Hi, I am rebloging one of my older pieces from my earlier site. Apologies to those who already read it.
In 1999, the daily news was filled with a number of ‘apocalypses’ headed our way: Asteroid impact, Pole shift, Nuclear holocaust, the Last Judgement and so on. I and my friends in school wondered whether we should spend all our saved pocket money in case we die the next day. Others contemplated the worth of studying for exams if, hopefully, we were dying anyway. The year went without the promised relief.
Then came Star-holocaust and the year of rising of Christ in 2000, Nibiru collision in 2003, nuclear war in 2006… There were some real catastrophes during these years, Tsunami, Typhoons and floods, but no one predicted those. In 2012, all the apocalypses promised for many years made a reappearance: Nibiru collision, Pole shift and Continent break-away, Galactic alignment, Solar storms, the Last Judgement… Again, I wondered whether I should trust them and spend my considerably larger savings.
I had reasons.
In 2006, a jyotishi (astrologer) predicted that I will die soon. I survived this personalised prediction though and had to complete LL.B.
Then, in 2008, another couple of jyotishis said that I should have died already and wondered how my stars saved me! Surprise! Then, they suggested pujas for an entire year to change my stars. (I wonder why, when they were also keeping me alive!) For six months, I followed the rigid daily schedule of pleasing various stars religiously (literally!) until I had had enough and decided that I would prefer dying instead and skip MBA exams. I am still alive though!
Hence, I couldn’t trust these people in 2012. What if I had to live at a night shelter in Delhi after spending all my money?
Someone I know was foretold to die at 50. Dreading the day ever since, he has planned life accordingly—doesn’t spend on himself, saves entire money for his family’s future and strives to settle his children as early as possible. Close to 50 now and with perfect health, he lives under the constant threat of dropping dead any day. I don’t know if crossing 50 will prove to be a shock to him—No plans post-50!
Most religions believe in Destiny but also believe that it is not written in stone. Even a change in a single molecule of the tiniest little thing can change future drastically.
Say, a certain X was destined to break a leg in a bike-truck accident on a fated day. However, on the way to hit him, the trucker ate food that an E. coli bacterium decided to infect out of sheer whim. The trucker got a stomach disorder, had an urge to relieve himself first and missed X by a few seconds. Hence, the whim of a single-cell being, the (Good?) bacteria, saved a human from hopping around for months. The trucker had a hard time driving though.
Again, Y was destined not to win a lottery on a certain day. But the person who picks the winning lottery numbers was eating bubble gum that he dropped in the bowl by mistake. While he was picking out the sticky gum, Y’s ticket number stuck to the gum. Y became the winner.
Consider this: If destiny is so exact, wouldn’t it have known that you would meet this jyotishi and thr advice he/she would offer? Then wouldn’t it design your fate around the said advice leading you to the foretold fate?
“Prophecies can be broken”, as told by the great saint J.K. Rowling in the holiest of holy books the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Wonder what if Lord Voldemort had not heard the prophecy and not gone after Harry… He could have been saved a few years of playing Phantom in Albanian forest. Once you know your ‘Destiny’, you will take the exact steps leading to it.
So, for a happy life, avoid jyotishis at all cost—especially the you-are going-to-die type. Don’t wait for or dread your Destiny or the End of the World. Don’t try to kill Harrys to save yourself. Learn to play hopscotch in case you break your leg someday. Also learn to fly a glider, go bungee-jumping, make friends, fall in love and celebrate each day. This way, whether the world ends tomorrow or not and whether you find your Destiny or not, you would have lived a Life anyway.
Short Stories 