A Road

Ask a group to put its point of view on the above mentioned word and 95% shall jump off their chair to tell you that the state of affairs of this country’s governance is extremely poor. Now often I am made a part of this kind of communication, though I play a role of a mere listener, as my brain is a small piece of flesh that doesn’t reacts to issues relating to something as complex as quality of governance, but every time am exposed to such predicament I resort to sublime thoughts about the state of affairs of negativity in people.

How a mere road could be related to the government being a bunch of non performers? Ok let’s try and make it a little more complex. How could a mere road be related to the state of affairs of the country’s tax money being flushed down the drain? Now as u can see, when I tried making things a little complex I floundered.

For the ease of brains which can’t withstand complexities, let’s start by defining “Road”. A Road, technically, is an identifiable route, way or path between two or more places. Roads are typically smoothed, paved, or otherwise prepared to allow easy travel; though they need not be, and historically many roads were simply recognizable routes without any formal construction or maintenance. In urban areas roads may pass through a city or village and be named as streets, serving a dual function as urban space easement and route. Economics and society depend heavily on efficient roads.

Now if you have a re-look at the definition you would find that “historically” roads were “simply recognizable routes”. This means that roads were constructed to facilitate the movement of men, material and machines. Its actually a “dry” piece of land cleaned from all smooth covers of grass, being colored in a depressing color of “black” rather then being a green colored patch (had it not been a road!!). While we often relate the road to the state of affairs in government. Actually, we all need to understand, its not the Road that is bad, its material that its constructed with, which was a bad quality material.

If it’s on me then according to my understanding of the subject, in more then one ways I relate “A Road” to “Way of being alive”. To me a road is the best depiction of ones doings and happenings in life. Let me elaborate on my thought, quiet similar to road all of have a “free way” of living for a time, and then we hit may be a “curve” or two before getting into a “single” lane from a “multi directional lane”. Often we all come across “breakers” or barriers (as we call them!!) in life, and just before the final halt in front of the house we all feel delighted.

As you go through the above paragraph am sure you would like to sit back and relate to it. I agree that state of a road often tells you the way of governance but, “A Road” tells you much more than that, and often we, by virtue of our single directional negativity, forget to try and learn things out of a piece of land that chose to be facilitator in our life over being dressed up in the most beautiful way.

(The Author is working as a Project Manager in INI Consulting P. Ltd, Mumbai)