The fleeting gifts that luck brings

THERE are times when things suddenly turn in our favour for no clear reason. Some call it luck or providence, others dismiss it as mere coincidence. Whatever the name, it never arrives with fanfare. It slips in quietly, changes the rhythm of our day and leaves us marvelling at the strange kindness of chance. I remember a winter evening years ago. Tired and eager to get home quickly and cheaply by bus, I stood at a crowded bus stop. The autorickshaw felt like a slow, expensive alternative. Just as I pushed my way through the crowd, the bus I needed pulled away. I watched helplessly as its red taillights disappeared into the thick smog of the town.

Frustration arose in me. I slumped against a lamppost, muttering to myself when I noticed an elderly man struggling to tell an autorickshaw driver where he wanted to go. He was visiting the town for the first time, holding a smudged slip of paper with the name of a neighbourhood I happened to know well.

Since the area was along my way, I decided to ride along and guide him. Soon, in the midst of jolts and honking horns, I discovered that he had once known my grandfather. What began as a chance encounter turned into an hour of storytelling. He spoke of youthful days, shared meals and small adventures they had once had together. By the time we reached his stop, he pressed my hand warmly and mentioned that he now lived in the hills, tending an old orchard and hoped I would visit someday. It was not the orchard itself that stayed with me, it was the realisation that a missed bus had opened a forgotten door to my family’s past.

That is how chance works. It wears a subtle smile, nudging us into places we were never meant to be. We often imagine luck to be loud and dramatic: lottery tickets, scratch cards, jackpots, stock windfalls. But in truth, luck often arrives like a gentle breeze, unannounced, unspectacular, but full of possibility. The gift lies not in predicting it, but in noticing it when it lands in our path.

Our lives are punctuated by these invisible coin tosses. You take a longer route home and narrowly avoid an accident. You duck into a bookstore to escape a sudden shower and come out with a book that alters your way of thinking forever. You linger an extra five minutes in a cafe and meet someone who becomes a lifelong companion. No planning, no calendar could have scheduled them. They are simply gifts wrapped in the ordinary.

So, the next time your plan collapses, your miss a train or disappointment stares you down, resist the urge to curse it. It might just be life tossing its coin, inviting you into a story you never would have written for yourself. And when that happens — pause, breathe, notice. And above all, smile back. For in those fleeting, unearned gifts, the quiet magic of existence shows itself.