We often see dreams while sleeping, which are usually based on the mood we had when we slept. But the moment we wake up, we forget what we dreamt. But that day, I saw a dream that was not related to my mood and I can never forget it. That was why it was so powerful that it changed my mood, habits, personality and hence my life.

It was just a normal, cold night of winter when I was shivering with a blanket over me. Snow covered my window from outside and the heater was trying to give me as much warmth as possible. The day had been neither a bad nor a happy one, just a usual day like my other days. As I was trying to sleep, an unusual feeling compelled me to think that I would never experience an usual day again. This increased the anxiety of what would happen during the night.

Slowly, my eyes closed and I watched myself standing on a hill that was floating in water. As much as one could see, there was only water, water and water. I became hopeless that I could not escape from this situation. Lost in my thoughts, I did not even notice that my body had turned transparent and inside, there were all my habits instead of organs.

Different habits had different colours but my body looked green because most of my habits were good. But as I carefully gazed at each of my habits, it reflected some red light from a source I had no idea about. I knew red stood for devilry and could clearly understand that there was some bad habit in me which made my good habits impure and bad too.

After some minutes of examining my body, looking for a bad habit, I found that on my leg at the position of my knee, there was a large red light shining. I started to wonder which habit it could be.

Suddenly, a man appeared on my right side and told me, “This red colour stands for devilry or foulness, and the bad habit in you is that you lie.”

A combination of thoughts crossed my mind as I remembered all the times I got into trouble because I lied. Now I was sure that this red light sparkled because I had the habit to lie. But the question was, how would I take this habit out of my body?

As if reading my thoughts, the man urged me to jump off the cliff in the water and then come back again. This was like jumping to death, but something in my mind indicated that this man was telling the truth. I jumped off the cliff feeling terrified, but within a second I was in the water and after two seconds back on the cliff, completely dry.

I knew it was kind of a magic. But I felt as if a large weight had been taken off from me. Slowly, I realised that my body was green again as the bad habit had dissolved in water and disappeared.

I jumped with joy and ran to say thanks to the old man but he had disappeared. Suddenly, I woke up. Somehow I knew that the dream was true as I felt lighter than before as if an organ had been taken out of my body.

From that day onwards, my days were spent in doing excellent things and none of my days were usual, every day opened a new door of excellence, gave a brighter light of wisdom than before and I had been missing all these blessings just because of a bad habit.

So kids, we should try to eliminate the bad habits within us and adopt good habits. If we do this, I can guarantee that our lives will become much better than before.

Published in Dawn, Young World, September 15th, 2018

Opinion

Editorial

Punishing evaders
02 May, 2024

Punishing evaders

THE FBR’s decision to block mobile phone connections of more than half a million individuals who did not file...
Engaging Riyadh
Updated 02 May, 2024

Engaging Riyadh

It must be stressed that to pull in maximum foreign investment, a climate of domestic political stability is crucial.
Freedom to question
02 May, 2024

Freedom to question

WITH frequently suspended freedoms, increasing violence and few to speak out for the oppressed, it is unlikely that...
Wheat protests
Updated 01 May, 2024

Wheat protests

The government should withdraw from the wheat trade gradually, replacing the existing market support mechanism with an effective new one over the next several years.
Polio drive
01 May, 2024

Polio drive

THE year’s fourth polio drive has kicked off across Pakistan, with the aim to immunise more than 24m children ...
Workers’ struggle
Updated 01 May, 2024

Workers’ struggle

Yet the struggle to secure a living wage — and decent working conditions — for the toiling masses must continue.