Bizarre Coincidences

========================================================

The other day I parked my Blue Maruti Car at the Parking Lot in front of Hyderabad Central Mall and went in for a pee & show-peek. As I returned and was trying to unlock the Driver's Door I noticed a young lady in the front seat reading a glossy magazine. Since I am nowadays always lost in blog-thought (the territory is vaguely familiar), I subconsciously glance at my Number Plate so I don't barge into one of the few wrong Blue Marutis here. So, I stopped short and in typical SDM style started wondering how and why this cute girl gatecrashed into my wife's Reserved Seat.

In half a minute a handsome young man rushed in, opened the front door and buzzed off.

As it whizzed past I noticed that its Number Plate proclaimed AP XX 2517 while my own Maruti waiting for me had AP XY 2517.

Say, what are the odds like?

*****************************************************************************************************

Sometime ago, Pratik wrote to me that he was watching intently the thriller movie, Where Eagles Dare one afternoon on his home PC. All of a sudden he felt like switching to my blogspot and it opened on the latest blog: Reading and Seeing, which talked about the same Movie.

Again, one afternoon he was thinking of buying: To Kill a Mocking Bird as a gift for his daughter and on opening my blogspot, found the post: to Kill a Shooing Elephant.

*******************************************************************************************************

One day when I was living as a Reluctant Bachelor in the Faculty Hostel of IIT KGP, my friendly neighborhood Postman stopped by and handed an envelope to me. The handwriting was unfamiliar and the envelope was unusually fat and I tore it open thinking it must be one of those Resume's that I often got from strangers seeking some impossible favor or the other.

The 10 page letter started with: My Beloved Darling or some such silly thing and I was curious, naturally. After reading a few juicy sentences I realized that it was from a newly wed wife to her husband; and then my false prudery stopped me from reading any further (such stuff was decidedly unhealthy for Residents of our Asylum).

On a re-look at the address on the envelope, I discovered that it is to some other G. Prabhakara Sastry @ IIT KGP; something I could never imagine because I always thought that IIT KGP must be surfeit with one bloody gps.

Upon discreet investigation, I was told that a new gps arrived (temporarily) at the Ag E Dept as an RS.

As you can see, I was caught in a Catch-22 predicament. That gps too would be able to deduce that there is just one more gps @ KGP.

What would you have done in my place with that Love Letter?

I did the same...

*****************************************************************************************************

My friend N living at the same asylum was far luckier than me and was once invited by the father a suitable bride at Vizagh to come and have a peek at his Offering (Bride-Seeing Ceremony...a la Delhi 6...masakali masakali).

As we both were going home for our Puja Vacations, my friend asked me to break my journey at Vizagh and accompany him to the bride-marketplace just for moral support (I am told that in Bihar suitable boys are kidnapped, bound hand and foot, and married off to their daughters, particularly if they are IAS Officers or Software Professionals...no such luck for M Sc Physics Failed Experimentalists in AP).

I was willing to be the watchdog and we checked into the Ooty Hotel, spruced ourselves up and entered the lioness's den, and were going through the rigorous Selection Committee Proceedings.

At the back of my mind I was hesitant to halt at Vizagh where I had done a 7-year stint a couple of years back as a student and then an RS....because I didn't want to be accosted by my ex-colleague Ms S for reasons too complicated to dwell on here. But I calculated that the odds of our chance-meeting in a city on a half-day halt were one in a million.

Lo and Behold...within half an hour of the start of our Interview Session, who should barge in but Ms S with her newly married hubby who happened to be a close relative of the bride!

Mr and Mrs S were insistent that we two should grace their home and do an auld lang syne session.

I made some weak excuse and chickened out.

**************************************************************************************************

Japan is the only country in history to be nuked and two of its cities razed to ground (zero).

And it turned pacifist willy-nilly (Supratim!).

How come it turns out to be involved in a nuclear disaster of first waters with all possible backups turned turtle?


=========================================================