Destiny is not what we make it to be ordained by some super powers,<\/p>\n
It descends from the center of universe and shoots down digitally to its object,<\/p>\n
Its mystery is awesome, its mystique transcending,<\/p>\n
Its message is final.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When Babu was young he was considered by some to be a light-weight,<\/p>\n
He had this playful winsome smile playing on his lips,<\/p>\n
His thinness was only matched by pencils,<\/p>\n
His long nose was innocent compared to many Kaul noses.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Babu grew from a lightweight to the carrier of an intense ambition to win,<\/p>\n
He dreamt of many journalistic writings,<\/p>\n
In this he was his father\u2019s son,<\/p>\n
While still in teens he got an article published in Illustrated Weekly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He did not put Kaka\u2019s hours, nor was he as humble,<\/p>\n
He dreamt of big things, which he thought should come effortlessly to him,<\/p>\n
Foreign affairs was his passion, so he took the exam,<\/p>\n
Stars seemed not bright enough for him.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He marched on and on, all wheels revving up in a crescendo,<\/p>\n
Here was his moment,<\/p>\n
He had to make it big,<\/p>\n
He cannot lose the chance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The scooter-riksha wheels went berserk,<\/p>\n
Babu in the customer chair yelling at the driver to watch the truck,<\/p>\n
Driver annoyed ignores him and drives even faster,<\/p>\n
The truck in the opposite direction was coming down the middle of the road.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Destiny is never clear until the last moment,<\/p>\n
Then it thumps and whistles and knows its Shiva-moment has come,<\/p>\n
Babu felt blessed by destiny\u2019s lips,<\/p>\n
The only thing he didn\u2019t know was that truck had its own destiny.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
When the two vehicles came to a crash drivers knew they had no choice,<\/p>\n
Destiny gives no choices, its command is final,<\/p>\n
Babu was in a daze not knowing what happened,<\/p>\n
He remained unconscious for three days,<\/p>\n
Till the hospital found some bags of flesh behind a door,<\/p>\n
Sub-dural pressure was relieved and Babu swathe light.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
IFS was a distant dream broken rudely,<\/p>\n
All the universe seemed a mad dance,<\/p>\n
Destiny is the only thing that seemed to matter,<\/p>\n
Forty-seven years later he was yet in front of another destiny,<\/p>\n
A fire started by his fellow-humans.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Suffern, New York, August 6, 2019<\/p>\n