My mountains of dreams | Readers Write

Below me, the clouds float gently across the largely uninhabited island. All around, the Pacific Ocean seems to extend to infinity. Looking down the slope, the centuries-old lava gives an impression of Martian territory, a novel, untouched world. And taking all of this in, I am standing on my mountain of dreams.

People think of Hawaii as an exotic, touristy destination, but I had my own reasons for dreaming of coming here. Mine dates back to when a middle-school boy first fell in love with the stars, as he looked up at the night sky during the load-shedding nights in Kathmandu and dreamt of becoming an astronomer one day.

I remember sitting in the living room watching a National Geographic documentary about the biggest telescope in the world. I found myself entranced by the white domes of the Keck telescope, sitting atop a sacred volcano behind a wisp of cloud, on an island in the middle of the Pacific. For a fourteen-year-old growing up in Kathmandu and awestruck by the glory of science, this was a deeply mysterious, exotic world, stretching the very limits of my imagination.

Going back down memory lane the image on the tv screen comes to life. The domes are exactly the same, except now I can walk up and touch them if I want to with the wind howling on my face. I am here at the world's largest astronomical observatory, Earth's gateway to the rest of the universe. This is for real. The phrase is, I believe, "a dream come true".

Too often in Nepal, we are too scared to dream. Even before we come to terms with the rest of the world, we are told that, coming from one of the poorest countries in the world, we're supposed to be realistic and not aim too high. Does glory and greatness belong to citizens of "developed" countries alone while we resign ourselves to mediocrity? But who is going to let you, we are asked, until we are convinced that we were aiming for something impossible, and become ashamed of our dreams. But great achievements always begin with dreams. True, there's always the risk of failing; but believe and work for it, and it might just come true.

As the sun sets light gives way to darkness, the stars slowly start twinkling in the skies above. In response, the domes of the observatories start to open up—what wonderful sights and mysteries of existence will be uncovered tonight? I survey the clouds and the Pacific Ocean as it stretches away from the empty, lava-strewn landscape. I stand proudly on my mountain of dreams, and nothing in the world could have taken this away from me. My day is just beginning.

Bibhushan is studying physics, mathematics, and philosophy at Stanford University, USA, and is currently working with an observational cosmology research group at the Mauna Kea Observatories in Hawaii.