Two Ways of Living Life

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost (1920)

The above lines (taken from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken”) beautifully describes two distinct ways of living a life.

First let us look at the “More traveled road”. This is a style of life which is mediocre, in which a person lives like the normal “crowd”. He does not have a vision of what he would like to see in future. Making difference in the society, bringing a change in this world etc. is not even in his remote thoughts. All he is concerned about is his survival, his family, his means of earnings and other trivial things. The maximum achievement in such lifestyle is a well-settled job (with adequate means of sustenance), a happy family and well-educated kids. This type of crowd does not have the vigor to put effort towards a cause rather (in many cases) they do not have a goal. When they look at the “wrong” things around him, he is taken over by hopelessness and all he can think is: “It is beyond my scope to make any change”. He always looks for safety. Venturing, entrepreneurship are not found in his dictionary. When such person reaches old age and when he looks back at his passed-life, he will not have anything significant to enumerate which has affected other’s life. After his death, people will not have anything significant about him to remember. His name is “lost” and surely he is not missed by the society.

The analogy of such people is like a spectator in a soccer game. They watch events and maximum thing that they can do is cheer (or boo) which is not even noticed by the guy sitting next to him.


The other way of living life is what Frost described as the “Less traveled” road. This is the road in which a person tries to be distinct. He tries to be outstanding from the normal crowd (success of which depends on what God has destined for him). He has a vision, a goal to make a difference in the society. His efforts are completely directed towards realizing his vision and achievement of his goals. He doesn’t view his job and “means of survival” as the end but as a means-to-end. This does not mean that he deserts his family/job etc. but contrary to that many times such people fare far better than the normal crowd in these areas. It is just that their center of struggle is not restricted to his survival and his family, rather he has bigger goals. The key to the success of such people is time management and one can hardly find them idle. They never suffer from hopelessness and they always strive to change things which they don’t like. The attitude of this person is to set a goal and strive for it. He does not care about success; primary importance for him is to work towards his goal. Such people do not search for safe-havens rather they are entrepreneurial and venturesome. Indeed, when such a person reaches old age, he can look back at his past-life with dignity. He feels satisfied that he has struggled for “something” during his age and has positively impacted the society. Names of such persons are engraved on hearts of people after their death, and they are missed by the society.

The analogy of such people is like that of a player in a soccer game. These are the people who impact the whole arena and are not silently impacted like the spectators. Indeed, if such people were to be absent in this world, then nothing would be left except selfishness and the world would become a wretched place to live.

The Media that Betrayed Us!

When I look at the current Gaza crisis, it reminds me of the July 2006 offensive in Lebanon and Gaza. This post intends to bring out how media has been systematically hiding facts. It is so surprising that balanced-media like National Public Radio (NPR) have cried loud lies that the violence was started by Palestinians.

The purpose of this post is to show how these supposedly “neutral” public-media wants you to hear what the popular opinion is, instead of bringing the true story. This type of behavior is expected from Fox news, whose mere purpose of existence is to satisfy the news-lust of right wingers. But it is extremely disappointing when public-media, which thrives on our donations, presents distorted stories.

Most of the US media has attributed the start of upsurge of violence in Gaza and Lebanon (in July 2006) to the capture of Corporal Shalit (an Israeli soldier) in June of 2006. Either the media coverage was so weak that they could not obtain the complete story or they intentionally wanted to hide the fact that Israeli forces captured two Gaza Civilians (A doctor and his brother) a day BEFORE the capture of Corporal Shalit. This was in addition to numerous Palestinians who were kidnapped by Israeli soldiers on suspicion and have been held in prison for eternity.

Noam Chomsky argues “ …. Kidnapping of civilians is a far worse crime than capture of soldiers. The Western response was quite revealing: a few casual comments, otherwise silence. The major media did not even bother reporting it. That fact alone demonstrates, with brutal clarity, that there is no moral justification for the sharp escalation of attacks in Gaza or the destruction of Lebanon, and that the Western show of outrage about kidnapping is cynical fraud.” (more of this interview)
Yet, a few days later, Neal Conan of NPR falsely claims that July 2006 violence started because of Israeli soldier’s kidnapping by Hamas (even when Noam Chomsky explicitly corrected the chronology of incidents on NPR).

This deceptive scheme is being continued in December-2008 Gaza Massacre reporting. The buzz word is that Hamas broke the truce. This has become like a hymn for leading news agencies like New York Times, Washington Post and of course the liberal Fox-News. None of them have cared to bring out the fact that during this “truce”:

1) Israel has killed more than 49 people in Palestine (many of them were kids).

2) Israel had a blockade on Gaza (all borders and sea crossings included), and even supply of essentials like medicines were restricted. This has made the humanitarian conditions worse than war-time. Is this how the truce works?

Media is not the only one, President-elect Obama in quest for gaining Jewish support visited Israel (before the November election) and said:

"If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."

Well, somebody should ask Mr. President-elect what he would do if his daughters were denied basic medical needs and were forced to live under a blockade which denies them basic medical needs and food.

All this things simply points to one fact: if you have money/power then whatever you do is justified and people from President to Media will vow their allegiance to you. All this talk of CHANGE, protecting freedom, human rights and democracy is nothing but an articulate sham!