Radio Baby

Born in a house where radio was playing all the time, with the lilting and melodious voice of the old time singers floating in the background I am what can be called a radio baby - if there ever was or would be a term like that.

It was to the musical notes of the religious paeans that the morning used to begin. My mom being an early riser would switch on the radio and the euphonious notes would glide in the morning brilliance, rousing us from the sleep.

Afternoons, after the school were spent listening to the pleasing sounds wafting from the radio.

The daily ritual of listening to the old classics made me so adapt at knowing a song just from the initial music score, that it was a game that I often played, of guessing the song from it, and rare was the chance when I was wrong.

I knew and still know many of the old songs of the '70s and '80s and few from times before that.

It is so sad, that listening to the radio has been put on a back-burner; even if the radio is switched on, after an elapse of 5 minutes, there is not a single song played- it is one advertisement after another. The songs of today, most often are not able to bind the attention of the listener for a long time and even if popular for a short duration, often are forgotten easily.

With the advent of Walkman, I-pods, and other gadgets, the radio generation is well past its living days, especially when the radio has moved online.

Where is the fun in tuning in to a streaming frequency, without the knobs and dials of a radio?

Dreams

Dreams! A word that is defined as 'A series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep'. Important to recall is the mention that dreams happen only when one is sleeping.

What about the times one is sitting and conjures up images of what the future would be like? Is that not a dream?
Dream it is, as the thought is still not tangible, is very fragile, and is still lingering on the outskirts of your thoughts, trying to live on in your imaginations, trying to imbibe in itself the breath of life. The tangibility of life that can be its, if and only if, you are ready to take the plunge to bring it to life.

It is not easy to give birth to a dream; it requires hard-work, grit and determination to birth a dream. Endless, sleepless nights of toil, of days which claim an application of self till there is nothing left to apply, of time lost which you will never regain.

These are the risks one has to own and subjugate if one has to attain a dream.

Many of us often dream of one thing or the other in our lives; maybe a better person, a better boss, a better son/ daughter/mother, or may be a simple dream of living as you.

Dream we all do, but instead of trying to work towards achieving that one dream which keeps us awake, we try and justify the reasons for non-attempts.... and whom do we justify.. to our own self... an excuse - As soon as I am done with this project, a justification - What will my family think?.

Why does everything else become important than that one dream which does not let us sleep?
Is it because we would rather smother our own desires, aspirations to live a life that has been chosen, thrust upon us. Or is it because it is easier to live that life than to fight against it... to try and make the people around you realize that what you aspire for is not that strange.

It is all this and much more. Human beings are social animals and love to be praised and appreciated by the general public at large. Some of us are bitten by a bug, which unfortunately forces us to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. When everything seems to be going okay for them, these poor souls just land themselves into situations which demand that they give their 'much in demand' advise, which obviously no body wants, but these guys have to give it and since they are the once doling out the advise so freely, they generally are the ones ensuring the implementation of the same.

Hehe!!! Easier said than done. So, out go their dreams and in comes the responsibility of wise words.

There are some of the human species who can never say No to anyone, especially if the person asking for the request is from the immediate family or friends. And since saying a simple word 'NO' is soooo difficult, you have to pay the price.

The price is your time, resources, energy being spent on tasks you never had and never will ever have any intention of doing if you had the guts to say No.

Thus, suffice it to say that given the species that we belong to, where from the birth we are taught about the survival of all and not the fittest, we keep on sacrificing our dreams at the behest of the dreams of another.

Maybe, one day the dreamers would have the nerve to achieve their dreams. Till that day comes, let me say, quoting the words of Rabindra Nath Tagore

Open thy mind walk alone
Be not afraid, walk alone