The Maze | Santhanagopalan Vasudevan

They taught him how to walk, amidst whom he now did walk.

Those, since days he could remember, were always there to talk.

He learnt what a path was and learnt what a wall was.

But never what it was to be one’s own boss.

Many a type of wall there was, which he learnt to cross,

Some walls, he had to let them pass

Some walls, he had to break across

And some he could just walk into and pass

Which were just illusionary pieces of mass,

Deceiving enough even for the smarter class.

A few times he was taken through tunnels underground

Which was never taught formally as a means of moving around.

In fact, it was a subject never discussed

Maybe it was one of shame and disgust.

He failed to notice the voices around, slowly fade into a hollow

But soon realized there was none to walk along with or follow.

It finally struck his slow-grasping mind

That from the start he was entrapped in a maze,

Which the kith and kin of his kind

Had solved and made out of it, their ways.

Right now his head was clear of any thought

Except for only one clear thought

That he shall make use of all he was taught

And find the way out with all his heart.

A few more of his kind, he still managed to spot

But none felt as friendly as the vanished lot.

He set foot only where some old footprints were there

He believed that only they shall find him free air.

But he could never make out whose footprints they were

Those who found their way out at last

Or those who were just as equally lost.

Some routes felt like his wish was to be granted

Some others took him back to where he started.

What felt so much like progress yesterday

Sometimes felt useless just the next day.

He took to those tunnels when no one could see

But never knew what their other end would be

A brilliant short-cut if he was lucky,

A dead-end staring back, if he wasn’t to be.

How enormous was this whole bloody maze ?

What fraction of it had he covered in these days ?

How many routes had he so far misjudged ?

Were there just a few lanes left untouched ?

Sometimes in a fit of rage, he managed to climb atop a wall

To get a view of the maze’s end – but it seemed to not at all.

Was this what they call life crisis ?

Was death the only way out of this ?

Killing oneself would be a cowardly move

That he wasn’t one, he had to prove.

He paused for a moment, and realized that this maze

Was nothing but his own life – with all its craze.

There was nothing called the right way, nothing called the wrong.

It was only about moving along and along.

There is no map to help, there is no solution.

Neither an escape route, nor a destination.