Travelling through Delhi these days gives me the chills for 2 very different reasons. One is the very obvious one: the chilling cold  wind that literally cuts through all the different layer of clothing you might put on and the other is the not so obvious one, in-fact’s its one which most of us usually love to ignore or turn our head’s the other way. If you haven’t guessed it already, yes, its the huge number of homeless dwellers who sleep out on the streets of this big town in this brutal cold. They will be there for you to see(only if you choose to though, you can always turn your head the other way) on the red lights, esp. in the areas under the fly-over’s where they get a lot of free space(yes, that’s precisely what one of them had to say when i asked him why he was staying there). However, despite having said all this, my post today is not about either the cold or the conditions these people live in. Its about a very abstract topic: Chance or Luck.

Malcolm Gladwell in his famous book Outliers, has clearly proved it with data as to how the people who have made it big haven’t ever made it alone, how they always been aided at each and every step by the universe around them, how the conditions around them turn to suit them and carry them over. This however, in no way means that they lacked in any form in terms of talent to get there where they reached, in-fact, i solemnly believe that the reason why the conditions around them were such was because of their indomitable will and their ever-ending desire to fight to move ahead. The universe obviously sings the song only of those who first have the courage to sing it themselves with all they have got and with the right amount of purity. However, the many question’s that i am getting stuck to are:

Who/What determines the place of a child’s birth and on what basis?

Who/What determines the nature of one’s life ahead?

Who/What determines and decided the fact that i deserved to have 4 layers of clothing on my body while that child half my age just had one? 

Why am i not in his place and why is he not in mine?

Would i be able to do what i am doing right now if i would have been in his place? or putting it in simple terms: WOULD I BE ABLE TO DO WHAT I AM DOING RIGHT NOW HAD CHANCE NOT DECIDED TO PLAY FAVORITES WITH ME?

Isn’t it funny if you actually sit down and think about it, the fact that i am sitting down in my warm apartment and writing a blog on this is itself a gift of chance. Would i be able to sit and think such if i just had one piece of cloth on my body? Would i be caring or even thinking about what spirituality is, what god is, how to inspire people, what leadership is or any of the other talk/thinking stuff that i do had i to worry about arranging the meals for my family to eat and survive on?

My quest for these answers and the eternal truth continues,and i know i will get there someday. Till then, i will have just make peace with my piece of chance and try to make best of the beautiful and blessed life that i have been given.