When a baby is born, he/she never knows about its own destination. The purpose - what they will be or how long they would survive in this beautiful world. The final destination is certainly the end of the life cycle. Thereby it is the most uncertain part of human life. None chooses his/her parents, family, society or country before the birth. If it could be possible, then most babies would prefer for a rich or noble family while most parents would be interested in a famous scientist, leader or a warrior. A baby becomes extremely happy even if he/she is born from the womb of a poor mother during birth. Happiness also generates to the parents irrespective of any class i.e. poor or rich, king or beggar. Everybody becomes happy starting from parents, society and the world. The journey begins, and the reality smiles because only it knows the destination. Journey to reality is a philosophical study of human life cycle from birth till death, which is always filled up with hopes or joys at the beginning and gets blurred or empty at the end.
Reality is our everyday life, from dawn to dusk and vice versa. Reality always denotes lot of challenges, struggles, hardship and uncertainty. According to the definition, “Reality is the state or quality of being real; actual being or existence of anything, in distinction from mere appearance.” Reality is always most difficult and unexpected. It never follows any rule or mathematical calculation. Sometimes some calculative logic can forecast a part of it but not exactly the whole thing. A firm and decisive handling of reality can only bring success to the human being. Strong perseverance, definite belief, intelligence and unbreakable nervous system are some of the tools to withstand against rude reality.
The journey of a baby towards reality begins right after the birth. In the initial days, they remain fully dependent on their parents because of their vulnerability and survival. Gradually as they grow up, firstly they learn how to roll, then crawl and walk and try to become independent. They stumble in every footstep when others put them in the right track. There is a proverb, “A baby is an angel whose wings decrease as his legs increase”. A baby is only safe and protected when they remain under the custody of parents, family, teacher or relatives. They get an education about everything from home, school, society and friends. Each one is as valuable and parallel to the other. One can get complete education from this cycle.
In childhood, everybody prefers to play all day, as much as they can. Educating the children becomes the prime responsibility of parents. But one needs to design own future and dream for a better life. Every man is the architect of his own destiny. The question of aim in life appears frequently. Proper guidance, care, love coupled with fixed control is an inevitable part. A baby needs to be taught on how to dream big. They need to learn to dream for their future; should be taught about right and wrong. The way a baby is showed the moon by a mother that it is the most beautiful thing in this universe and they should try to catch it; the same way as they grow up, they should be showed the beautiful part of the world, famous personalities, history of world civilisation and creations by the men through friendly discussions and books. They should be given every required lesson they need so that they can be independent in their life.
Except few, we can hardly achieve our childhood aim in life. In childhood, most of us dream to become either a doctor or engineer which is guided by our parents. This aim in life rarely matches with our own interest, educational ability and mental and physical strength. Thereby few unfortunate people lose track and in chain reaction society also does not get required specific category of people in other fields. This creates frustration, deprivation and insecurity all over. How many of us truly dreamt in our childhood to become a teacher, lawyer, scientist, economist, businessman, social worker or even patriotic soldier? Hardly have we tried to realise and accept the reality. We as a person, in different stages of our life, can try assessing how much we were sincere, dedicated and bold in the required time of our life in pursuing our own aim. Often we try to get consolation by blaming our luck. We feel happy thinking the common maxim, “Man proposes and God disposes”. But honestly how many of us truly believed the saying and followed, “Where there is a will, there is a way?”
We can also try to measure the weight of our tour to reality where in apparent look; some of us are successful and may be few others are not. Success and happiness is a relative term. A highly successful man in his/her profession may not be successful at home. In contrary, a least successful person may be extremely happy with his/her limited wealth, property, family and kids. Success depends on many factors and aim in life too. We can reach in the domain of aim in life but do we truly stop there. A highly successful physician never stops his/her hunger for further skill and knowledge. A famous scientist never stops his/her research for new invention. So reality always guides us what we need and what we should do. As a sensible man, we should always try to look for the right thing at the right moment, in the right way and for the right cause.
As I said at the beginning that the journey to reality only ends after our death, so we are always in the cycle. What we could or could not be in our life may not have any significance now. The calculation of gain and loss should not lead us to deprivation. If we look straight towards our life cycle, it may not make any sense; but from opposite view we may find lessons where we were lacking in our time. Only these lessons can guide our future generation and show them the light of success, happiness, prosperity and peace. We must be able to do this. This reminds me of another famous quote, “He who knows not, know not he knows not, he is a fool; avoid him. And he who knows not, knows he knows not, he is intelligent; teach him”. We must know what we didn’t know in our time.
The writer is a major in
Bangladesh Army