[Originally posted on September 04 2005, and posting again today which is teachers day]

On the way back from our new office one afternoon, Ashish and I got into a conversation. Little did I know that at the end of the conversation Ashish and I would have discovered so much about how much the roads teach us about our own life?

Ashish was at the wheel driving and I was playing navigator. He wasn’t quite sure of the route we had to take to reach the destination, so I was guiding him. At this one instant while we were heading straight I asked Ashish to take a left. As he swerved his steering wheel left he proclaimed, “Life doesn’t seem to be presenting me with a right turn, every turn is a left turn”. “That’s not true Ashish , just before you reach your destination there is a right turn which will take you straight to your destination”, I retorted, picturing the route in my mind and quickly calculating that there was a right turn we had to take to enter our office complex.

“If you get a right turn close to your destination what’s the use, you are already close to your destination, you should get a right turn when you are far away from your destination”, said Ashish, obviously the conversation was moving further away from just the rights and the lefts on the road. Ashish was co-relating the rights and the lefts with life.

“Okay the next turn you have to take will be a right turn, mind you; you are still far away from your destination, so does that make you feel better”, I said again after a quick calculation of the route.  “What’s more Ashish, you got to this right turn because you took a left turn earlier, had you gone straight or taken a right earlier you wouldn’t have reached here”,I continued.

In another moment the road we were on presented itself with a right turn and sure enough Ashish took it. We were on our way, close to our destination, when the road presented itself with another left turn. “Cruising along towards your destination, when you are close to, there is always a left turn, which will try to put you off your path. This left turn is that of a risk or a decision on gut feeling, if you take it you reach your destination sooner, even though the road may be bumpy and a lot less smoother than the road you are currently cruising on”, Ashish analyzed. “Yes and we have to take this left”, I replied back.

Now, only the right turn I had talked about earlier separated us from our destination, however Ashish missed that and drove ahead. “Dude what are you doing, you missed the right turn”, I cried. “No, I need to go straight, I have some work ahead”, Ashish replied. “But you will have to take a U-Turn to come back, that’s illegal, this is a busy road”, I was shouting at the top of my voice. “So that’s another lesson there, once a person misses the path to his destination, coming back is not only going to be impossible, but bordering towards being illegal. The person then has to take several wrong turns to reach his destination”, Ashish replied.

So true, In summary:
Life is like a road (a journey as most call it). The right and left turns are events associated with life. The right turn gets you towards your goal; the lefts take you away from your goal. However you cannot reach your destination by only taking rights or by going straight, you have to take a left sometime. If you miss right turns when close to your destination; you have to take several lefts to get back on track, in other words take many more risks, and many wrong doings to reach your destination.

What’s more, just like having a navigator on the road helps you reach your destination easily, having a navigator in life helps you take the best path toward your destination. That navigator can be anybody, your friend, teacher,well wisher, anyone, what is important is that the navigator has travelled the route before and is aware of all the rights and  lefts that would be presenting themselves on the road. Here’s hoping all of you find your navigators to help you safely towards your destination, whether on the road or in life.

Dedicated to all teachers on teachers day, who are navigators to all of us at an early point of our lives.