How many pieces?

It was a dream. But he was not asleep. Just some confused random thoughts running in one’s mind when you are alone. Working in a huge company, he was thinking about technologies. A technology that is new today becomes obsolete tomorrow. This is also amply supported by the amount of information that is available. It is far greater than what one can digest or think about. What do people do with such kind of technologies and information? Are they – including him - matured to handle these? With these thoughts in mind, he came out of the comfortable high chair where he was half asleep.

It was half past three in the afternoon. He was yet to have his lunch and starting to feel hungry. He decided to go out. However confused he was at that time, he did not have any confusion in selecting the lunch place. He decided to go to McDonalds. It was drizzling outside and he liked it and starting to feel more relaxed. Any city looks good when it is drizzling.

In just 15 minutes, he was inside McDonalds. He stared at the queue in 3 counters and realised it was crowded. It is possible, because it was a weekend. In this fast paced world, after a week full of work, it is natural for people to take rest, so they don’t venture into kitchen. In weekdays they are too busy to go in anyways. Kitchen-less homes will be the next big thing in real estate!

After deciding on the queue and the counter, he was waiting for his turn. That was when The Person came besides him. He looked at the person and suddenly felt odd. The Person, with lot of extra fitting in ears and hands, was staring at the menu board. He knew apart from the color and price there has been no change in this menu board for a long time. He saw the person struggling with three carry bags. There was no need for it, he was sure two of the bags could have easily fit into the third one. He felt, that would have made The Person’s life more comfortable at that time.

The Person chose the queue to the left of him and was waiting. He took his gaze out of The Person and was staring outside. As time slipped by, he realised all other queues moving faster that the one he is standing. Outside, the drizzle has turned into a steady rain. He took one look at the lightning and the rain and felt there is no hurry.

Few minutes passed by and The Person has already reached the sales counter, but he had one more guy before him. He took one more look at the rain and was indulged in his own thoughts. That is when he heard The Person ask “How many pieces you get in ‘6 pcs Chicken Nuggets’?”

Luck vs Fate

Luck – A word commonly used in everyday life. Starting from when someone wins jackpot to when some drunkard in car get caught by traffic police for dazzling head light, the presence of luck is felt. Either good or bad, we come across the “lady” luck everyday. We want this lady always be present by our side – of course the good “lady” luck, not the bad one and many people go to the extend of spending money in buying stones of all colours to keep this lady with them. How much ever the effort you put, there is a need for stroke of luck to make your effort fruitful. This is believed by majority of the people.

What is Luck?
That which happens to a person; an event, good or ill, affecting one's interests or happiness, and which is deemed casual; a course or series of such events regarded as occurring by chance; chance; hap; fate; fortune; often, one's habitual or characteristic fortune; as, good, bad, ill, or hard luck. Luck is often used by itself to mean good luck; as, luck is better than skill; a stroke of luck.
(Source: www.dictionary.net)

So, luck is something that happened to a person that affects one’s interest in a casual way!

Fate – A word not so commonly used. Used mostly during sad events because it is easier to put the blame on something nobody has seen. Fate also has the ability to affect one’s interest, unfolds a series of events that seems casual, etc.,etc.

What is fate?
A fixed decree by which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned
(Source: www.dictionary.net)

Many people agree and believe in luck. But strongly oppose the idea of fate. Is this because fate is more religiously inclined?

Let us check these two. Luck vs Fate.
1. Both can affect one’s interest and happiness and in a casual way.
2. Has the power to change the course of events at any point of time.
3. Neither luck not fate can be quantified. How much percent of luck/fate was invloved in India winning the first T20 world cup or Einstein finding theory of relativity? – Newton, Joule, Pascal, Volt, etc, did not bother to find/quantify this, else we would have kept their name as the unit.
4. Of course, I dont have plans to prove either luck or fate exists as it is not possible.

Both seemingly similar entities but one is widely accepted and the other is not!

In the same sense, do agreeing to fate mean, everything is preordained. So what is there for people on earth to do?

Irrespective of the religion, all religions say that the doer is responsible for all action that is chosen and its consequences and not the fate.

Parallel Universe: Science or Myth

Coincidence. This is one aspect of life that occurs at a time when we least expect it. With literal meaning of luck, accident, chance and so on, coincidence can hit you any time.

One of the recent coincidences in my life came while reading books that are totally in different context altogether - Micheal Crichton’s Timeline and Ramayana.

Micheal Crichton – One of my favourite authors, I like and dislike equally. All his works starts with a bang, looses the plot in between and in the end completes without making any mark. I was reading his Timeline novel and all his talk about theories of parallel universe. It kindled my curiosity to know more about it. Obviously next step is google it out and end up in howstuffworks website and get a hang of parallel universe.

These theories were formulated by people whom we have heard of in schools like Heisenberg, Borh and are closely related to Quantum Physics where Einstein is the King.

As I understood, in very crude way, “At quantum or sub-atomic level (whatever level is, that is not our problem), a particle can exist in any of the all possible state. This gives the possibility of particles both living and non-living as we see, exists in a different state, somewhere else.”

What ever it is, I decided I am in state Karnataka and decided to stop these and go no further. As usual, the book was abandoned in between.

After few days I start with Ramayana – first of the two Hindu mythologies. What make me think of reading Ramayana, may be only Ram knows. This book of Ramayana I was reading is a Tamil version called Chakravarti Thirumagan an abridged version based out of voluminous Ramayana written by Kambar.

It was all going fine for the first few days of reading, till one day, I stumbled across parallel universe again. But this time in a place where I least expected it to be – in Ramayana.

The book goes this way,

Sage Viswamithra gets humiliated by other sages and Devendras while helping king named Trisang. Viswamithra goes into such a rage that, with his powers, he starts creating his own universe, starting from heavenly bodies, stars to sages, rishis and Devendras. So, as the book goes, Viswamithra has indeed created a parallel universe.

Now, we have a set of scholarly people who tried to convince people, parallel universe is possible and we have a mythological reference which says parallel universe was indeed created. Neither can be proved nor disapproved.

So, Parallel Universe - is it a science or myth! Coincidence has made these seemingly random events creating fuzzy thoughts...