He entered the dark room quietly. He hated the ritual to checking the computer logs to watch over his fourteen year old son’s internet surfing. The fact that his son knew and approved made it a little easier though.
He noticed Sahil visited the usual blogs and today searched for hindi poetry over youtube. He felt a little proud that his son had classy taste and a little scared that he was leaning towards arts. He decided to hear one of them.
He found the face and voice familiar. It was Pankaj Sharma, his classmates from college. Oh yes! It was Pankaj. He could not forget the guy who quit engineering to be a poet. It was path breaking and almost impractical decision. It was crazy to work so hard to make it an engineering college and leave it for a career as non-promising and unstable as creative writing.
Pankaj’s unprecedented act caused ripples in the college campus. His act was widely condemned by the lecturers and idolized by fellow students. It was very romantic to renounce the ways of the world and follow ones heart. They now kindled the dream of finding a skill and the demonstrating the ultimate courage to make it their profession.
He quickly returned to the video he was watching and unknowingly started noticing the attire and accessories of the poet. He wanted to gauge if Pankaj made enough money. He could not, as he kept getting distracted the zest and passion of the poet's voice and the glow of contentment on his face.
He returned to the past again, as he was reminded of his own passion. He loved singing. Though he did not trust the exaggerated and biased opinion of his friends, he believed he was descent at it. In fact after Pankaj’s episode, he even approached his father and put forth his plan to pursue his dreams.
His father explained him how reality and dreams were different and they don’t coexist. And the most important dissimilarity was that “Dreams Don’t Pay”.
Even without connection to the literary world, he made a half hearted attempt to recall if pankaj was famous and then in the same thought decided that he was not.
He shut down the computer and left Sahil’s study. He was very disturbed though he could not find if the reason was the enviable content of the man who was living his dreams or the inconclusive proof of his father’s worldly wise wisdom.
