Friday, March 27, 2009

The road not taken..

"Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference"
Robert Frost(1874-1963),"The road not taken"

These are the lines written by the famous american poet Robert Frost.
What's so special about these lines, that they form a part of most of the motivational works... What does he mean by the two roads?Why does he take the one less travelled and how does it make all the difference?
We human beings take each step with care , tread each path with caution, so that we do not have to face failure, since history tells us that those who venture into the unknown, are the ones who tend to get lost most of the time. But unfortunately, we forget to flip the page , where it says that those who take risks in life are the ones who are successful.
One cannot just keep following what other people do, so that we can indulge in a safe bet with nothing to lose. Someone among us has to venture into the unknown and has to take up the task to spread the light of knowledge, for many others to follow . One has to enter the dark areas of life which need to be lighted up. One brave step would surely make all the difference.
Frost wrote "the road not taken", for his friend Edward Thomas. He said while walking in the woods, they would come to different paths and after choosing one, his friend would always fret, wondering what they might have missed by not taking the other path.This is the kind of curiosity life needs from all of us....for instance,"What would have happened if instead of taking all the credit, I would announce that my teammates played an important part in the successful completion of the project".
If we try to think beyond our so called limitations, life opens a lot many avenues for us .
There are many who don't give a second thought before getting themselves involved into something which they very well know is harmful for them.A person may start smoking without giving it a second thought, but if asked to be a prt of some voluntary work, he/she would rubbish the idea by saying that its a pure waste of time. The less travelled roads of our life might seem a bit thorny in the beginning, but when one decides to take them up and travel through successfully, life becomes worth living.
The lines of the poem are a bit tricky, they can be seen from different perspectives. The choices that we make in life do make all the difference, it also depends on the kind of choices we make.This ones for those who see the glass half full, coz they have a strong belief that the choices that they have made , would take them towards progress.
Treading unknown paths is certainly not about doing something wrong, its just about thinking differently. If our freedom fighters would not have thought differently , they would not have been able to motivate the whole nation to follow the path towards freedom...which too was an unknown path."We cannot know how our choices will affect our future, until we make a choice".
Most of us think that life should be lived according to certain set norms, which is something that cannot be denied, since discipline too forms an essential part of our life, things can be achieved without indiscipline or chaos. But there has to be someone to challenge the myth that the world is not flat, but round, otherwise we would keep falling at the two ends of our limited beliefs, without taking a single foot forward.

Life isn't easy,
its not all that tough,
but at the time of crisis,
it becomes a bit rough.

Though I lead my life,
according to what was carved out for me,
keeping in mind, the limitations , the taboos , the adversities.
But sometimes my mind looks towards the road less taken,
a strange unknown path.
Is there something waiting for me,
have I found my goal at last?

Though the path is unknown, and the steps are weak,
I Can't afford to look the other way,just because my spirits are meek,
There will be a time when I'll be able to step forward,
plunging,dropping, tumbling towards my goal,
and that's when I'll reach my destination,
like a happy,contented soul :)

4 comments:

Ayesha Parveen said...

Very well-written, Sana. Ultimately, we should follow the voice of conscience and personal choice.

Best wishes :)

Manivannan Sadasivam said...

Beautiful post! Treading on the unknown path is a risk, no doubt, but that surely makes all the difference in our life.

Nice thoughts shared! And loved the poem in the end :)

Happy blogging!

A New Beginning said...

Thanks Ayesha and Mani fo eyour encouraging comments:)

Ravi Kodukula said...

Lady!

Again - a good collected thought on dilemmas in life!

You provoke a thought that - maybe - you would want to deal with sometime else - i.e. are you willing to bear the consequences of treading the less treaded path with no regrets whatsoever?

Cheers!