All Roads Lead to Rome?

Ever since my early childhood, this was a proverb that appealed to me greatly, and I’d often be wondering what would the lanes, by lanes and streets of the adjoining areas look like, that they’ll all be amalgamating in Rome? There is a possibility of this proverb being so close because I heard it ample times during our school and college days. Although in most of the cases, they were being used ironically, and as I sit to pen this article in my late 20s, I would refrain from shying away and narrate the actual incidents. 

Most of them would happen in my tuition classes when during surprise tests at the coaching centre we’d often be looking for answers from those seated beside, behind or in front, and when our teachers’d hand over the answer scripts, we’d mostly be told that it’s indeed very uncanny of him, (rather us) to discover that most of the answers began with the same text, sometimes even the same punctuations, and ended the same way. He’d continue that the body’d be tad different from each other, which’d only be the mere repetitions of the preceding paragraphs. While our heads’d be bowed down in deep shame, and as we’d gently try lifting up the same, we’d mostly be met with questions like, “Well all that’s fine. Now, who could tell me as to why would all the roads lead to Rome?”

Even though we were a curious bunch, wanting to know about all and sundry, yet there would be repetitions of such instances quite often, and the wittiest ones would always have a counter to such allegations (which were true indeed), and one of us would say, “Because Rome wasn’t built in a day, Sir.” The entire class would burst out in laughter, and some of us would secretly praise the speaker also, as we weren’t sure who said that in reality. Nor did the teachers. It used to be one of those wittiest ones again that mentioned that Sir was infact proud of our presence of mind. 

Possibly yes, or maybe not. But, I wouldn’t know if I’d be able to recall any of the lessons that we’d be taught with such fervour, but even today these anecdotes seem to accompany me in my deepest solitude, giving me enough reason and material to laugh all by myself, thus gleaming up my days, which are mundane mostly. 

Now, this reminds me of another anecdote when I was perhaps in my 4th grade, and my mom and cousin grandmom had decided to visit the market, to fetch ‘alur chop’ (a sophisticated Bengali fritter), for all of us back home. This was because a neighbour that told them that this was this new joint that had opened up, one that served amazing fritters, yet the only challenge was that the pathway towards it was tad zigzag. Yet, both my mom and grandmom seemed undeterred by the same, also because the love for alur chop had subdued all other feelings. They proudly declared that they’ll be back within half an hour. 

At home, we kept looking at the watch, where every second meant a lot, yet there were no signs of them for a good 45 minutes. Perplexed, we contemplated the need to step out and look for them, when a fatigued mum was spotted at a distance, and while we were about to ask for the chop, she exclaimed, “Oh my! How did I reach here? How is this route so confusing?” Not bearing the courage to speak up, it was my grandfather that broke the ice, “Perhaps because all roads lead to Rome!”