Op-ed: What It Means to Struggle for Your Dreams

"Wow, you can do it, just keep on going!" was the reactionfrom an American in Utah to the dream a friend and I have of opening a filmstudio. Not "Now, are you sure thatis wise? You can't just go ahead and do something like that," which was theresponse from a good friend in Britain. Facial expressions were also dramatically different: a broad smile andwide eyes from the American; raised eyebrow and an eventually kind smile fromthe Brit -- a smile usually afforded a child when he says he wants to be anastronaut. These two friendsbroadly represent the dueling national attitudes toward our dream, and towarddreaming itself. I have been to many countries and been fortunate to live in afew of them. Each handles dreamsin its own way.

After living in India for two years, I moved back to Londonlast year. It is a city thatshould surely be the zenith of human aspiration. London is knowninternationally for everything from culture to finance; it is a bustling metropoliswhere both history and modernity make very compatible bedfellows. HarveyNichols typifies London's material perfection. The department store offers not just shopping but idylls.On the ground floor you can be coutured, on the second floor manicured, and onthe top floor dined in Michelin-star grace. All the attendants are chiseled and the lighting at alltimes flattering. It is the placebeauty goes.

And not only is it the most accepting society I've found inthe world for gay people, but also its boys are very pretty. Throw in Shakespeare and CatherineMiddleton, and it would seem that London is a pure utopia, although a sometimesrainy one.

But despite all this abundance, I can't help but findLondon dull. I can't quite kill this feeling that something is missing. It's something that, despite all itssocial tragedy and inequality, India has more of -- dreams.

Living in India made me realize that even when people havenothing, they still have their dreams, and it's often what keeps themalive. For many in India, povertyis a crippling reality, so as they scavenge for their next meal, they dream ofa life in which surviving is just that bit easier. But even those that do "have" still dream of having more,and they engage in a daily battle with hope, fighting for that betterlife. It is that fight which isnot only infectious but also signifies the developing world.

My driver, Rakesh, was consumed by not only his dreams butalso those he had for his children. He was determined that their lives would not be blighted by the restrictionshe endured. He was born into alow-caste family in rural India, a fate without much chance of escape. So in addition to working for me,Rakesh had a small farm and a growing share portfolio. He wouldn't rest for asecond in his furious campaign to better his life and that of his family, andto break free.

India's recent history is defined by an independencestruggle and the national turmoil that goes along with it. Indians dreamed of something new for theirnation and fought to achieve it. Maybe it is this spirit that is still alive; struggle breedsdreams.

Many of the people I met in London have that quality whichmakes them pleasant but so very boring: They are content with their currentlot. They can only think ofincremental improvements to their lives and have decided that "dreaming" is notfor them. Their hopes are modest;their aspirations are even less so. I find it difficult to understand them.

Britain is a highly developed society. The state ensures that its citizens arenever too close to suffering, be it with income support during times ofunemployment or comprehensive free health care. This is not to becriticized. I believe it is theduty of a developed society to ensure that none of its people ever have to endurepoverty. But maybe because of thissafety net the need to dream is diminished, and the comfort of daily life foolsus into believing that we need strive no more. Britain is unique in that in its last 500 years it has nothad revolution, occupation, or colonization of its mainland. It has fought off invasion, as recentlyas the last century, but these moments of struggle and their lessons have begun tofade. It has had no Frenchrevolution, a moment that clearly separated the old from the new. Its current national principles are notborn out of victory over struggle.

Britain also is a subtle society -- reserved andcollected. It has a historicalrecord of achievement yet holds a pragmatic view of progress and prefers thepractical over the ethereal, and it doesn't really understand heroes so tendsto knock them down as opposed to hold them up as examples of what we canachieve.

The young people who are currently hurling flame throwers and setting the streets of Britain alight are not doing it because they are bored, but because they have nothing to believe in. In these economic straight times, when opportunity has been paired to the bone, individual dreams and even national dreams are often the only fail-safes, but when dreams are discouraged and hope is not endorsed, rage could be the only option left.

There are pockets of dreamers in London, and therealways have been. I came across asmall colony when I took a job behind a bar. That pub seemed like a pit stop for dreamers. Almost every member of the staff haddreams that they were determined to live.Juan dreamed of being a championship body builder, Ricky a chef, and forYana films were her dreamland. Itwas more than just a two-foot-wide piece of oak that separated the customersand those who served them; it was also their hopes for life. And beyond the small pub in NorthLondon, the British dreamers exist in sports through to business -- defined byboth their unswerving determination and their rarity.

America is different. I was recently in the U.S., and wherever I went, be it wind-lashedChicago or the snow-smothered Utah, I saw a nation that was moving, refusing tostand still, and forever mobile toward, at times, a national dream. It was contagious, and I caught itbad. I was totally taken by thespirit of both the place and the people. It is a country built on dreams and forever enhanced by new ones. I don't know whether it is becauseof the waves of immigrants welcomed each year or the successfulbusinessmen who, having made it big once, dream of doing it again andagain. In the U.S. there seems tobe no nobler vocation than to be dreamer.Be it Elvis Presley, Barack Obama, or Amelia Earhart, these peopledreamed beyond what they should and won anyway. Perhaps it is because thewealthiest nation on earth has still not provided full social safeguards andtherefore struggle is within earshot, or because, like India, it is a nation forged outof struggle. But whatever thereason, Americans on the whole know how to strive, dream, and take dramaticleaps upward in life.

The more countries I visit and the more people I meet, I amsure that it is struggle, be it national or personal, which determines ourpropensity to dream. The gaycommunity is one currently involved in a struggle, a struggle for acceptance andof equality. I think because ofthat we dream that bit harder and that bit higher. Whether or not it is because we hope to dream out of our struggle,we are a community with more than our fair share of dreamers and indeed,achievers, as The Advocate's list of innovators demonstrates.Internationally, the gay community is being defined by its growing powerand presence. From boardrooms tocabinet rooms, we are there.

I am from a family of immigrants who escaped the struggle ofIndia more than 50 years ago. Thedrive and dreams that they brought along with their tatty luggage all thoseyears ago seem to be with them still today, and maybe it is because of them I feelin the minority in London.

The riots and fires will die down and fizzle away and soon life will get back to normal. What will always smolder, however, is the discontent the rioters feel, a discontent only neutralized by having a dream to believe in. Sadly, the British government and society will not understand this and will put down the violence of the "revolting youth." The notion of dreams will continue to receive its patronizing frown. And so as I sit in one of its wonderful bars and gazeat all around me, I will keep my mind on our film studio, not on the dissentingvoices, and I shall not rest from my struggle until I have chased the dream andlived every second of it.