What do you Hope to Find over the Rainbow?

By Siya Arora

Over the rainbow?

When I think of the ‘rainbow’, my mind immediately imagines all things colourful, happy, beautiful, joyous…. maybe even perfect. What I hope to find over the rainbow is perhaps an alternate world, a world that is all of these things and more. Does this mean I hope for a perfect world? Maybe. However the ‘perfection’ I dream of is different. It is the perfection of having the freedom to live life on one’s own terms.

This freedom is rarely available to us. Often, external factors impose conditions on us that forcefully deprive us of this right, this freedom. Think of the time you “had” to dress a certain way, or say certain things, because it was “right” to do so. Even in those lucky times, when such situations do not exist, it is almost as if our brain makes it its responsibility to use its thoughts to impose such conditions on us anyway. My ‘over the rainbow’ world would be free of any such conditions, whether internal or external.

I hope for an existence free of discrimination, tyranny and bias. A world where the basis of any rule or restriction would simply be the concept of right and wrong, and nothing else, not skin colour, religion, gender, sexuality or physical appearance. Moreover, all humans here would be free of the wrath of public judgement or as we like to call it, “What will people say?”. As long as a person’s actions do not harm anyone or anything around them, judgement would no longer be an option.

I dream of a world that is tolerant, forgiving and accepting; that is free of violence and

negative emotions like jealousy and entitlement; where nobody considers themselves superior; where people live in harmony with each other, nature and their surroundings. In short, a world where each person lives and lets others live.

Sounds impossible right? Well, so does a band of seven colours stretching across the sky. But don’t rainbows exist?