Crossroads

Normal human beings have not been given the power to foresee the future. The situation resulting from this handicap is aggravated by the sheer number of crossroads that are put up in our lives. Crossroads symbolize choices. A human life is criss crossed by these roads to such an extent that many a times we take decisions unconsciously. Taking a flight which is going to crash. Choosing a career which pays more over the one which provides you with more satisfaction. Throwing in the towel just a moment before victory was destined. Refraining from the last straw which could have got you killed. Missing the person of your dreams by a whisker. It is sad that most of the times the choice we make at crossroads are at the behest of people best described as arm chair tourists in our journey of life. It is at these crossroads that you meet different people and see qualities of faith, courage, hope, hypocrisy.

It is one of these crossroads that you will come across again in future - but this time you would only be able to sigh "Wish I had held my fort for a little more time and taken the other road".

Reminds me of Robert Frost's poem "Road Not Token"

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.