communication: Turn the corner – The Economic Times

Waiting for the call taxi to pick me up from my location, I was getting restless. Where was he? That is when the driver called and said, “Madam, I am round the corner. Come.” Which corner? Where I waited was a residential colony with streets criss-crossing each other with several corners all around. I laughed to myself once I gave him the exact location with a landmark. Because, I remembered a lovely verse I had read the other day, written by the poet-novelist, Langston Hughes:

When you turn the corner

And you run into yourself
Then you know that you have turned
All the corners that are left.

In the course of negotiating all the twists and turns, crossroads, hills and valleys in the course of trekking through the journey of life, one does come across several corners that need to be explored. Is this the correct turn? Do I go right or left? Should I just wander and let the path take me to wherever? The not-so-adventurous would rather play life by the book, take only the trodden path and go to only those places that are tested and tried and declared safe, mapped and marked.

The eternal seeker, however, is delighted with surprises that lead her to new paths and truths. For as Jain philosophers say, there is no single Truth; there are many truths and many corners to turn. Who knows what is waiting to be discovered in which corner? For all you know, you might one day hit the right corner that reveals you to you, you to Self, the Divine Eternal.