Castles in the air..do we build them? or not?

It takes years to build something and then to build a castle, it’s not easy at all. And building castles in the air, now that’s something else altogether. The phrase ‘building castles in the air’ has interesting origins. Join me on this podcast as I recount fond memories of living in a whitewashed village and visiting castles and share more on my castle building experience and learnings.

Transcript

Castles in the air…do we build them? or not?

Hello Everyone, and welcome to the podcast of the Ordinary Maverick. This is Ajey, your host, an ordinary Maverick sharing real life thoughts and experiences and Maverick tips. If you haven’t hit the subscribe button yet, please do so, and you’ll not miss another episode.

‘Castles in the air’, at some point in our lives, am sure we’ve heard this phrase. And if you’ve studied in a convent school as I have, this was one of the favorite quotes to prod the students to get to work, study…saying don’t build castles in the air, do some real work. Ha ha…Yes, the phrase basically means plans that have very little chance of happening, that are impractical and will never work out. And that’s because you never have any castles in the air, right?

We grew up hearing this phrase. Study hard, don’t build castles in the air. You should train for a sensible profession and not have extravagant hopes and plans that will never be carried out.

It’s also a hit song, Castles in the Air by American song writer Don McLean, originally released in 1971 and then subsequently there was a re recording and release about a decade later. And it’s all about a man who gets weary of an urban lifestyle and decides to forsake his urban ‘castle in the air’ and move to the country. Hold on to this thought as I will come back to it later. Hundreds of thousands of folks move to cities across the world, many building castles in the air and yes, I was one of them. 

But before we get into all of that, let’s see where this phrase came from? Its an altered version of a French idiom. And when used referred to having big grandiose plans that are nearly impossible for the dreamer to achieve. These are plans that are flights of fancy, may be really nice and charming but a total waste of time as they will never come to fruition. 

But you know what, Fellow Mavericks, I think a bit differently or rather me and my family’s life has had so many different experiences that I’ve started thinking about how important it is in life to have these crazy dreams. To build grand plans and dreams because that’s what helps you lay the foundations under them. 

Before we go more deeper into this let’s continue tracing the origins of this idiom. It first appeared in the 1500s, as a translation from the French. But you know what… the original literal translation of the French idiom was ‘building castles in Spain’. It was meant to represent something that was impossible to accomplish. Spain that was ruled by the Moors was an impenetrable force to the French and not a place one could conquer and build a castle in. But as time passed, no one could really understand what building castles in Spain meant…so it became building castles in the air instead.

Speaking of Spain and the Moors makes me remember one of the fun trips we took as a family more than a decade ago to Spain. We spent a week in Torrox, a white washed Moorish town and also took a trip to Alhambra, the Spanish castle.

Alhambra is called the Red Fortress, as Alhambra means red or vermillion castle in Arabic. The walls and towers that surround the citadel are red so that’s probably where the name came from. The castle overlooks the city of Granada and was built between 1238 and 1358 during the reign of the Nasrid dynasty. It is an impressive castle complex and over the years suffered destruction at various points in history. Years of restoration work have been carried out and today Alhambra is majestic and quite an experience for the visitor. Even though years have passed since we went there, the memory of walking around the massive complex and going into Moorish history still remains fresh in my mind. 

In fact every detail of those wonderful days in Spain remain in our memory banks and we often pull these out, reminiscing about the time spent there. I spoke about the white washed town, and yes, it truly was white washed. In practical terms, these white washed villages or towns were built on top of hills or on the sides of mountains and the facades of their houses were traditionally whitewashed with red tiles on the roofs. Torrox was an amazing hidden gem that we discovered purely by chance and its whitewashed houses were built into the hill. I recall arriving at Torrox on a public bus from Malaga and walking through the narrow streets and whitewashed houses looking for the address of the place that we had booked. We were staying in Torrox Pueblo which is quite traditional and had many excellent bars and restaurants. It’s about 4 kms from the coast and Torrox Costa that has beautiful beaches and a long promenade which we enjoyed too. 

We picked Torrox as the place to spend our holidays as it was known to have the best climate in Europe and it’s so true…Beautiful weather and clear blue skies and the sun with the Alpujarra mountain range close by, it’s truly stunning.

Well, we did dream of a holiday in a mountain cottage somewhere close to the sea with perfect blue skies and the sun and we did get it! Ha ha…so yes, building this castle in the air did pay off!!

Goes back to what I referred to earlier…it’s important to build some castles …whether in the air, or in the sand or in your mind.. Dreams are good, right?

All this talk of castles takes me to one that I visited just a couple of months back. The majestic Windsor castle in the UK. It is one of the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. It was founded by William the Conqueror in the 11thcentury and has since been the home of 40 monarchs. As I walked through the castle and saw the beautiful state apartments, the ceremonial rooms, historic rooms, the beautiful chapel, the moat room and all the gorgeous treasures, the paintings, tapestries etc, it was just so very beautiful. The castle is a working one, home to about 150 people and is regularly used for ceremonial and state occasions, including receiving State visits. The entire Castle complex spans more than 13 acres and has over 1000 rooms. The Queen spent weekends and Easter at Windsor castle.

So, building castles in the air.

In our life, we did.

I spoke earlier about the famous song and forsaking the urban castle…well, many in the world who grow up in rural areas have dreams of the city. And it is building the urban castles so to speak. I can speak of this in confidence as I was one of them. As a child we moved between a relatively smaller town to a big city influenced because of my parents jobs and personal factors. And growing up, there was always this underlying motive of ‘getting to the city one day’, sort of like building that urban castle. Hitting it big in the city.

I recall coming to the city, young and full of energy, with no money, no job, no roof over my head. Basically nothing except the castle built in the air for which I then set out to lay the foundation. And yes, years later I can say I was successful. Partly luck, partly work…but definitely determination worked. And yes, having that dream was key to inspiration. 

It’s been similar with our homes. Over the years, we’ve moved many times and had the privilege to live in beautiful homes. But yes, come to think of it, it did seem a bit like building castles in the air at one point in our lives. If someone had told us that we would have the privilege of living in homes that are surrounded by nature, with natural light and space, for example, we would have responded saying that’s just pipedreams. It’s not going to happen. Or in this big beautiful place that has a lovely garden and a swimming pool – nah…it’s not going to happen. This is definitely building castles in the air!

But that’s the beauty of dreams and linked with the phrase Castles in the air…that need foundations to build on…that’s what I’m speaking of. Build your castles in the air, dream big, but then have the strength and courage to take risks in your life to build the foundation. Focus on the foundation and the rest will follow. 

Yes, building a castle is tough, hard work and takes time. Now imagine building a castle in the air…ha ha..even more crazy, right?

But the crazier it seems, the harder it gets, the more the likelihood of success. Believe me. It’s our Maverick formula, Go with your gut, be true and fall forward. Follow this and your foundation will be strong. Then whether its building the castle in the air, or on the ground..build it you will.

Do keep writing your comments and sharing feedback at ‘theordinarymaverick@gmail.com’ and follow me on Instagram #theordinarymaverick.  I love hearing from you. This is Ajey, signing off and wishing you have an amazing day and a super amazing year! Keep well. 

This podcast series was put together as a team effort from the Bhardwaj family.  Concept, design, title, researchers and reviewers: Ajey, Sanjana, Avantika and Niharika Bhardwaj; Script– Sanjana; Cover design – Niharika. All rights reserved.