The less traveled road

From the first time I was introduced to this poem during my college days it has always been one of my favorite. Written by Robert Frost, perhaps his finest - the author wrote this poem about his walks in the woods with his friend. During these walks, his friend will always wonder what they have missed by not taking other paths they encountered.

To me, this poem always represent the choices that life presents to us - not necessary there will be a right or wrong choice, but always an existence of a choice.  Some may regret that they can't choose all the choices that present themselves, and there's always a dilemma on whether the choice yet to be made is a right or wrong choice. We are always afraid of choosing the wrong one (and some took too much time to choose!). And then we realize that we have to make choices, whether we like it or not and the choices that we make are always justified by our own reasoning and perhaps to a certain extend - logic. But is our choices the rights ones or the wrong ones? We probably think that the one we chose are the most attractive one amongst the rest - but is it true over the time?  

When I was first exposed to this poem I thought that it is a form of advocation of non-conformist attitude, but as I grew - what this poem really means to me is that we have choices in life - which is great.

So is the sigh mentioned in the poem a sigh of satisfaction or merely a sigh of regret? Food for thought - hope you like the poem as much as I do.

The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost)

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 marked 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.

Champasak, Laos (2009)

New year, old friends

As I sat in a restaurant in a mall near my home I am contemplating what would be the first post of the year would be about. Then I thought about my friend's request the day before to write about how we celebrated the last day of 2010 and ushered in the new year. To be forthright, as a matter of fact our celebrations yesterday was nothing exceptional to say the least. In fact looking at it you might call it downright mundane for a new year's celebrations - dinner, no countdown, few minutes of fireworks (which we don't even know there is one until it happened) and of course poker session till late at night.

Not even close to the top of list.

As we ushered in the new years it brought in many changes as well. Our celebrations soon consists of new faces - new friends, partners, spouses and children. 2011 would be no exception, already we are expecting a new bundle of joy for our group due in February and I myself would be soon getting married a few months later.

One of the great things why we celebrate the arrival of new year is it marks a time of our life where we can leave unwanted pasts from the previous year and renew our hopes for better things to come. It is a milestone for some, one year older, another year we have been married or another year that we have been friends. It is also a time for a kindly reminder that some things probably would never change. It's still the eccentric behaviour of one of us ( we are starting to lose hope that he might ever change ), he is still late for appointments, and I am still pissed with him for being not punctual, and one of us is still occasionally moody.

Although the years might roll by and certain changes and additions might come along, there are however a few that remain unchanged. Good friends remain, some people that you can depend for company and when you most need it, someone that you can rely on. Like familiar saying goes, it's not where you go but the company that you keep that makes it count Here's to 2011 and many more mundane new years to come, so long that it is celebrated with dear friends.

To old friends and to new beginnings.

I have been commissioned to write this, so when we say commissioned it means that I should be getting paid to write this. JJ please take note!