’ which went sky high in stock markets. His daily talk-show ‘dreams for sale’ became the highest rated and his book ‘dream your way to successes became the international best seller. Sid declared himself the ruler of the world. He started living his life as if it was a dream. He turned all the wild fantasizes that he had into reality. He went mad with power.
One day Sid found that his life was really becoming a dream and that his happiness is not lasting more than a few minutes. He lost breath and even began waking up to find out that he is the old insignificant Sid ones again, even though he was able to come back to his senses. He totally went out of his mind and began making dreams, billions of them without rest and finally he turned himself into a dream. From that day onwards dreams were ones again free. Everybody had dreams of living the life of Sid the dream seller.