Dream… and then follow

‘You have to dream before your dreams can come true’- Abdul Kalam in his auto biography ‘Wings of Fire’.

I have been longing to read this book ‘wings of fire’; finally I could manage to find a book with Abdul Kalam’s signature in it. I started checking my mail daily hoping that the book would reach today. Finally the day has come, the very first sight of book after longing for so many days to read it has been a little disappointment. The book seems to be a mere school text book, but I was delighted on finding Kalam’s signature on the first page.

After I started reading the book I couldn’t help but admire Kalam. He is a person with great knowledge not only in science but also in life. He quoting of different phrases and poems of great writers on almost every page shows how deep inside him are those still existing. Some of them were from his school books. Well, there might me some significance in the appearance of book too… just like Kalam unattractive from outside and knowledgeable and inspirational from inside.

There are few common things I noticed in lives of great achievers; they follow their dreams, their happiness, their passion and love towards it is unconditional. Kalam like any other person joined in BSc math and physics after his intermediate. He later realized that it is not want he wanted. He realized his passion for flying objects, then after completion of BSc he joined in aeronautics engineering. He joined DRDO upon graduation. From there on there was no turning back. He was advancing in his career leaps and bounds. He some times even worked for 100 hrs a week. But he was never exhausted or frustrated with his work… because that is where his happiness lies. And some times you need to encounter with failures too… Kalam was no any exception… his first satellite launch, on which he worked real hard, has been a failure. But he didn’t give up. He fought and fought and at last achieved it.

This reminds me of Nagesh Kukunoor. He was born in a well educated and traditional Telugu family. He was an engineer working in US for a fat pay check. But he was not happy with it. He realized his happiness lies else where… in film making… but how would he dare do it or tell his family… films are considered occupying one secure notch above prostitution in educated families. He had battles in his mind… he felt he is selfish… he is not on world mission to serve humanity… it was his personal search for happiness. Later he could convince himself that even people who give up every thing to serve humanity might have happiness in doing it… may be their pursuit is as selfish as his. Back, he came to India in search of his happiness… films… but he was rejected… people didn’t want to learn from an NRI. At times he doubted his own skills, finally he won the battle…made his first ever film ‘Hyderabad blues’.

Well… there are many achievers who followed the suit… MF Hussain.. Sachin Tendulkar… Shekar Kammula… Kalpana Chawla…many more..the success stories of these achievers show that they just followed their interests,,, … their dreams… and they expected nothing from it, it was purely unconditional… what they pursue from it is beyond worldly… is immaterial…

Well… I am still shuffling my feet not knowing what I want… not knowing where I can find it…I dint know that penning down my thoughts would give me so much pleasure until I started writing blogs… who knows.. sooner or later I would encounter with something I am really made for…