Almost everyone experiences coincidences in life. We might term it chance, attach a deeper meaning to it, or even treat it as something that was bound to happen, it nevertheless leaves us amazed. History is replete with instances of people coming across the most bizarre and mystical coincidences, how and why of which no one could possibly explain.
To me, the most unforgettable one happened long ago when I was flipping through a news daily. An obituary advertisement in it caught my eye, which carried the photo of a deceased person from our community in Chennai. The full name of his son given in the advertisement exactly matched that of my old friend, also living in Chennai, whom I had not met for long. Deeming the dead person his father, I felt sorry for him, until a relook at the advertisement revealed that it was a case of mistaken identity. Turning the pages, I found another obituary of another person from the same community. What the hell! This time, the deceased person unmistakably was the father of my same friend I had thought of moments ago—his name also in the advertisement!
Years back, I viewed a documentary on Discovery channel on the iconic toy train journey from New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, in which the train guard was also interviewed intermittently. Much later, when an opportunity came our way to take the seven-hour train ride, I was awe-struck to find the same guard on our train, easily identifiable with his stylish beard and black-suit uniform! He was elated when I reminded him of the show.
Next, after my 1971 Class XI Board exam results were published in a newspaper, I was overly anxious to know my total marks. Those days, marksheets used to take a long time to reach schools. I asked my sister-in-law, who was in Ajmer where the Board was based, to try and get this ‘inside information’ and send me a telegram. “Suppose I got 320 marks,” I explained to her, “just message ‘three twenty’. I will understand.” The very next day, I got the telegram with, what else, a spot-on ‘three twenty’ scribbled on it!
Most recently, one morning during our New Zealand tour, my seven-year-old grand-daughter Niharika called me from Hyderabad asking us not to miss seeing a rainbow that day. It was a bright sunny day and we were puzzled why she thought of a rainbow. But, while cruising on Milford Sound fiord the same afternoon, we were overwhelmed to find a beautiful rainbow forming against a huge waterfall!