SILENCE

The clock ticks away
the silence pounds you
its not the peaceful quiet of life
one would wish for
its the hostile silence
that makes your heart hammer
one that pushes you to speak
but holds back your voice in your throat.
It makes you wallow in memories
memories of things gone wrong
memories of having been wronged
it compells you to reminisce
all your regrets in life.
It instills fear in you
fear of people, of being cheated
fear of being different, of not being accepted
the fear of becoming a castaway.
It teaches you
teaches you not to trust people
teaches you
to keep your secrets locked away
in a distant, dark chamber of your heart
teaches you
to keep your feelings bottled up inside you.
Before you know it
it turns you into a paranoid misanthrope
its cruel,it knows no love
it knows no friendship
it eats you from within
it destroys you.
This does not dawn upon you
soon enough
by the time you have realised it
it has already done its job
hardly have you got any time left
to set things right 
you want to say
you need to say
things you should have said long ago
all the love not spoken of
yearns to be expressed now
you cling onto each moment
time does not pity you
it pays no heed to your pleas
each second slips by
like the water in cupped hands
like the sand in an hourglass.
The silence still keeps pounding you
the clock still keeps ticking away.............

Why do we dream?

I have asked myself this question on several occasions when I realised that some of my dreams had reached an end.Yes,many of those dreams were childish.But,back then they meant a lot to me.From experience I think,I know how much it pains to see one's dreams come crashing down to earth in a zillion pieces just like the innumerable shards of a broken mirror and pierce into one's heart leaving behind many temporary and some permanent scars.This is an expression of the pain and hurt that accompany an unfulfilled dream in flowery and metaphorical language which,unfortunately manages to bring out only a part of the actual sorrow felt.As we grow older,our dreams don't lag behind,even they grow with age and God forbid if they are not fulfilled even the disappointment  magnifies.One might wonder why dream in the first place when one's dreams face the risk of not coming true.We feel it's safer to stop dreaming and save ourselves all the sadness that comes as a result of an unfulfilled dream.But we must understand that anyone who's got even a bit of happiness,hope and love for life in the darkest recesses of his/her heart can't stop dreaming because all of these three emotions are responsible for the genesis of dreams in an individual.We dream because we are full of hope that even the darkest night of our life will come to an end and usher in a new,promising dawn that will flood the otherwise ominous and dark sky with joy and radiance.In simple words,we dream because we hope and believe that our tomorrow will be better than our today.
                                                                        We must also understand that while dreaming definitely gives us hope of a better future,its not enough to provide dynamism and momentum to life.Its only when these dreams assume a real form do we progress and move forward in life.Its important to be both a dreamer and a doer.In the famous words of the great JRD.Tata,"Vision without action is a mere dream and action without vision is mere timepass".When we only keep dreaming without making conscious efforts to realise our dreams,we reach a point in life when realisation dawns upon us that we could have been much more than what we are at  present,that we could have been every bit of the type of person we had always imagined ourselves to be........if only we had made the required efforts.And with this realisation,a sharp pain sears through the heart and it contracts with regret.So,to save ourselves all that regret its certainly better to start working to make our dreams a reality rather than reach the twilight of our lives full of regret of unfulfilled dreams of an entire lifetime.