A Ride to Remember

A fantasy about dreams; about the journey through the ocean of uncertainity, where Hope is our only Raft! A realization of the inevitable fact that Life is so very different from our Fantasies!

A Ride to Remember!

 

 

Sitting in the porch, feeling particularly low, I was watching the raindrops fall from the skies and perish on the ground, one at a time! There was something about that moment that made me empathize about the disintegrating droplets, rather than enjoying the smell of the freshly wet soil. Nature surely is a mere reflection of our own minds!

 

And, exactly at that moment when I was going to surrender myself into one of those unnecessary random evening naps, the doorbell rang! I opened the door to find my best friend right from childhood, all dressed up in tracks and trekking shoes, with a rucksack on his shoulders;

 

“Come, let’s go! I’ve found this new trek; a mountain right across the city! It’s really steep! I’ve heard in monsoons, we actually rise above the lower clouds when we reach the top!”

 

“But, all of a sudden? You didn’t even tell me about it before?!”

 

“How does that matter? Come on, we don’t have much time! Hurry up!!”

 

“Yeah! Okay!”

 

It was funny how he just simply assumed I would come anyway and came all prepared with all accessories! But, that is just one of the reasons he’s been my childhood buddy; He knew I wouldn’t disappoint! So, as we headed off on our bikes, just at the corner of my street, we met one of my newly made friends, a guy from my workplace I knew for just a few months!

 

“Hey! You look all tracksuited-up! Where you heading to?”

 

“Hey, we just made a plan of this new trek and set off! It’s gonna be fun! You wanna join?”

 

“Yes, sure! Anyone else coming?”

 

“No, just the two of us as yet. By the way, meet him! He’s my childhood bud!”

 

“Oh..hi! Nice to meet you!”, that was the first time they ever met. “Hey, but isn’t it dangerous to go there in so much rain? It’s gotta be wet and slippery, It’s getting late too!”

 

“Oh well, we’ll manage! And, yes, actually the point is by going late at this place, we’re able to see the entire view of the city as it lights up at night!”

 

“Okay! I’ll join you, give me a minute to get ready!”

 

He went and came back almost over prepared, with huge pairs of rugged boots, a torch and a rope! Then we set out for the destination and reached the bottom of the hill.

 

“Wohoo! It’s time for action!”, I declared as me and my childhood bud started to run uphill, like we always did!

 

“Hey! you’re not supposed to climb like that! There’s a procedure of doing it!”

 

We ignored his advice and continued racing ahead.

 

“Man! Your friend from work really sucks! Look at him shout from beneath!”

 

“Oh, well.. That’s just him being himself”

 

The two of us reached the top, just before sunset, and it was true! We saw an array of clouds as we peeped down one end of the valley! Standing there, rising above the clouds, the feeling was amazing!

 

“Hey! Where the hell is he? It doesn’t take so much time to get up here!”

 

“Oh! Look, he’s stuck down there I guess! Come, let’s get him!”  

 

“Ahh, no! You go get your ‘friend’! I’m not going down halfway again for that idiot!”

 

So, I went down halfway again, and slowly but steadily, brought him up to the summit! And, there we were, all three of us, standing tall atop the hill, looking down at the clouds!

 

Pretty Boring story, eh? Well, it isn’t, if you look at it this way!

 

I was sitting in my porch, unsure of what to do, about to surrender to my apprehensions, when I saw my desires and wishes get crushed like those raindrops falling from the skies onto the ground. That, is when the best bud from my childhood appeared: That friend was My Dream, My Ambition; ever so energetic, ever so fearless, always pushing me to get out of my house, to rise above my difficulties!

 

‘Come, let’s go climb the Mountain of Hope’, he said, ‘The World looks great from up there!’ And, we set off, as usual; I was just following him! That is when at the corner of the street, we met Mr.Reality; someone I had come across only a short while ago! He was so boring and ever so scared! His uncertainty sometimes even made me worry! ‘The Mountain of Hope would be so slippery and dangerous’, he said, ‘We must take care while climbing on it!’ He was so skeptical about everything! That was the first time on that corner of my street, Reality met my Dream! And, obviously they didn’t get along well! They were so different from each other!  

 

Reaching the destination, I raced uphill, with my Dream, rising above the Clouds of Apprehension, and reached the top, only to find, Reality stuck somewhere halfway in between. ‘Come, Let’s get Reality up here’, I said to my Dream. ‘Ah..No! you get him, I’m good here at the Top!’, he said, ‘I’m not coming down again’. So, I had to find my way back through the bushes and thorns half way down the hill that I had already scaled, and then make the steep climb yet again, slowly and steadily, at the speed with which Reality moved ahead and finally reach the summit again!

 

But, in the end, there we were, ALL THREE of us together, looking down from top at the Clouds of Apprehension; at the apex of the Mountain of Hope; where Reality meets Dreams! Certainly, A Ride To Remember!