Beauties! a bit edited

Thimphu, Bhutan, September 2012

A note to the readers:  This reading has been on my mind for the last two hours since i uploaded it.  And I realized that the ending for the post was not appropriate.  It came from another thought, not related to this post.  Frost's poem was written here because I was thinking that there are still many dreams and ideas that I have make come true.  However, I have added a couplet that comes to mind whenever I see beautiful gorgeous faces, covered in wrinkles and folds...especially like the one above...

It was my first time in Thimphu, the capital of Bhutan.  It was a bright sunny day and I needed a drink of water.  I walked into this shop and found a young man sitting at the counter--staring out at the road.  As is my wont I starting chatting with him.  He was James, all of 22, and had given up on pursuing his education.  

First, I knew that he did not give me his original name, but the one he must have created for tourists and foreigners, second I also felt that the child needed some inspiration.  Someone to shake him out of his complacency.  

On my way into the shop I had seen this elderly woman, and despite her helplessness, I could not take my eyes off her face, because I found her face to narrate a thousand stories.  Every wrinkle could create a novel. Every fold, a poem.

I talked to James a short while, told him he was very, very, very young----even though he insisted he was too old to go and finish his high school.  I asked him to place his face next to the lady, so I could place beauties---that are poles apart together.

While we consider old age to be something to run from, it is still lucky to have lived a long, healthy fulfilled life.

Everytime I look at this picture, I cannot but mumble...

The Roads are
lonely dark and deep
but I have miles to
miles to go
before I sleep
----------------------- Robert Frost!

PS: Apropos of the opening (updated) comment on this post is the following couplet....

Khandhar bata rahein hain ki 
imarat kabhi buland thi...

The ruins are a testimony
that once it was (a) 
magnificent (monument)