Fate, Coincidence and the Astrology column

Srikant was perturbed. He was furious of himself as he had forgotten where he had put the
earrings, the one he had bought for his girlfriend. It was her birthday and she had deliberately
asked for those earrings having the American diamond on it which costs around Rs 1500.

Another worry had been added to his catalogue of agonies. He was unemployed, he had an
interview scheduled around 2:00 pm, he had borrowed Rs 1000 from his friend who lived in the
neighborhood and another 500 from Mom which he need to pay back and now the earrings for
which the amount was borrowed were missing. He was disturbed and under his agitations he
picked the pillow from the bed to look for the earrings but didn’t find anything. He then
removed the bed sheet but the luck didn’t favor him.

Luck, Huh! Another superficial thing which was against him that day (as per his thoughts)
though in the newspaper he had read about his day in the astrology column which mentioned
that luck will be on his side, the column which he follows religiously.

He even looked the earrings under the bed but they were not there. He stood up and throws
the pillow at the wall in furiousness. The pillow hit the mirror which fall down and broke. There
goes the 22 Rupees item which he had bought a day before yesterday.

He had to leave to meet Kanika, since she doesn’t like people who come late. He left his house
carrying the burden of his problems. With few coins clinging in the pocket he rushed to the bus
stop. At the bus stop he took out the two one rupee coins from his pockets and fumbled with
them, the thing which he does whenever he is occupied with his thoughts. While gazing around,
he looked at those two coins; one had the manufacturing year of 2008 and another with 2009.
He had to use them to buy the bus tickets and hence will be left with empty pockets.

He reached the restaurant near the brokerage firm where his interview was scheduled. He
waited for around half an hour as Kanika had the habit of coming late. She came 45 minutes
late to the scheduled time and left as soon as she found that he had not brought the demanded
earrings.

With the droop down face he went to attend the interview. He had interest in financial markets
and loves to predict the flow of equity and shares, in fact he had done some research and
reached the consensus that the banking sector will rise today, a home work which he had done
for the interview.
The interviewer asked him to wait outside the conference room. There was an auction room
adjacent to the conference room where the brokers were busy with the bids, shares and the
live market. His curiosity dragged him into the room. When he was busy looking at the
fluctuations of the market a hand disturbed his calculations. He turned around and found an old
man.

“Boy, do you have interest in share market”

“Yes I do” he replied.

“Then quote me something” The old man asked.

After thinking a bit he suggested him to invest in the banking sector, a sure tip from him. The
old man gave a thought, asked his name and left saying that if he made profit he will share 5%
with him. In the next 10 minutes the market plunged including the banking sector signaling at
his bad luck. With the fear of his catastrophic luck he went into the conference room for the
interview. The interview held for an hour during which he was unable to answer most of the
questions asked by the interviewer. At the end the interviewer wished him luck and he came
out of the room with a further saddened face. Cursing his bad luck he sat on the couch nearby.
At that time he really wanted to kill the guy who had written in the astrology column about his
good luck.

After contemplating for half an hour and hypothetically killing the astrology guy several times
he stood up to leave. Suddenly he heard the receptionist calling his name. When he went to her
she gave him an envelope which she said that the old guy had left for him. With that last
surprise he left the brokerage firm. After crossing the main gates he opened the envelope and
the surprise shocked him. The envelope had 1530 Rupees and a slip written “from the old
man”.

Surprise, shocked, amazed, was the astrology column right, but why the old man would have
left him the money after all the market did plunge. With all these thought he hob into the bus
and paid Rs 6 for the ticket. He got off at the market near his house, bought a mirror worth Rs
22 and went to meet his friend repaying his 1000 Rupees. After clearing the debts he entered
his house and paid back the last debt, Rs 500 to his Mom.

Was this the fate, was this the coincidence, and was the astrology column right. Morning he
was perturbed and now he was confused. Busy with these thoughts he switched on the TV. He
put his hand in the pocket and found two coins. He took them out and started fumbling with
them, his subconscious exercise. He kept on switching the channels and stopped at one which
was showing the market news. The channel was blinking the news of reduction in the loan
interest rates due to which the bank sector had a staggering boom.

“So those were the 5% of the profit”, he exclaimed. His market research did work. While
thinking about the incident he looked at those two coins; one had the manufacturing year of
2008 and another with 2009, a pure coincidence and he smiled for the first time that day. He
switched off the TV, stood up and put his hand in the sweater to keep the coins in his upper
pocket. In the pocket something pricked him. He took out that thing and they were those
earrings having the American diamond on it which costs around Rs 1500.