The Fact and Fiction of Our Being and the Chemical Waters of Fantasy by Dr. Jernail S. Anand

Future is a fantasy, architected on hope. It is a protean entity, which keeps changing and challenging as we move on.

- Anand

The harder the life, the denser are the dreams. It is said, if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. Fantasy is like a relief camp, from the searing heat of factuality. Truth is a hardened matter, which men bear like cross. Who is not suffering in his own position? I am reminded of the ‘little ease’ –It is a trap like situation which seals the movement of a person’s limbs for days together. Life places us in that little ease situation. When we are grounded down by realities and truths of our existence which are unbearable and unalterable, it is only his mind, and its flights which come to his rescue, and make him turn oblivious of his pain and dispossessions [little ease].  In other words, dreams help us live a life of passion and promise, and fantasies open up before us vistas which are denied to us in real life.

How else can we explain the lure of films? The beautiful belles being chased by elderly men? Great sets for marriages, wonderful palatial buildings, and songs shot in great locales of Kashmir. These are fantasies, which give the masses three hours away from their hard life.  And when the hero beats the villain, it gives them a sense of sitting on the right. Mass entertainment for the mass mind. A medicine for minds bored with harsh realities of life.

Our fantasies often overlap with our hopes. Hopes describe the soft space which we have not yet occupied. Hope is the eternal attachment to mankind, which keeps things going. Up till now, I was using the word fantasies to refer only to unfulfilled desires. More precisely, to our dreams which we want to realize and for which we work.

Of Fact and Fiction

What we are, to understand this thing, we shall have to put together the fact of our being as well as its fiction. Fiction does not mean unreality. It means things which remain unrealized and turned into fact. It means romance. This is how our life moves. It is like a train. Some stations we have crossed and others are on the waiting list. The journey means the stations reached, but before they are reached, they exist in the virtual space. When we are going to join a marriage, all that flurrs up in our mind, is a part of the reality of that event, although it has not yet taken place, but it is affecting our behaviour. In this way, the fact [that is] and the fiction  [that is going to be] together add a unique charm to our journey. Life too is like that. Some hard facts which give us jitters, and a long unknown and uncovered distance which is full of thrills.

The Future is a Fantasy

The inconveniences and difficulties that have marked our past and present, evaporate as we try to fabulate about our future. Future is a fantasy, architected on hope. Future is a fantasy, architected on hope. It is a shapeless, protean entity, which keeps changing and challenging as we move on. Each step that we take affects the movement of our stars. Gods give us a map to move about, but it is like the map of the GPS, accurate to a point, but after all, it is google map. Something intangible. At least gods don’t want to share with us the secrets of what is going to happen.

If we look at our present honestly, we can easily judge what we expected, and what we really got. There always is a huge gap between the two. And this is also the cause of disenchantment in our lives. The greater is this disenchantment, the greater is our investment in the unknown future. It is never that we learn any lesson from our past failures. At least in fantasising, we exercise no restraint and beggar all descriptions.

The Upcoming Generation

Life is so hard for the upcoming generations. Let me define life in my own way. By life I mean what we already have, and what we have laid our store by. The fact and the fiction of our thoughts. The truth that we have already encountered is a small portion of the unknown iceberg of realty which is hidden from the view. And this gives us not only hopes and dreams, but fears as well. When this reality finally dawns upon us, it can be devastating. Who knows a young girl studying medicine, may not barge into tomorrow and hangs herself in the bathroom. The unknown future, the fiction of our lives, in which are messed up our hopes, and fantasies, in fact, Is no space to buoy up our spirits. It is a horrible journey, if we look at our present. Fantasising about this future is a double edged weapon. One thing, what is there to fantasize? At the most a young man thinks of having a job, a wife, one or two kids, and some bank balance. What more is left to dream about? I wonder if any youth has dreamt of joy in his life.

Crude Enterntainment

But these victims of harsh truth have a different type of fantasies in which they involve themselves, to escape the truth of the moment. Crude entertainment. They want to still the impatient noise of their nerves by drowning it in loud music. Whatever time they are left with, they want to waste it on films having hardcore violence. Only violence, sex, nudity, foul language are the measures of their success with mass entertainment. The people who are unsure of their future, are always trying not to listen to the truth of their being. They are running away from it. Earpods keep them away from this reality. They force into their ears music which sooths their nerves. Man has realized only now that he is a bundle of nerves, and in order to keep them in good shape, he must raise the pitch of the external music, so that he does not listen to the voices rising from his inside. He raises fantasies which drown his reality into the thick chemical waters of entertainment. Who has the guts to come out of these coloured fantasies to face the brute truth?

Author:

Dr Jernail Singh Anand, President of the International Academy of Ethics, is author of 161 books in English poetry, fiction, non-fiction, philosophy and spirituality. He was awarded Charter of Morava, the great Award by Serbian Writers Association, Belgrade and his name was engraved on the Poets’ Rock in Serbia. The Academy of Arts and philosophical Sciences of Bari  [Italy] honoured him with the award of an Honourable Academic.  Recently, he was awarded Doctor of Philosophy [Honoris Causa] by the University of Engg and Management, Jaipur. Recently, he organized an International Conference on Contemporary Ethics at Chandigarh. His most phenomenal book is Lustus:The Prince of Darkness [first epic of the Mahkaal Trilogy]. [Email: anandjs55@yahoo.com Mobile: 919876652401[Whatsapp] [ethicsacademy.co.in]

Link Bibliography:

https://atunispoetry.com/2023/12/08/indian-author-dr-jernail-s-anand-honoured-at-the-60th-belgrade-international-meeting-of-writers/