The Other Side of the Lake

When I was young, I used to go fishing to the lake with Jojo on Sundays. Everyone, including the doctors, engineers, and Mister said that there were no fishes in the lake. The water is too contaminated for the fishes to survive. But we still liked to spend our Sundays fishing around.

We had all sorts of fantasies about the other side of the lake. We used to imagine the kind of world that would exist across the other side. The people, how they lived, what they did, how they did it. But every one told us to quit visiting the lake. They said that there are no fishes in the lake so it’s useless to go there. All this useless talk had made us very sad. So, one day we put dead fishes in our rods and hung them down the lake to prove that there were fishes in the lake. And just when we planned to pull the rod out and make a big fake fuss about it, Mister arrived to take us back home.

"Still looking for fishes", he smiled.

"Just wait and see, we will at least catch a dozen fishes today!", we cheered with well practiced fake joy. We told Mister that it is not useless to come to the lake and wondered why everyone thought that visiting the lake was a waste of time. We started talking about the other side of the lake. How beautiful it was and how lucky would be the people who lived there. We told him about our secret plan to hire a boat and go there one day, and if Mister was nice, we wouldn’t mind taking him along too.

Mister said that boys, when you will grow up, you will come to learn that anything that does not provide the hope for any kind of profit is considered useless in this world. People only strive to work for things that promise a well outcome. And they only choose to be with people who are profitable for them.

He said that all our lives, we keep on chasing our dreams and choose to believe that what isn’t there is actually there. Like today, you put dead fishes in your rods to prove that the world is wrong and your imagination is right. You have all these self deceiving fantasies about the other side of the lake. I have been there many times. And it is as barren as ever. In fact it’s even worse than this side. I wish that you never get to go there, you would be very disappointed. The other side just looks pretty from the other side.

I still remember the day when we were sitting in the lush green grass by the side of the lake. It had rained last night. The day was clear. The cool breeze brought the smell of flowers with it. Clouds were floating in the air and the pure blue water of the lake had fog all over it. Every thing was so fresh, so beautiful. Like the universe was created just a moment ago.

We read stories to each other, talked, played, and watched the butterflies dance in the air for hours, while we waited to catch a fish. We had brought all the stuff to cook it too. Before sunset, Mister came to take us back home. He looked at the breathtaking view of the lake and sat down with us. With a sigh, he started talking about weird things. Things we did not understand, and did not like to hear.

He said that what if life would just pass by in these self deceiving imaginations, what if happiness lasted forever. But no matter how hard you try, you have to wake from your dreams. He told us that when you will grow up, you start feeling disappointed. As you will grow in experience and maturity, your disappointments would increase. Your thoughts and ideas will be crushed by the reality to the point that you will not be able to seek refuge in your imagination anymore.

When you will grow up, you will learn that life is hard. To live, you need status. You need facilities and for that you need money. For money you need to enter the competition. To win the competition, you need to lie, cheat and betray your friends. People want things, and when they can’t get them, they steal them and never return them back. He said that nobody cares for nobody and everybody is selfish. All the relationships in the world, the love the friends, the mentors, have motives. Every smile will have a purpose; every care would have a price. And that people remember God only when they need something. And if that something is not achieved, they become skeptics – the deniers of His existence.

He said that you cannot please anyone in this world. You will always be too simple, too intelligent, too proud, too silly, too conservative or too clever to be with. You will wait for that special person who will come in your life one day and understand, but the truth is there will always be something wrong with the real you, so you will learn to hide in covers and learn to live alone till the day that you will be ready to quietly leave the world behind. And at that moment, you will look back and wonder what was the reason for this meaningless show of deception?

...And just then, the sun went down, and all of a sudden, just that moment, the other side of the lake started to glow. The clouds and the fog gathered to make a beautiful castle in the sky, with windows pathways and twisted stairs. We could see the light coming out of the patterns. It was everywhere and divine.

We turned towards Mister and cried, "Who said the other side is barren... look!", we pointed towards the other side. And then, everything turned blue. The sky, the lake, clouds, the air, and the other side of the lake. The beautiful castle glowed in the moonlight. It was moonlight, everywhere.

It has been many years today, I have grown older and wiser, and by Mister’s theory of existence, I should have been more practical by now. But unfortunately, this world could not change me. It could not make me stop dreaming and stop believing in the magic of the other side. So whenever the face of reality becomes impossible to bear, I seek refuge in the beauty of the lake, because I still believe that wherever dreams meet reality, there is a mysterious place called the other side of the lake.

Moments & memoirs extracted and translated from 'Himaqatein', by the legendary Shafiq-ur-Rehman.