Fri, 29 Mar, 2024

Three Roads To Choose

By Prakriti Shree Tuladhar

It was such a plain day that saying, “It was a plain day.” would be an understatement. On this day, He, who was walking down an ordinary road, was so ordinary himself that he had no traits worth mentioning. He was walking the conventional way, that is to say, if there was ever a conventional way of walking, his style of walking would be it.

So, an ordinary He was walking the conventional way on an ordinary road on a plain day when He reached a three way fork. There He saw a man in the left-most fork and a woman in the right-most fork. He asked them, “What are you doing?”

The man replied, “Why? Isn’t it obvious that I am trying to reach the cloud?”

The woman replied, “Nothing. Why should I be doing anything when I have all I could ever want?”

And hence, the story or rather, the poem began. For He said:

You’re bold and you’re loud.

What is there in the cloud?

When with a raise of your head

And a strain on your neck

In the sky it was and will always be

For me as well as for you to see

When with a the slightest touch

Of the smallest toe

That part of the cloud

Will cease to be one, anymore

You’re mild and you’re meek.

Is all you have, all you need?

When you have water,

You could’ve had wine.

You connect countless dots

To get a line.

When you have little

But barely enough;

You’d settle for kindness

In place of love.

He didn’t want meaning heights. He didn’t want compromise. So, He thought the middle fork He must take. But as He took it, He felt, to himself, He was being fake. To the answer He was very close, because despite living an ordinary life, it was being ordinary that scared him the most.