There is a road from silk board to Bannerghata road that goes by the side of madiwala lake. It helps me to reach home through less traffic.
On this road, there are 4 parallel roads to the right, that will link to the main route.
Here I am, driving, hesitates to take the first right turn, drives on, shall take the next, I don’t, misses the third, finally drives on, to take the last one. When I reach the last turn, the road is blocked.
There is a vehicle in front, it’s rear wheel is in a ditch. The driver, like me may have missed all the good turns and reached the dead end.
Looked like, he was not able to come out from the ditch on his own.
It’s a heavy vehicle, safari and I offered to help. I told him, I have a tow rope, my car can pull you out of trouble. He had a frustrated look and said OK.
The tow rope which was in my car was a gift from my sister. When she sees some useful thing, she buys two, one for her, the other for her brother and I am the brother. The rope (actually a metal chain covered by strong plastic) was in the car waiting for an opportunity to rescue me in case of an emergency. It never happened, however here is an opportunity to help someone.
When we were connecting the vehicles, a lady with a small baby in her arms came out of the car, smiled and said thanks, which was a big surprise. I thought, he was alone.
We managed to pull out the car, the lady smiled thanked me once again. The guy whispered a thanks and rushed away. No smile, looked like he has many problem waiting through the evening and has managed to get out of one, this unplanned one.
I reversed the car, stopped, felt happy sitting in the car and the questions came up one by one
Why did I come that way ? I have never missed those turns before.
That man in the car seems to be having lot of trouble at hand.
It was getting dark,around 6.30 in the evening.The spot they were in was lonely, no way someone would have come that way, unless by chance, like me.
His struggle, all alone, with his family in the car, must have looked unending.
Why, the first solution came to mind, that worked, was the use of the rope. What, if the rope was not there, what would have been the alternative ?
I felt thankful to my sister for the gift, to the rope for its role, to the car, to self for a good job done.
I was there at that moment, was it destiny and to help them was a matter of choice, or was it all destiny ?
My friend who had gone to varanasi to immerse his father’s ashes in river Ganges. In the boat, some people were discussing about Prime minister, Indira Gandhi’s death. It happened a day or two ago, it was in the year 1984, when a Panda (priest) in the boat told him as a matter of fact, it had to happen, after seven years her son will also meet a similar fate.
After 7 years, in the year 1991, Rajiv Gandhi had a ghastly end, we recalled this with goosebumps. What a coincidence!!
My aunt, when she heard about the prime minister story, innocently asked me, why did your friend go to Varanasi, he could have immersed the ashes in Cauvery river.
I thought, the destiny would have changed ?!!!
Rajmenon's Blog 
Sir, trust me I don’t have words to explain how good human being you are!
Maybe, you choose the other road because god sent you to help them and he knew you have the proper equipment in your car. Ha ha ha.
Hi Usha, I take life as it comes, accepts what happens, with no complaints. It is raining heavy or badly, is a judgement, the truth is it is raining.
Simple expression & very nicely narrated.
Which tells ,there is purpose for all our action which is designed & planned by the Almighty
to help the needy.
Yes, Ashok, there is reason for everything.
Dr Wagle
Rajendran,
Interesting events both are pivoted on coincidence. Let is keep the ‘why’ aside. But do you realize that with similar two incidences at hand, a whopping majority of men and women are easily convinced of existence of god. Indeed for many even one will do to think that the divine hand is real and is there to bless you (let alone sometimes at the expense of good luck for someone else). There are many other equivalent types of incidence which will also do.
This is because for most people their mind is already convinced of existence of god (and they have already reposed their blind faith in him/her). For those who may have any doubt an incidence like this tips the scale. People seem to need such a blessing hand because they are afraid what adversity may visit them and they do not think or understand that they alone can overcome that adversity. The fault is not their. We are brought up in that way to believe less in ourselves less and leave the rest to that blessing hand.
If one believes in God then one can worship God in a personal way. But again one needs a model for worship and religion is always there to lead the way. Add to that the universal fear of afterlife and need to insure that we are not placed in hell for our misdeeds (not a coincidental commonality among all religions). Also, a religion gives us a readymade community support which too we crave for. It is no wonder that God fearing is the norm and atheism is a rare exception.
What then about ‘destiny’. How does one explain that. Science tells us that every action (of human or otherwise) is an ultimate macroscopic result of random motions of basic particles. Science is yet to explain ‘free will’ which is central to human actions. But there are many things in this world which are yet to be discovered by science. For most that alone is enough to prove that God exists and it is he/she who has created this universe (for his fun?). When even renowned scientists believe in this explanation of god what of the ordinary mortals.
The laws of probability should tell us that coincidences may be rarest of rare but not impossible. It is said that all the financial advisers in the world (and that includes rating agencies) who told their gullible investor clients that a disaster like the 2008 prime bubble does not exist. But this outlying event did happen. We forget that the probability curve which we use in most cases has a long tail which allows for rarest of rare (read Prof Taleb’s book ‘Black Swan’).
In your case, your mind could have been distracted for some reason and you missed the earlier turns. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was unrelated to Indira Gandhi’s assassination and yet if your friend is to be believed it was foretold. With no aspersion on your friend, what the panda said may have been something else. More likely your fiend recounted this only after Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated. At any rate, both coincidences should be explainable even if the reasons are difficult to find.
So, touching as your narrative is and as usual narrated in simple and flowing language, I would have ended it with a caveat.
Dr Wagle
Yes we do believe in DESTINY but we never dependent on it. We have to take efforts to succeed in our gals / objectives. It is another key of the locker which is with Almighty. HE always takes you to the place/event where your presence is needed.