STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
- Robert Frost
Actually, Atul's witty comments on his facebook www.facebook.com/atulsondhi using Robert Frost's 'woods are lovely ...' transported me back to my school days wherein I was exposed to Robert Frost.
If my memory serves me right, it was the dhoti-clad, moustacheless and clean-shaven Assistant Headmaster K Ramasubramaniam (KRS as he used to be called) in his mid-30s who used to teach English in his gruff voice.
Robert Frost, incidentally, was India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's favourite poem.
Though never exposed to any snow-filled forests in the late 1960s and early 1970s while living in Chennai (then called Madras, the southernmost city of India), I had chance to live through such places in 1990s - on visits to Simla, Kulu, Manali with family.
It was a painful experience bearing that numbing icy feeling all through your body.
I am digging my digital photo ghazana to feret out those Manali experiences.
Thanks Atul for walking me down the memory lane.
What's life without memories.
