Thursday, March 18, 2010

Crossroads.....

On occasions more than one, Eric and Ryan find themselves standing at crossroads. They have the minimum possible clue about how did they reach there. Probably, they made their way through the dark alleys in search of a shorter route to their destiny. Whatever the case may be, neither of them seem to be in charge of the situation at the point where lanes intersect leading to four different directions.

Ryan, by virtue of his nature, starts weighing the pros and cons of each of the path that stares into his face. As soon as a 60-40 scale outweighs one lane over the other, the third one seems to add on to the confusion and this time by a margin as close as 55-45. Not only this it appears that 4 ancillary lanes have cropped up amidst nowhere bisecting the four cardinal ones, justifying the Middle Path preached by the Buddha. Ryan once happened to have said me that the noise is deafening at a crossroad, and this makes one’s task Herculean to choose the path one wants to tread. Parents and peers do little to solve the fix and the busy interjection doesn’t leave you much time to have a steady head over your shoulder and make a decision. Left with no other choice to himself, Ryan trudges down the lane where he feels a sense of security amidst the crowd.

Meanwhile, Eric has his own way of looking at things. He has an eerie philia towards walking lonely roads as if the loneliness doesn’t bother him at all. Unlike Ryan, where the four cardinal lanes begot four progenies, Eric fights hard to entwine the four ways into one. In simpler words, he doesn’t leave much space for confusion to bother him. He takes his time to choose his own lane, a lane which he would love walking, a lane which won’t force him to look back at the crossroad again. Eventually, he puts a firm foot forward assertively unlike Ryan who chooses his lane eliminating the others.

There happens to be a Ryan and Eric residing within every one of us. I am not credible enough to justify one over the other i.e. Ryan over Eric or vice versa. All I can say is that most Ryans are seldom heard of once they leave the crossroad as they mingle with the crowd. One some occasions, they lament the path chosen and seek to get back to the crossroad again, but there are no retakes in real life unlike reel life. On the other hand, Erics too face the probability of being engulfed by the lonely roads, but then they stand the chance of being one of the most prominent figures to have ever walked that lane.

I leave it up to you to decide who is going to be the guiding torch of your life.