Happenstance

Sometimes, things happen, miracles happen, events take place but most wonderful of them all is – when people happen to you. I hope you and me share the same feelings on the subject. How saintly and wisey-wise we turn when people happen to us 😀 We give it lofty names… Coincidence, Chance, Fate even serendipity( lucky to have found you in the haystack kinda feelings!!)

For me, some friends fall first and foremost in this category. Then come our relatives through marriage- they in all shapes, sizes and quirks just happen to us one D Day! Probably love at first sight too falls in this ‘sudden’ category 😜 and then there are those innumerable shopkeepers, bus conductors, policemen on duty, corner shop vendors, even that particular old lady who walks around the building anti clockwise to me; these are the people who change our outlook, moment or day, in an instance.

I used to be a very strong believer in this philosophy of ‘strangers happening to you for a reason ‘. It so happened that a few years back, on a late evening, my car broke down in the middle of a choking traffic jam under the JJ flyover in Mumbai. I was labelled a nuisance by the honking vehicles and the scowling men at wheels. The traffic police guy benevolently walk- wheeled- pushed my small hatchback into a by-lane. When I was about to turn into a damsel in distress, a kind looking technician appeared from the dark recesses and offered to look at and repair the car. Since the traffic policeman was in sight at the junction, I felt Providence at work 🙏🏻 … he opened the bonnet, sweated around for an hour, got the engine whirring and charged me a handsome amount with a kind concession thrown in as well as he saw me dredging out coins after the currency notes in my purse were unable to meet his fees. But was I obliged or what? Overwhelmingly so. I thanked him profusely by calling him a farishta (Urdu word for an angel) using the embellishment from my Urdu repertoire, once I got to know his name was Razzaq!

The car reached me home but gave up the very next day and had to be hospitalized at the authorised company workshop… What was I told?! That I had been conned royally! Original parts had been removed and replacements done with ‘about to die’ spares! It was a known trick around that area with out-of- station vehicles! The car breaking down in the traffic jam was the first step in this game! After a sizeable bill once again to get genuine working engine parts by the authorized guys, followed by a guffaw session by the technicians at the company workshop and a lot of pitying glances later by almost all the staff as the story spread, I was let go with a great deal of local advice. Beware of strangers, they don’t just happen to you!!

I the great believer in happenstance, am still looking for the angel who duped me…

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