Strange Encounters

I'm in the mood for one another one of my rants, though this time it is slightly more on the philosophical side of things. So if you do continue reading, don't expect cheap comedy. Anyways, I'm coming back from work this evening, sitting in A/C Bus, opposite a pretty good looking chick (4 seats in the new A/C buses face each other).And, like always, irrespective of whom you are sitting next to in a bus, you hardly ever strike up a conversation, and this was no different. So the bus journey continues, and at some point of time this Bong chick, must be roughly around 23-24 years old, sits next to the good looking chick. She begins to talk on her phone to someone, loudly enough for the two of us to hear. It was this really retarded thing about how she managed to get a job in some company blah blah blah, how she would keep her personal life separate from her professional life blah blah. Believe me, it was really funny. And the good looking chick looks at me, and the two of us just burst out laughing. She got off sat the next stop, but this entire incident got me thinking. What would have happened if we got to talking? Would we end up knowing each other, become friends? Would life be slightly different a few months down the line? And this got me to thinking an even deeper question: What determines the people, mainly the friends in our lives?

Its quite perplexing actually. I've got another example, another story to tell. Around two and a half years ago, I went for this really mediocre MUN. I ended up chatting with this one girl who was the delegate of France. After the conference, I forgot all about her and continued my normal, everyday life. Now, exactly two years ago, when I'd gone to give the CLAT (entrance test for the National Law schools), I met her. Turns out we had a few common friends. So we began talking, she got into NLS, i got into NUJS, but we are pretty good friends today. It seemed highly unlikely at the time of the MUN, that a couple of years down the line, we would actually be good friends. There could be a thousand ways in which we might not even have met, yet somehow we are friends. And this is not one stand alone incident, just one of many. Hypothetically, if I had got into NALSAR, just by getting roughly 5 marks more, my life might have been completely different. I would have a completely different set of college friends.

I'm no longer in touch with any of my 10th grade group of friends, yet in touch with most of my closest friends even if they are continents apart. And some of these are people I never thought I'd be friends with. What makes your closest friends at one point of time, your really hated acquaintance and the person you might really detest, a really close friend? And this is not restricted to friends. Think about the person you might be dating. Could you always imagine that the two of you might be dating? Ive seen the people who are completely incompatible with the other person, date for long periods of time. A girl who otherwise might not even have looked at the guy twice, and vice-versa. What determines all of this? You might call it your own decision. I even makes sense, that its always upto you as to whom do you want in life. But theres a good chance that the closest people in your life might not have entered in your life at all. And what controlled that. The first time you randomly spoke to some person, and somewhere, some connection struck. That wasn't your decision. Like I said, it was completely random. But what changed?

I'm an atheist. I don't believe in God. I don't even believe in destiny. But all this does make me wonder. Its seems to far fetched to be the work of God. But yet at the same time, it seems too strange to simply term it as chance. Maybe its both. Or maybe I'm just bored. What do you think?

PS: I realise that the picture above has absolutely no relation to the post, but when I googled 'strange encounters' this was one of the first pictures to turn up. FAIL!