Too much of Coincidence!

Coincidence. Serendipity. They are catchy words and equally felicitous are the circumstances accompanying them. But , once thought about, coincidence seems to be the most impossible thing. Mathematically, what is the probability of seeing the same stranger in a big city, say Bangalore ? 1/6,000,000 ~ 0. Yet, I bet I have seen same stranger more than once, many a time. I have even seen same auto- wallahs again and again. And if this is not enough proof, then how about this one.


Once,While going from Bangalore to Darbhanga, the person sitting in front of me was my school teacher. He had come for some conference in Chennai and was returning via Bangalore. Not only that , he later told me that he had missed his train yesterday and had to book a ticket on Tatkal quota. Consider the probability of this . Tell me if you get any number other than 0.

The whole idea is , that coincidences aren't actually co-incidences. They are incidents. Planned in some order of the world , where in we chance upon the things around us. Yet, its our stubbornness that fails to recognize this merit of chance. Our tendency to plan and organize, based on our experience fails to recognize that , though all knowledge comes from experience, not all knowledge is born in experience. There are some apriori truths. Ones which we can understand only by its effect , but not what it is in itself. Human reasoning is limited , as Kant had said. It cant's answer all questions, that it itself raises.

Science, is experiential. It's based on observations and empirical conclusions. But consider the knowledge itself. Since science seems to find clues to knowledge through experience and experiments, does that mean that knowledge in itself is that. So when I hear, that we are living in special times, because we have science in this age, I know, its not true. Every age thrived on its own myth and so is this age, every age had its own way to survive, and so is this one. Science is yet another tool for this age, indispensable, yet nothing special, at least not that which would make one age special over another.

You see, I wanted to write to the world, and I chanced upon blogger.com. I wanted others to know what I think and I have got you here. Ah! that's too much of coincidence!