Showing posts with label future. Show all posts
Showing posts with label future. Show all posts

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Road Maps for the Future


My blogger friend, Kavi Arasu appears here after a long time, with this wonderful photo taken in the Muir Woods in Northern California, during his recent travels, and with a wonderful post for the New Year , which you can read here.

As he says , " On a drive to Muir woods, CA. The road was inviting, stellar and simply still. Yet so very alive and full of possibilities. That's my wish for you in 2012 !"

I happened to recall my younger days as a graduate student in the US, in the early 70's, learning road rules before taking the driving test, and simply remembered  the meaning of unbroken double yellow lines  on the road .

Sometimes the road also speaks....

(photograph by Kavi Arasu) 
The Path
to the Future,
stretches ahead,
sun-dappled,
tree-studded,
undulating at times,
perhaps
occasionally straightening
in realization
of responsibility.

At all times,
displaying
the double yellow lines,
of anger,
violence,
defiance,
revenge,
lies,
wild ambition
and disobedience
that we must never cross,
except
where allowed
in an emergency,
but
with
great understanding
humility,
empathy,
respect and
grace.

And
maybe,
one day,
those upright,
sturdy,
hardy,
old redwoods
on the roadside,
greatly stirred,
will nod at each other
in the breeze,
perhaps shedding a few leaves,
and
maybe wiping a few dew drops ,
and say,
"You'll do well, son !
You learned well ...."



Saturday, June 4, 2011

Paths of Bandhavgad....

A friend , Prasad Paranjape, travels into many National Parks frequently, and does some wonderful photography. You can see some of it here. This was a jungle path in the Bandhavgarh National Forest Park. Usually frequented by tigers.....

Without the tigers, and resplendent in the green, it sends a message....

(The original poem was written in Marathi, (my mother tongue). The English version follows, possibly, with a slight loss of flavor.

(photograph by Prasad Paranjape)
आयुष्यात प्रत्येकांनी
आपली आपली वाट
शोधायची असते.
आरण्य खूप अवघड दिसतं,
अनेकदा फिरून फिरून
गर्द झाडीतून वाट काढत
आपण होतो तिथेच
परत पोचतो ...
पण कधी कधी
आजू बाजूला
ताठ कण्याची
पद्धतशीरपणे आयुष्य
घालवणारी
सरळ मनाची ,
भारदस्त मंडळी
रात्रीच्या अंधारातल्या दिव्या सारखी
स्वतःला जाळत उभी असतात
आणि अचानक
आपल्याला रस्ता दिसतो .....

Each one
must seek one,
special path of their own
in life.....

The woods are often
so dense,
that one wanders
with great
effort and hope,
only to reach
back
where one started.

But, sometimes,
one looks around,
and sees
the old,
tough,
hardy,
upright,
beacons,
standing up
in the green
lining and showing
a path,
lighting it up
pointing the way,
and you
suddenly
see the light!