Luck as we know it

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”
― Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men

Luck is a term that is often misconceived. Often as we venture out on this journey of life, we get to know that luck is indeed a very debatable term. Good luck, bad luck and ‘I-don’t-know-why- luck -doesn’t-favour-me’ luck, it’s all a part and parcel of life. Just like we all have our good and bad hair days, we encounter those moments when we start appreciating what is often called sheer luck.

Maarten De Jonge, a cyclist, evaded death on both of the flights after booking tickets for MH370 and MH17. His last minute change in plan has kept him alive to tell the story today. How else can this man’s life story be interpreted as? Death was a silent spectator, trying to encompass him in its grip but here he was, thanking his stars for being in his favour.

Call it God’s magic wand (if someone or something like that exists) or call it just a co-incidence, life can throw up some surprises. Let’s take another example. There was this young boy, around 11 years old, who was apprehensive of boarding that ill-fated plane. He even asked his mother about death and an afterlife- whether it existed or not! He kept turning to look at his mother again and again as he walked holding his brother’s hand to board that plane. Little did the mother and son know that this indeed was it- the last ‘living glimpse’ of each other they would have to preserve for a lifetime.

Yes. It’s cruel. Isn’t it? But who are we to judge the so-called good and bad things that occur in our lives and in the world around us? Aren’t we all just mere spectators who give names to these events as luck, fate and destiny? Is there someone somewhere watching us, throwing in surprises out of the blue, just when we were thinking that our life was devoid of such LUCK ?

- Divya Nambiar

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