Destiny...

Yesterday I went for a stroll in the park opposite my house. A section on the jogging track had a lot of ants running over. I luckily saw that and cautiously prevented stepping on them. Just then a thought crossed my head that had I not seen and walked them over unknowingly, it'd have been the last moment of life for them. Were they destined to be saved at that moment or to be crushed to death by someone else but me, who would be unaware of their presence there?

Another possibility was that in order to save them, I could have crashed into a tree on the way, 'coz I wasn't looking in front. Maybe I was destined to suffer a serious injury then! There could have been a number of other possibilities too where I wouldn't have stepped on the ants and in the nick of time saved myself from crashing into the tree too; or in the worst case scenario, where I’d have realized the presence of those tiny creatures just after crushing them and then could have stumbled to end up banging my head into that tree, even when I’d have seen it!

These thoughts flashed in my head one after the other, pushing me into a sort of surreal state of mind where I could imagine a hundred things in a fraction of a second, remembering each one of them vividly and in the next moment of actuality, all I could think of was just one thing; that one thing that decides if we will take another breath, if we will walk another step, if we will speak another word...that one thing that governs our lives, whatever we do and all that we don't do...that one thing called “destiny”!

I know many will say that one makes his/her own destiny...probably that's what those ants were doing, wandering in search of stuff to build a better house than the one they resided in, or to get food for their families, to keep them happy, but they didn't know that it was the last time they will move out of their houses and never come back. The lucky ones did reach back like all the previous times, but for some, it was time out.

In 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul (can't resist to mention it whenever I can: it was a dream night for me and for all the Liverpool fans), Liverpool were the underdogs and no one ever thought they had even a faint chance to win, and it was all going as predicted when they were 3-0 down at the half time to Milan. But then it took just 6 magical minutes and it was anybody's game at 3-3 after the 60th minute. The match went on to extra-time and Milan pressed on in search of a winner, and till date I wonder how Shevchenko could not score from close range with just about 5 minutes left in the second half of extra time; even Dudek didn't know how he saved that shot. Eventually, Liverpool went on to win on penalties. They were "destined" to win, regardless of the fact that they were the "weaker" side of the two, inferior in class and skill to their giant opponents.

At times when I had fallen sick with a stomach upset, the doctor told me that it was because of some 'x' item that I consumed the previous day. But then, I had eaten that 'x' item a number of times before and after, without consequentially falling sick. Again, it was destiny that I’d be falling ill on those specific occasions and not on the rest, the 'x' being just a "created" reason 'coz the doctor cannot do without stating one!

All this and many more instances like these prove an affirmation for me that everything has got its time 'n' place, that whatever has to happen, will happen and that "it's all written"... Maktub!