and it's beginning to get to me.

I met an old friend, some time back. He was the topper of our class and could have easily made it into any of the world's top IITs and IIMs. But, there was one thing that differentiated him from us, the lower mortals - he had a dream.

So, all the time when we were busy, chasing our 'goals', he was taking a step forward towards his dream. He knew that the path was not easy and the pot at the end of the rainbow was not that lucrative either. But, he bravely fought against everything: the temptation of an easy life, the lure of easy money and the eternal peer pressure, from which all of us suffer.

And now, here we are.

We sit comfortably in our air conditioned office, contemplating about the next job change or the way out from the mundane job responsibilities we have. Whereas, he sweats it out in the high court, pushing files and talking to under-trials.

We rush off to the mall and spend our easy-earned money on things that, we think, will make us happy. Whereas, he is more than happy to return home at 11 in the night after spending all his evenings in the company of mammoth books that cover the Indian Penal Code.

But even after all this, he has one thing which we don't.

He has a dream!
And, all that we are left with are illusions of a nightmare!