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Propinquity
Propinquity
One writer has used the word propinquity for what I am going to describe. It is the peculiar tendency in our psychological make up or destiny by which certain incidents recur at disproportionate intervals. The odds of the incidents occurring are against all odds to the theory of probability. (Pun intended.) The incidents are often peculiar or interesting or even humourous. Life can never be set down in rigid formulas and these occurrences beautifully illustrate the point.
If you are wondering what exactly I am talking about, let me lay before you a couple of such occurrences.
I noticed it somewhere in the seventies (of 1990). Being a bachelor and living alone I used to go to hotels alone most of the time. One day a person from outside casually entered the hotel. He sauntered up to my table, took up a tumbler filled with water lying on my table , gulped it down and walked away.(This happens in India. Occasionally a thirsty man walking in the street enters a hotel, drinks a glass of water and goes away.)Nothing special about it. But the next day I observed again that when I sat down in another hotel a fellow came in and drank a glass of water from my table and went away. It was curious and the incident remained in my memory. Nothing remarkable there too, you might say and you may even try to calculate the probability of such a thing happening if you are mathematically inclined. But what if it happens a third time and a fourth and a fifth? Even a hard boiled nerd would be hard put to explain it.
Believe it or not(you better believe it.) this peculiar occurrence continued to manifest in my life for TEN years. In whichever city I was, to whichever hotel I went, some guy would come in, take out a glass of water from my table drink it and go away, as if that was his job! I was simply amazed by the phenomenon. I consoled myself by imagining that this must be a mysterious way by which I was paying out some past karmic debt. The payment has been completed. I guess because the phenomenon has stopped.
Around the same ti
me another peculiar thing began to happen. While walking in the streets I began to notice coins (and often rupee notes) lying on the ground. I just picked up and pocketed them. No doubt hundreds of people had passed by on that spot before me and none of them had noticed the coin. Finding a coin or a currency note on the sidewalk is normal, OK? You too find them , no? May be once in three years? Two? One? What would you call it if it happens twice or thrice in a week? That is exactly what happened to me – again for almost ten years.(No, I have not become a millionaire.) Once, while walking with my unbelieving friend, I was describing this phenomenon and lo, I picked up THREE coins right under his nose, a few feet away from his feet. And one memorable day I was again describing it to a cousin of mine and I picked up coins and currency notes four times in a span of forty minutes. He was aghast, to say the least. This phenomenon, I guess was a residue of a past karmic debt which I was collecting. It tapered off gradually.
During the nineties I was working in Bangalore city. My workstation and residence were in the exurbs 30 kilometers away, but I had to travel to the city often since the headquarters was located there. There is a restaurant near the City Market, the bus terminus. I soon began to notice the presence of a particular person whenever I entered the restaurant. My visits were completely at random; even the time ,apart from the day of the week. But invariably that particular Mystery Man too would always be therein the hotel when I entered it. Or he would come in within a minute of my arrival. He was a total stranger to me and I dare say he was unaware of my presence.. I used to visit the city about six to eight times a month and every time - be it morning or evening, Sunday or Monday – I would see him! The Mystery Man was not an employee of the hotel, he too was just a working man like me.
This kept up for ten years (ten year periods seem to crop up in my life) and I was transferred to another city. Ten more years have passed, since. But I am ready to wager a hefty amount that if I go to that particular hotel to-day the Mystery Man would be there to greet me, without being aware of it!
V.S.SURY
One writer has used the word propinquity for what I am going to describe. It is the peculiar tendency in our psychological make up or destiny by which certain incidents recur at disproportionate intervals. The odds of the incidents occurring are against all odds to the theory of probability. (Pun intended.) The incidents are often peculiar or interesting or even humourous. Life can never be set down in rigid formulas and these occurrences beautifully illustrate the point.
If you are wondering what exactly I am talking about, let me lay before you a couple of such occurrences.
I noticed it somewhere in the seventies (of 1990). Being a bachelor and living alone I used to go to hotels alone most of the time. One day a person from outside casually entered the hotel. He sauntered up to my table, took up a tumbler filled with water lying on my table , gulped it down and walked away.(This happens in India. Occasionally a thirsty man walking in the street enters a hotel, drinks a glass of water and goes away.)Nothing special about it. But the next day I observed again that when I sat down in another hotel a fellow came in and drank a glass of water from my table and went away. It was curious and the incident remained in my memory. Nothing remarkable there too, you might say and you may even try to calculate the probability of such a thing happening if you are mathematically inclined. But what if it happens a third time and a fourth and a fifth? Even a hard boiled nerd would be hard put to explain it.
Believe it or not(you better believe it.) this peculiar occurrence continued to manifest in my life for TEN years. In whichever city I was, to whichever hotel I went, some guy would come in, take out a glass of water from my table drink it and go away, as if that was his job! I was simply amazed by the phenomenon. I consoled myself by imagining that this must be a mysterious way by which I was paying out some past karmic debt. The payment has been completed. I guess because the phenomenon has stopped.
Around the same ti
During the nineties I was working in Bangalore city. My workstation and residence were in the exurbs 30 kilometers away, but I had to travel to the city often since the headquarters was located there. There is a restaurant near the City Market, the bus terminus. I soon began to notice the presence of a particular person whenever I entered the restaurant. My visits were completely at random; even the time ,apart from the day of the week. But invariably that particular Mystery Man too would always be therein the hotel when I entered it. Or he would come in within a minute of my arrival. He was a total stranger to me and I dare say he was unaware of my presence.. I used to visit the city about six to eight times a month and every time - be it morning or evening, Sunday or Monday – I would see him! The Mystery Man was not an employee of the hotel, he too was just a working man like me.
This kept up for ten years (ten year periods seem to crop up in my life) and I was transferred to another city. Ten more years have passed, since. But I am ready to wager a hefty amount that if I go to that particular hotel to-day the Mystery Man would be there to greet me, without being aware of it!
V.S.SURY
Tags & Keywords : peculiar, incidents, karma. debt