The Road Not Taken. A poem by Robert Frost. 1920


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,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Ku Petik Bintang-bintang, by Kenny Remy Martin

Kupetik bintang-bintang
Biarpun banyak halangan
Rela tempuhi segalanya
Onak yang kupijak bagaikan tak terasa

Kusedar sejak mula
Tiada jalan yang mudah
Tapi kuyakin di dalam hati
Akhir terkota jua sumpah dan janji

Walau sukarnya bagi mu sayang
Perjalanan menyakitkan
Tapi hadapilah dengan kesabaran
Kan tiba kebahagiaan

Tiada batasannya
Usia ataupun rupa
Kita bersama memulakannya
Sehingga ke akhir kita terus berdua

A few lines in Dost dost naa rahaa, a song from Sangam, that have been playing in my head for the past few days ...

dost dost naa rahaa
pyaar pyaar naa rahaa
zindagii hamen teraa
aitabaar naa rahaa …

Something about good friends are difficult to find and when they double cross then it becomes very tragic.

last night while the boys were having dinner at the warung at level 4 of suria klcc, one of them pointed out an english error on the disposable cups ... "Many choice. One great place."

last week, on one of the days when it rained in the morning, i had breakfast there too. a rat ran around on the floor to the screams of eaters. a few minutes later, tan sri azizan zainul abidin turned up to have his breakfast. i wish he had been there earlier to see the rat.

Heard over the radio Broken Wings by Mr. Mister ... how apt ...

Baby I don't understand
Why we can't just hold on
To each other's hands
This time will be the last
I fear unless I make it all so clear
I need you so

Take these broken wings
And learn to fly again
And learn to live so free
And when we hear the voices sing
The book of love will open up
And let us in

Baby I think tonight
We can take what was wrong
And make it right
I need you so
Baby it's all I know
That you're half of the flesh
And blood makes me whole
I need you so

Correction: Sherry's still with the bank, and running her own business at the same time.

Mom and dad going to Mekah on 5 Jan. I hope they make it home again. But I wonder what they hope.

I was getting a ride down the escalator. That lady standing one step below me looked familiar. I could only see her profile partly so I couldn't tell for sure. She was in a vermilion tee, a pair of jeans, her long hair in a pony tail, and French pedicure on her toenails.

The escalator reached the lower floor and I sped off to the next one going down another floor. This time I was one step below her so I turned back and she said hi. It's Sherry! Or "Sherry the Merry" as a good friend of mine Ar used to call her. And she looked the same as 14 years ago. She used to be a part-time model for magazine and TV ads back then.

Sherry, Ar and I used to work together at the bank. She was in the Personnel Department. She joined the bank earlier than I, right after getting her diploma. Ar joined a few months after I did. We used to be in a very small and close circle. Money was scarce then for Ar and I as we were only interns. Sherry was under probation, but for a permanent position. So she was better off. Ar and I shared one dinky room in PJ. We used to take the packed bus together to work, and wait for the bus home at Kota Raya. I remember getting a measly 6 bucks for my annual increment.

After Ar and I left the bank, I talked to her no more than five times and met her only once. Ar and I often talked and wondered about her whenever we met. The last time I met Ar at his house in October, he asked me if I had heard anything about "Sherry the Merry" being single again.

Today I got the answer to Ar's question. I did not ask her but the first thing she told me after saying hi was that her husband married the minah salleh, as if I had known the ensuing story. I did not ask further.

I also quickly learned from her that she left the bank recently and now she is running her own business out of Bangsar. She was so such in a hurry with her business accomplice that we didn't get to talk much. We did the routine exchange of phone numbers, patted each other, promised to have lunch or something one of these days. Then we parted ways.

Yu is picking me up for cigar dinner. Bought myself a Davidoff robusto. Gonna be a-munchin' and a-puffin' tonight.

i started working again yesterday. the office is still quiet. the boss is still on leave >:-> but the boss's boss is already in the office :-(