Fate - a Short Story

(Image source: Flicker)

One fine evening a man was taking a walk on Juhu beach, Mumbai (then Bombay). The beach was calm, not many people, so he was enjoying the wind, the sound of sea waves rushing towards the shore and admiring the beautiful sunset.

While going a little far along the shore he saw a man sitting on the beach muttering something beyond understanding.

When he approached a little closer, he realised by the appearance of the man that the man might be a homeless guy and probably mentally unstable too. He had long uncombed hair, torn clothing - stained at a level you can't even recognise the original colour of the fabric. No footwear, grown nails. The only clean thing was his face that too unshaved.

First, he felt the disgust then thinking something he stood there observing the homeless guy, what he was doing.

The homeless guy had a patched old cloth bag full of litter and old things. He had a plastic cup in his hand and what it seemed he was measuring the sand in the cup and then making a mound in front of him.

The man saw the mounds he had created and realised that he might be doing this for quite a few hours. While he was watching, standing, the homeless man took his cup, filled it with sand, looked up towards the sky and smiled. Then he muttered something (some sort of Mantra) that only he could understand and put the cup in front upside down, making yet another mound.

Which?
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Out of curiosity the man finally thought to have a conversation with the homeless guy.

He asked, "Who are you?", "What are you doing?"

The homeless guy stared at him for few seconds and then replied, "I'm Fate and I'm fixing tonight's meal for the mortals".

"What?!", the man couldn't control his laugh hearing this. He said, "You are lunatic. You know this?".

The homeless guy ignored what the man said and was busy allotting food for the mortals. This made the man little angry and mockingly he said to the homeless, "If you are really Fate, I want you to take away my allotted meal. Don't provide me food tonight." Laughingly he made the last taunt before heading back to home, "Fate!!" While returning the man passed through the market, bought a nice fresh fish to have for dinner.

Back in the house, his wife was cooking dinner and the house was filled with the aroma of tasty food. The man murmured, "Fate!" and smiled.

Later, he was sitting, ready to have dinner. The wife had served him the fish curry with rice and chapati. He tore a small piece of chapati and dipped it in the fish curry and brought it closer and took a moment to feel the aroma and it was soothing. He took a deep breath and burst into laughter remembering the incident with the homeless guy, saying, "Fate".

Seeing this his wife thought that her husband is mocking her cooking skill by smelling, laughing at food and calling it fate. She argued.

The argument soon grew into a verbal fight. Filled with anger and rage, the man left - without having food.

Fate!