Conquest of Dreams - Rajat Sebastian

FESTO DE COELHO: ESSAY WRITING COMPETITION (Second Prize)

As part of the 73rd Birthday Celebrations of the renowned writer Paulo Coelho, the English Department of Al-Ameen College has conducted an essay writing competition,  "Pursuit of Dreams in the works of Paulo Coelho". Rajat Sebastian has been able to put forward the inevitability of travels in our lives in accordance with the works of Paulo Coelho. He points out, how Coelho strategically presents before the reader the idea that self realization is a result of facing various challenges.

Conquest of Dreams 

Rajat Sebastian

Christ University Bangalore

    To dream is to travel. To make a journey through hardships, failures and milestones till we achieve our dream. Paulo Coelho’s idea about such travels is more like a pilgrimage - a constant search for the ultimate meaning of being alive. His works The Alchemist and The Pilgrimage deals with such kinds of journeys, where pilgrims encounter various events and face different challenges. Coelho in The Fifth Mountain also writes about a character named Elijah who says “I have discovered that there resides in me a soul better than I ever thought. Life is a continuous activity involving innumerable deeds, encountering various events and facing successes and defeats. It does not have any other purpose or aim except the process of this participation in all such activities” (p 29). Coelho calls life as a series of activities and asks everyone to face these ‘activities’ like how they face a game of entertainment. Life is more beautiful in the moments we struggle according to Coelho. When we stop struggling, life becomes meaningless. This journey of struggle is not a lonely one. Some people help us start the journey towards our dreams. Others guide you, but majority misleads you. But it’s a pilgrim’s freedom to choose his or her companion. As Coelho says in The Fifth Mountain, while a real guide helps you with words like “You don’t have to climb a mountain to find out whether or not it’s high” (p 21), mis leaders confuse you with fake promises like “If you want me to, I can find it for you. But you have to decide right now whether you want me to” (p 20). Know your worth. Know your values. Go through the struggles until you achieve what you want. Because that’s what ‘conquest of dreams’ is all about.