The Road Not Taken

If you take the road not taken by anyone and if you have patience, stamina to travel that path, success is undoubtedly yours. All the major scientific discoveries are made when they take an unknown path.

To consider the unknown path, you have to break your comfort zone.

The below story is of Gopal who took the risk to explore the unknown road.

Gopal was a farmer in South India. He had about 15 acres of lush farmland. His farm was on the edge of the forest. Once a while, he ventured into the forest to catch crabs. These crabs will come during the monsoon near the waterfall.

One day it was raining. He eagerly took a gunny bag and went near the falls. He, fortunately, found some big crabs there. He was promptly catching the crabs and wisely putting in his gunny bag. It was slightly raining and the mighty forest was green all over.

Suddenly he steps on something and slipped. It was a bit rubbery. When he looked down it looked like a tail. The very succeeding moment he heard a hiss. When he looked back, he saw a King Cobra raising its hood. It was lying on a fallen branch.

On observing this, Gopal naturally had his heart in his mouth. Being a farmer, he has seen many snakes. But this was the first time he saw the King Cobra. It was about 18 feet tall. Gopal was 5 feet 10 and the King cobra was directly looking in his eyes. Local villagers always said about Nagin (King Cobra), but this was the first time he saw it. Gopal was directly examining the eyes of King Cobra and standing like a statue. King Cobra's fierce eyes were as big as Gopal's eyes. Just the shape of the mouth was unusual. It typically took some breathless seconds for Gopal to come back to the proper senses.

King Cobra slowly removed its tongue out to sense the unusual surroundings. It was merely inches away from Gopal's face. The Cobra was about the strike. Gopal instantly dropped the gunny bag and ran away. He scarcely missed the direct strike by few possible inches. The King Cobra started chasing him. 

Gopal could hear the crawling in the dried leaves behind. He knew he was followed, but had he seen back, it would have struck. At this moment in time, he approached the end of the road. There where two well-worn roads. One road was semi-paved, another was the road unknown, it was usually untaken by people. 

Gopal instantly made a split-second decision. 

"If I take this plain road, surely the snake, which is faster than I will bite me," he genuinely thought. 

"The other road may be tough, so it is untaken by others. There is a more realistic chance to escape."

So he took the road which was untaken by others.

Fortunately for Gopal, that road typically contained many mighty boulders. He climbed laboriously on it and started running. The King Cobra's typical speed slowed down while climbing and Gopal managed to miraculously escape.

Some times it is clever to take the road not considered by anyone. Just you must have the stamina to endure the journey.