The Stranger ... along the road not taken

There are lots and lots of days when I wonder if the manner in which I approach my professional responsibilities towards students and taxpayers is worth all the hassles that I bring on myself.  The road not taken is not always easy to travel--way too many potholes that Robert Frost did not warn me about.  Those damn poets and their wild imaginations about beautiful grassy paths that exist only in their minds!

Yet, I continue along that road in my professional obligations. Almost always alone.  Because, every once in a while, somebody pops up to encourge me that I am on the correct path after all.  Like today.

What happened, you ask?  Pull up a chair. Sit down with a cup of coffee and hear me out.

My latest column was in the paper today.  Of course, I was as excited to see that column with my photo as I was when the first of those happened more than two decades ago.  It is always a feeling of "hey, really, I wrote this?"

In this modern age, I tweeted that. Right from my bed.

Colleges aren’t keeping up with the changing world My oped in @registerguard http://t.co/Rawsd6RhSP #India #modi
— sriram khe (@congoboy) January 20, 2015

And then I tweeted again, after having that glorious morning coffee.  I told you I am one excited fellow.  Hey, you will also be that way if you travelled an offbeat path.

#HigherEd is not graduating #students equipped and ready for the 21st century that is already 15 years old http://t.co/Rawsd6RhSP #China
— sriram khe (@congoboy) January 20, 2015

A couple of emails from strangers, appreciating my column. Very exciting, of course.  But, what really convinced me today that I am doing alright is an email that the newspaper's editor forwarded me.  An email from a person who is a stranger to me. The email to the editor noted:

Thanks for Dr. Khé's columns. His writing expands our understanding of the world in an interesting, readable style. His students are fortunate, and so are we, his readers.
Note: This is not necessarily for publication I just wanted to express my appreciation to the RG for printing the comments of this brilliant writer.

After reading that email, more than once, for now I am ready to pretend that there are no potholes.  It is a state-of-the-art road that I am on.
Hey, Frost, thanks!  And a special thank-you to that newspaper reader.

The Road Not Taken

By Robert Frost

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.

Another reader responds to my op-ed. Made my day :)

This one is wonderful, unlike my previous post wherein I referred to a few responses to my recent op-ed.

To begin with, it was a letter in the mail. Yes, that old-style snail-mail.

And, it looks like it was composed on one of those electric typewriters.

With a name and from address. And, she includes in the intro:"former teacher, parent of adult women, not teachers, who do have Masters degrees, their choice to do so."

From the letter, it is clear that the reader is a woman from a generation that is senior to me.  She opens that lengthy letter with:

Thank you for your good editorial in the S-J on Masters degrees.

Her postscript is the best part of all:

Thank you, "P."  I could not have imagined a better start to a morning.

The Reader on Revolutionary Road

Kate Winslet has been nominated for an Oscar, but for the wrong movie.

Winslet was simply fantastic in The Revolutionary Road. She made sure that the character came across as real--that no viewer would ever think that the character she played could not have been possible in the 1950s. In fact, thanks to her performance, viewers would think that Winslet's character was indeed the norm, than otherwise.


I don't mean to suggest that Winslet was not good in The Reader. She was awesome. I agree with reviewers and critics who have opined that Winslet is such a terrific actor that she even in the nude scenes she is so real. However, she suffers from the story line and conversations that some times seemed rather stilted.


I suppose it is to Weinstein's credit that Winslet ended up being nominated for The Reader, and not for Revolutionar Road. I am not sure whether he did her a favor there; I think the category would have been a slam dunk for Winslet had she been nominated for the other role she played.

I have watched Winslet in so many movies that I am no longer suprised with her remarkable ease in performing the roles. What I really like about her is that she does not have the clinical/sterile approach that Meryl Streep presents. A long time ago, soon after the Titanic, Kate Winslet appeared in a movie, Hideous Kinky, that was set in Morocco. It was an impressive performance for a young actor--she was only 22 when that movie was made. In Little Children, she played the role of a restless and unhappy housewife with perfection. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was another gem.

After all the movies that she has made, she is only 33!

Well, I hope Kate Winslet is awarded the Oscar this year--even if for the wrong movie.