(AS I write this down, sitting on a stone bench amidst a beautiful stretch, two young lads stare at me, but I keep on scribbling in my diary, jotting down what I feel…)

I have always loved woods, long and lonely stretches that never seem to end. Somehow they remind me of life…The woods metaphoric of the double edged sword that life is, boon and bane both incorporated together and who but a wise person can escape the bane whilst enjoying the boon.

The stretches, lonely and long just like life! The weeds sprawled here and there which are trampled down by us. They represent all those feelings, moments and things that are there but we find them useless. But picture a night when you have to sleep in woods, you will find not a fruit-laden tree but soft weeds to sleep on. That is how life is, we never value those weeds (people/situations/moments/unused talents) but when we are in difficult times we make use of them only. Thus, it is not those weeds that are actually useless but our incapability of using them in the right times as well.

The chain of mountains can be compared to our aspirations and demands of life. We all remember the famous quote ‘the grass is greener on the other side.’ We trek up one mountain, indeed overcoming many difficulties, falling, getting up, crossing dangerous stretches, walking even when we are tired and finally reaching the peak. We take a deep breath; finally we have achieved what all we had wanted. And then we see a higher peak. A higher mountain. Our heart pounds, we question ourselves, and finally we decide. Yes! We would like to scale that as well. Over ambition is dangerous but lack of ambition leaves us dead but a breathing body. We come down; after all, there are no shortcuts to success. One can’t jump from one peak to another! And then start preparing ourselves for the higher reach, the higher goal!

Not only this, there is another lesson that scaling a peak gives us. When we start we are accompanied by friends, family and colleagues. Difficulties come, few of our folks turn back. Issues arise over what way to follow and we agree to disagree. Thus, we get separated. Sometimes, we reach the top but success has its own lessons and we should learn to respect the disagreements with others. On our way up, situations reverse, enthusiasms get dumped and sometimes we are left alone to tread on. ‘One is a top but lone number’….

Would like to quote lines from Mathew Arnold’s ‘The Rugby Chapel’…

We, we have chosen our path—
Path to a clear-purposed goal,
Path of advance! But it leads,
A long, steep journey, through sunk
Gorges, o’er mountains in snow!
Cheerful, with friends, we set forth;
Then, on the height, comes the storm!
Thunder crashes from rock
To rock, the cataracts reply;
Lightning’s dazzle our eyes;
Roaring torrents have breach’d
The track, the stream-bed descends
In the place where the wayfarer once
Planted his footsteps—the spray
Boils o’er its borders; aloft,

The unseen snow-beds dislodge
Their hanging ruin;–alas,
Havoc is made in our train!
Friends who set forth at our side
Falter, are lost in the storm!
We, we only, our left!
With frowning foreheads, with lips
Sternly compress’d, we strain on,
On—and at nightfall, at last,
Come to the end of our way,

To the lonely inn ‘mid the rocks;
Where the gaunt and taciturn Host
Stands on the threshold, the wind
Shaking his thin white hairs—
Holds his lantern to scan
Our storm-beat figures, and asks:
Whom in our party we bring?
Whom we have left in the snow?
Sadly we answer: We bring
Only ourselves; we lost
Sight of the rest in the storm,
Hardly ourselves we fought through,
Stripp’d without friends, as we are.
Friends, companions, and train
The avalanche swept from our side!!!

And that’s just what happens when we don’t know how to balance!