The Road Not Taken

So there I was keeping myself occupied/distracted/busy on a lighter work day. During the course of my random readings came across Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and got thinking. 

Life is all about the choices we make, every single moment. At this precise minute, I am typing out this blogpost, while there could be something else which I should have been doing and have made a conscious choice not to!

We always talk about not having enough time! But, then with so many things to be done, so many distractions all around us, where will the time appear from? After all every action, every thought is the road taken preventing every other activity /thought from occupying precisely that moment. And as time travel has still not been invented, like Mr. Frost we will never come back to the road not taken.

And that is precisely how the journey of life goes on. Every choice made leading to the next choice, while discarding the alternates! Hopefully some lead us on the path of self-improvement and some keep us just meandering along! And that is what makes all the difference to us and our environment! Just like the Butterfly Effect!

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost (1916)

Elections are Coming

The Elections are Coming.

The biggest celebration of our "democracy" - Elections in 5 states later this year are just the trailer for the grand affair scheduled for first part of 2014.

Already the dirtiest sport of all - political mud-wrestling has started in its full glory. Charges, counter-charges, facts mixed with fiction, on hand some physics defying theories while vegetable prices defy gravity, bomb blasts in a rally of 1 Chief Minister, another injured in stone-pelting, a state getting divided... well its just the beginning of one of the dirtiest battles in Indian political history. Add a trigger-happy social media which knows no restraint. The perfect recipe for disaster. And this is just the beginning. Wonder what else is in store for us.

The following poem (Jungle Gaatha) by Ashok Chakradhar perfectly sums whats happening in the country right now. Certainly worth a listen.  India certainly is no better than any jungle.

पानी से निकलकर मगरमच्छ किनारे पर आया,

इशारे से बंदर को बुलाया.

बंदर गुर्राया- खों खों, क्यों,

तुम्हारी नजर में तो मेरा कलेजा है?

मगरमच्छ बोला-नहीं नहीं, तुम्हारी भाभी ने

खास तुम्हारे लिये सिंघाड़े का अचार भेजा है.

बंदर ने सोचा ये क्या घोटाला है,

लगता है जंगल में चुनाव आने वाला है.

लेकिन प्रकट में बोला- वाह!

अचार, वो भी सिंघाड़े का, यानि तालाब के कबाड़े का!

बड़ी ही दयावान तुम्हारी मादा है,

लगता है शेर के खिलाफ़ चुनाव लड़ने का इरादा है.

कैसे जाना, कैसे जाना? ऐसे जाना, ऐसे जाना

कि आजकल भ्रष्टाचार की नदी में

नहाने के बाद जिसकी भी छवि स्वच्छ है,

वही तो मगरमच्छ है.

एक नन्हा मेमना और उसकी माँ बकरी,

जा रहे थे जंगल में राह थी संकरी।

अचानक सामने से आ गया एक शेर,

लेकिन अब तो हो चुकी थी बहुत देर।

भागने का नहीं था कोई भी रास्ता,

बकरी और मेमने की हालत खस्ता।

उधर शेर के कदम धरती नापें, इधर ये दोनों थर-थर कापें।

अब तो शेर आ गया एकदम सामने,

बकरी लगी जैसे-जैसे बच्चे को थामने।

छिटककर बोला बकरी का बच्चा- शेर अंकल!

क्या तुम हमें खा जाओगे एकदम कच्चा?शेर मुस्कुराया,

उसने अपना भारी पंजा मेमने के सिर पर फिराया।

बोला-हे बकरी - कुल गौरव, आयुष्मान भव! दीर्घायु भव!

चिरायु भव! कर कलरव! हो उत्सव! साबुत रहें तेरे सब अवयव।

आशीष देता ये पशु-पुंगव-शेर, कि अब नहीं होगा कोई अंधेरा

उछलो, कूदो, नाचो और जियो हँसते-हँसते

अच्छा बकरी मैया नमस्ते!

इतना कहकर शेर कर गया प्रस्थान,

बकरी हैरान-बेटा ताज्जुब है, भला ये शेर किसी पर रहम खानेवाला है,

लगता है जंगल में चुनाव आनेवाला है।

Don't think there is any more apt description of our politicians than this.