He is not crazy, he just lost interest in life

        

   The Road Not Taken

“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…………… “

 It was the peak hour in Chennai city, Sindhu hurriedly dressed up, ate,left the house and almost ran and caught the bus, on reaching the railway station stop, she got down and hurriedly crossed the road and walked pace fully to the railway station. Today she was a bit late to win the everyday marathon. She sat in the railway station bench waiting for the next train, her heart rate was getting back to normal from 142.

          There was this crazy man with shabby cloths, unkempt hair and long dirty beard, shouting aloud the poem of Robert Frost. Some people receded from the man and backed off to safer spaces. Some were untouched by anything that’s happening around, except for the keen eyes that can figure out train even a mile apart. Some were irritated. But, Sindhu was sure no one would have felt the same way as she has.

          The poem brought back her childhood memories. She was sitting in her classroom in the second bench, corner seat as usual, it was after a tedious math’s hour where ten more minutes were left for the next staff to arrive. On lying on the writing bench, like gazing at the classroom door she was looking at Sham. Sham was a sweet boy, tall, fair and charming. She has liked him the moment she saw him. As the English sir entered the classroom Sindhu sat up with the smile still lingering in her lips, she wondered how soon the ten minutes has passed by.

          “Students, turn to page 12.”The Road Not Taken" is a poem by Robert Frost, published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval In this classic and famously popular poem, the diverging roads are pretty similar; the speaker chose the one less worn, Frost says we should choose the “less traveled,” the unconventional, path. So, what would you do if you are not bound by any family pressure or environmental pressure?”

          Sindhu had a lot of fantasies, she turned and looked towards Sham and that was the first time Sham saw her. Did he think the same thing she thought? She dint know, her heart started beating so hard that it would fall out in his hands any minute. Only a few people can do that to you she thought.

          This crazy man has brought her English class memories back or was it because of the excitement that she is going to meet her class mates in the school alumni function. She didn’t know. When the train arrived she gave a last look at the crazy man who gave her a knowing smile and left. The train started, she spent the rest of her journey smiling.

          It was the old students meet, the most expected day, a couple of her friends have come and they started walking hand in hand just like in school days. They visited old classrooms and walking block to block. They saw their teachers and spoke, but this time both spoke in a friendly way. The conversation was from their lives to the school and the then students of the school and so on. Sindhu thought about Sham, she was not expecting him but the memory of the class was still fresh in her thoughts, then she involuntarily asked about the English teacher.

          That was when she came to know that her English teacher’s car had an accident 4 years ago, he saw his wife and children fall from the mountain cliff and die. “From then on he dint come to the school some who saw him said that he has gone crazy, wandering the streets. The incident should have struck the man so badly” said one of the teachers.

          She remembered the man in the station and said, “He was not crazy, he just lost interest in life, he neither found reason to die nor to live”. She knew the meaning of his smile, maybe she is the only one who knew it….