The Road not Taken

“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.”

This is the last stanza from Robert Frost’s most analyzed poem ‘The Road not taken’. Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson are two of my favorite poets. I could always relate to their poems, their take on life and love, and the mystery element in their poems. ‘The Road Not taken’ ends almost similar to Frost’s other renowned poem ‘Stopping by woods on a Snowy Evening’. While idealists would analyze both to be inspiring, it is still not clear if poet intended that way. Perhaps he did, perhaps he didn’t and let the audience perceive the way they wanted. On Road not Taken, Frost asserts, 

You have to be careful of that one; it’s a tricky poem – very tricky.

It is indeed a very tricky poem and a reason why it is the most analyzed and interpreted poem. I am not getting into the details of it. Entire poem and its detailed analysis are available here. The premise of this post is the above mentioned stanza. The poet says that out of two roads, he took the less traveled one and it has made all the difference in his life. Now whether it is positive or negative is moot. The usage of ‘sigh’ in the first line could be a sigh of relief or sigh of despair. We will never know.

Have you ever been in such a dilemma; a quandary where you had two options? Which option did you choose? Did you take the popular path or decide to be the trendsetter and choose the less traveled one? Have you ever regretted such major decisions in life? If given a chance would you go back and take the other one? 

Looking back I don’t regret much. Even now there are times when I am in a fix and unable to make up my mind. It might be a major one or not so grave one; I think, analyze the pros and cons on major ones and now the inconsequential ones where I have to confront someone, I think about it a little more and sometimes ignore if it doesn’t affect me. I used to be impetuous before and though it had positive as well as negative results, I would like to believe that it was more negative. Now I give it more time and thought. Every decision in life isn’t that easy but then one needs to take the risk.

I consider myself lucky that I can heave a sigh of relief after choosing the less traveled road. Sometimes I do wonder though what it would have been had I chosen the other path? How life would have turned out? Do you all think that way? 

The title of the poem is ‘Road not taken’ not ‘Road less traveled’. So may be the author was also thinking about the path that he didn’t take. How would it have been? One wonders! sigh….

A beautiful instrumental odyssey from Rahul Sharma’s Time Traveller,

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On an unrelated note…or is it related? This is actually the ‘road I always shied away from’ . After being branded a Dinosaur for not tweeting, I finally took the plunge yesterday. Never been part of any social networking sites so as expected got bored immediately. But now am liking this tweety bird thanks to confused soul…..chirp away.. http://twitter.com/solitalks

Red in the Face

At a restaurant,

Server (to Peanut): Here you go sweetie, your Apple juice. Let me know how it is. 

Peanut (sips a little): Mmm….yum…it tastes like BEER. 

The other half and moi: 

Server:   

Me (hiding embarrassment):  When did you taste Beer? 

Peanut: Mamma, It looks like Beer.

(The thing is this Apple juice was a bit fizzy still imagine what that server thought about us as parents.) 

Forever and For Always

Of us…

In life one is trussed by many relationships and each one has its prominence. There is one that is for eternity, to dream together, to make those dreams happen together, to grow old together. I am celebrating that relationship. The union…our marriage. 

June 30 ushered in 9th year of our union. Two individuals who are paradigms of opposites attract, who hardly agree on anything have adapted to each other’s likes and dislikes in a way that the differences don’t matter any more. Our conflicts actually provide a balance in our relationship. Almost a decade of togetherness and there is lot more to learn about each other. Whoever said that novelty of marriage wears off after initial years? I say that I am closer and more in love with him. This love has more meaning and understanding.

As we step into the 10th year of our life together, I want to say

forever and for always
We will be together all of our days
Wanna wake up every
morning to your sweet face–always 

Happy Anniversary, Dear! May we feel the same way always.

Of our gifts…

Both of us are not the ones who go out of the way to surprise each other on every special day. Most times his idea of gift is buy whatever you like and mine is tell me what you want. Still there are times when we have surprised each other and loved it. Some cute gifts and some expensive ones. Sometimes flowers and sometimes a celebration with champagne and a dessert and sometimes nothing at all.

The gift I received this anniversary made me ecstatic. It is a 1 carat Diamond Solitaire. This is the one. I gave him a Gold ring with Lord Ganesha inscribed in it that I had gotten from India. I know he won’t wear that. The only thing he wears is the wedding band out of compulsion . He still loved the gift and promised to wear on special occasions. Of course I LOVED mine. I love all my jewelry…all of it. after all..as they say, Diamonds are forever.

Like most couples, the other half and moi have a song. This is the one. Hmm…the reason..let it be a secret  Lata Mangeshkar’s chuckle at 3:25 is more like Muahahahaha when I sing. Before when we used to sing duet, our friends always laughed at that part and also perhaps at my singing. Peanut used to smile whenever we sang this in the car. We hadn’t in a long time but this week on our trip to Redding we sang again and lot more. It was fun.

Of our trip and some pictures… 

Lake Caverns amazed me. The long trail of steps didn’t really bother me because I was amazed at nature’s creation. Stalactite and stalagmite formation studded with brilliant crystals shine inside the dark cave. The clear, blue, pristine man-made Shasta lake surrounded by Red layers of rocks is a beautiful sight. Redding is surrounded by mountains to the north, east, and west; and fertile farm land to the south. The soil is mostly red or brown and probably the reason why the city was named so inspite of the blue lakes and green valley. Burney falls is majestic. Most of The Park’s landscape was created by volcanic activity. The falls were called ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World’ by President Roosevelt. We missed Sundial Bridge’s Summer solstice by 2 weeks. It is exactly accurate on only one day in a year -June 21. On that day the tip of the shadow moves at approximately one foot per minute so that the Earth’s rotation about its axis can be seen with the naked eye. Peanut had fun riding her bike on the bridge and through trails. Now I need to give rest to my sore muscles from all the walking I did during the trip. 500 odd steps at Lake Shasta Caverns, hiking and all that endless walking on Sacramento river trail and Turtle Bay. I surprised myself. Yay! I don’t have to exercise for another 2 months (as if…) as I have nicely toned legs.  The trip was fun, adventurous and relaxing at the same time.