Luck - by chance!

Firstly this post has nothing to do with the movie ”Luck” starring Shruti Haasan in one of her most aphrodisiac performance, though the movie was nothing more than a total clunker. Having merely read one-fourth of “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, I do not find myself in any comfortable position to comment or write a post about it, as it would present me nothing more than a naïve subject. The following post might or might not be linked to the gist of the above mentioned book, but not a single sentence of it has been plagiarized from the book or from anywhere else. This post is about ‘luck’ as I construe it.

Luck for me is ‘random’, i.e it lacks any order or plan or occurrence. Luck can be on your side in the morning for a particular task and can evade you in the evening for any other equivalent task. You wake up on time for your morning class is by sheer luck. Supposedly the alarm clock fails or you are floating in your world of surreal dreams so peacefully that you do not hear it ringing, you will surely miss the class owing  your misfortune to luck (or I’d define it as ill-luck). You are walking through a lane with your friend who suddenly slips and falls on a banana peel. This marks your friend’s ill-luck and your good luck because it could have happened the other way around. Luck favored you this time! Similarly if your girlfriend ditches you for some other person means luck disfavored you and favored the 'other person'. You can be the richest person in your town but ill-luck can make you a hapless victim in a matter of seconds. You can be on the zenith today but ill-luck can bring you down in a flip of seconds. Luck can make you win thousands of bucks in a Casino, Gambling or a Blackjack, but the same luck can disfavor you anytime. If you are the most lucky guy in your college you could be walking hand-in-hand with the hottest chick in town, but if you are oh-not-so-lucky kind of a guy you would be doing nothing more than driveling! Luck, undoubtedly is omnipotent and omnipresent but it lacks the orderliness.

People underestimate luck and perceive it as Non-luck (i.e Skills). Skills do define ourselves, our traits and our attributes, but without luck it has value equal to ZERO! Skills + Luck = Success, where "Luck >> Skills", thereby narrating the grandness of Luck! With Skills but without Luck, you can somehow manage to be on the top at the cost of your precious life. However with luck but without skills, you can manage to be on the top but will never have the fear of dying because of that factor called ‘Luck’! Thus, Luck is indeed a potent toxin, but yes it doubtlessly happen by mere chance if you happen to be 'lucky' enough!

Me, Environs and the Nature

The recent bargain which fetched me a 500 rupees gain turned out to be the best deal I ever had. I bought a much needed Hawk bicycle in exchange for my old never-exploited Razorback! This has not only demolished my exponentially rising Rickshaw bill but has also started saving my Time (by making me punctual at all the classes and labs), which I have been utilizing for some work or the other.

The initial week at college went as expected. ‘Department of Chemical Engineering’ yet seems to perplex me in many regards (details later). Even though many things have certainly changed. Our class room has been shifted from CH-102 to CH-201. So has the Professors, excepting the one who blessed me with a B the last Semester in a 4 credit course. The only good thing which seems to have happened to me so far is the Institute Elective  ‘IHS03-Group Dynamics’  I have gotten.

Amidst all this newness, I have bought some good Novels which includes “Fooled by Randomness” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and “A biography of Benito Mussolini”, which will surely keep me busy for the next few weeks or so. I am also planning to get from somewhere “The Selfish Gene” by Richard Dawkins. I also planned to join Career Launcher, situated at a walking distance from the campus for attending CAT ’11 coaching classes. 


More than all this, I have been tweeting and blogging lately, rather than buzzing and updating my statuses on Facebook (details later).  I have started socializing less with the people, and on the contrary have started giving more importance to the tiny and little things of Nature happening around me, which is sometimes a weird buzz coming out of a bee or a cool breeze hushing past me. All such things have started giving me wonderful sane moments of glory and happiness, rather than the gibes and scoffs of humans. Only this way life seems marvelous to me! No, I am not on the path of becoming a recluse.

Two Doors Down, Third it is ..

The inception of Junior year was neither exciting nor commoving. The Registration bugger was turned Online from this year thereby reducing the workload from filling six colored cards to just two printouts thereby fooling us in regard to "Ragging affidavit-cum-Oath Commisioner dang"! However the nub of these printouts lied in the fact that details had to be filled Online to which the R-Server balked as usual. Somehow by hook or by crook this situation was bumped off, and there all Sophomores were legally set to enter into their Pre-Final year. *Glee*

This time my journey to R was accompanied by Ma, Pa and Sis. Consequently the trip, as expected, was full of advices, emotions, counseling. It all eventually turned into some thoughtful lessons on “How to keep your room clean?”, “How to maintain a balanced and healthy diet in R?” ,”How to excel abiding by the statement, ‘Early to bed and early to rise’?” , and a lot more. The room FT-18 was then blessed by their soulful ingress which soon followed by laying a wonderful calligraphic encryption on the room wall by my sis 'wishing me luck'. A walk through the Civil Lines and delicious lunch at Hotel Prakash with some little shopping followed next which concluded with hugs and kisses and then the Indigo racing away from Jawahar leaving me depondent all alone.