I couldn’t sleep last night and my mind kept drifting between various improbable things that have happened in my life over the years.

Things that shouldn’t have happened (because, probability), but did. Some examples of these improbable things are:

1. Once, when I was very young, I hadn’t completed my homework. While going to sleep, I kept wishing for fever or some other illness to befall me, so that I don’t have to go to school the next day. Sure enough, next day, I had fever in the morning and didn’t have to go to school, possibly avoiding a solid beating.
2. The time I was returning home (in Nagpur) while drunk, riding my bike. I couldn’t spot the high tension electricity cable hanging in the middle of the road and my bike (along with me) was lifted 10 feet into the air. I fell on the road and my bike fell on top of me, all while electric sparks were shooting from the pole, the cable and my bike. That scene immediately sobered up my friends and me and we are all still in awe how I survived that incident.
3. The time when I passed my engineering final exams because of a fluke. I have already blogged about it once, so won’t add details here.
4. The time when I was hired at Aricent (now Altran). I lived at Kolkata with my parents. Aricent was holding a hiring drive in Kolkata and I went there just because I had nothing else to do. Somehow, I was selected in the interview and hired a few weeks later. The fact that
   • Aricent staff came to Kolkata for the hiring drive (Never happened before, never happened again)
   • I turned up and was selected
   • Got the right job (at that point of my career)
   • At the right location (I was already aspiring to move to Gurgaon) still boggles my mind.
5. When I stayed at Kolkata, I used to watch a TV show called “Indian Rendezvous”. There was a part in the episode about Delhi which shows a balloon competition with a balloon sponsored by BT and I dreamed of moving to Delhi one day and working for BT. Years later, this would come true.
6. How I was lucky enough to have the perfect child exactly like the one I wanted (I might be biased for this one).
7. I had a friend “J” in college who introduced me to the song “Father & Son” by Cat Stevens. We used to listen to this song at his room very often. Years later, I was listening to this song on my own, when “J” called me and told me his father has died earlier that day.

Makes you wonder how probability isn’t always perfect and such things slip through its laws from time to time.