we are all travellers on a quest that is unique to each of us, on some path to somewhere that is sometimes familiar and sometimes unknown. A destination which could be both tangible and intangible. No matter where it is, we are all on the journey to somewhere on some path.
Each of us is on a path to fulfil a journey where we meet different people along the way. Some a lot longer than the others. Some who leave a lasting impression in the briefest path that they have shared with us. They go out the same way they have come in, no matter how much we like to hold on.
Some path is difficult filled with hardship and difficulty, While the difficult paths teach valuable lessons in life and help to better oneself. The easy ones give us the reprieve that one needs in life and look back to for a positive vibe to carry on. There are different motivations as to why we take a certain path and why we continue on it.
The bends, the curves and the corners all add up to our experiences and takes us somewhere better. We all wonder how different or easy out life had been if we hadn't taken a different path. Or glad we did take some path anyway.
All of this has made me curious of paths and is the theme for my current project.
I am really excited for this project and look forward to collaborating w2ith the creative minds and have really good fun along.
Hello Barla,
It is a very universal contemplation for all people to wonder about the numerous choices, difficult decisions made and the eventual paths, turns & directions that our respective lives took. While reading your post, I couldn’t help but think of the people that we all encounter through out our lives – people that remain a part of your life and the people that don’t. I would always get extremely pensive about the people that weren’t a part of me anymore. Friends or even family members I remember being very close to me at one point but eventually drifting apart for no real rhyme or reason other than explaining it as “such is life”. I was discussing this with a dear friend of mine and he said the following to me (especially in relation to friends): “a person comes into your life at a particular period because at that particular time you needed him/her”. I don’t know how much this statement holds true but I began to think of a lot of different friends, about when we became friends and in what ways they affected my life. The statement started to fascinate me and helped me look at friendships and relationships in a more spiritual way.
This is such a thoughtful response Ashok, and I appreciate what your friend told you. As you said, I also don’t know how true it holds but I believe it for myself, because what is more that them being or coming into your life is that sometimes you can even be the person in between, where they were meant to meet you so that you can introduce them to other people. Even if this has no meaning for other I hold the belief close to myself because I have met wonderful people and have had so many interactions I’ve learned from that I wouldn’t trade for the world. I also like to believe that I have tried my best so far to do that for other people as well. =)
Hello Barla Bhargav,
Your photos and concept are appealing!
Other than discussing the physical form of a path, you are providing different meanings to the physical path that are showing in your photographs, such as various choices in one’s life journey or difficulties and challenges make one stronger. We use words such as “journey”, “road” and “path” a lot when describing these meanings and it is great to see that you visualize these definitions through photographs. Have you thought about combining some audio narration and display it along with your photographs?
When you talk about “taken a different path/new journey” that also made me think about how the “different/new physical path”, the first transcontinental railroad in the USA, has entirely changed the “life path” of American Indian. At the link below you will find a rare historical photo that related to this and the stories behind the picture.
A Native American overlooks the newly completed transcontinental railroad in Sacramento, c. 1867
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/native-american-railroad-sacramento-1867/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhTzi4CWH8c I like this analogy by Alan Watts that we are like clouds or a wave, there are no ‘wrong’ ways. Also I love that image as every head is its own universe Victoria, quite fitting for my work at the moment also.
Hi Barla,
Like Victoria said, after reading your post the first thing came to my mind was ‘The Road Not Taken’. It has quite striking resemblance to the poem’s concept, and few days back I was reading a post which talks in length and brings new dimension in the readings and misreadings of the poem. I’m sure you would enjoy reading the poem as well the post here: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/11/the-most-misread-poem-in-america/
Your idea is interesting, and perhaps if you can go more deep and elaborate with more visuals then it would be very exciting for fellow travelers to engage with your journey:)
I like how you have contextualised one’s journey through life, and also acknowledging the pros and cons.
How our paths might cross each others in order to learn something, but we still ahem an independent path, this shows who interdependencies works as an intersection.
Your post is really relevant to me Thanks Man
Hi Barla!
I hope you are doing well. My name is Victoria and I work for EAS! I was reading your blog post and the whole time I was reading it, I couldn’t help but think of the poet Robert Frost, who wrote ‘The Road Not Taken’ where he talks about a person standing between a worn-down path and another that looked untouched. In his poem the man chose the path that was not touched by others, and he always wondered what it would have been like had he taken the other path.
This is extremely relevant and exciting because I feel like your interest in paths is directly connected to the bridges theme. When I think about a road as one person’s experience it is awesome to visualize connections, interactions and collaborations between different people as crossroads/intersections of these roads, where they share what they have seen and experienced; painting a picture for each other of what life is like from their eyes and their minds. No matter how different people may be there is always a way to find similarities between one another and create more ‘crossroads’ even between yourself and more than one person, when you consider introducing people to one another as well.
About a year ago I had a conversation with my dad and he told me ‘cada cabeza es un universo’ which means ‘every head is its own universe’ in Spanish. This really struck me because first, we don’t often have deep conversations, and for him to say something like that really opened my eyes to the way that he thinks (a crossroad for me to explore); second, I think he is right, many times people make certain decisions, take certain paths and end up in different places, and whether those paths are good or bad, they create a unique experience that is hopefully also learned from in the process. And considering how much every person sees in one life time, there is no way you can’t find some way to relate. You just have to take the time to do it.
As people, we all have a lot to teach and learn from each other, especially considering that we are all in very different parts of the world (I am in California, USA). I am very excited to see what other conversations will come up in this project because there is no way to solve social, cultural, political, or any other issues if we do not have conversations and expand our perspectives. Have a good one!
-Victoria (26yrs old Mexican American from Los Angeles, California)
EAS Artist Liaison and Website Coordinator
Here is the link to Frost’s poem if you’d like to read it!
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken