On a shaky table in a coffee shop

Have nt you wondered about why guys sit alone in Coffee shops ?

It is difficult try & accept it is probably a coincidence, when a series of things seem to go wrong in one day. And to fight the overwhelming feeling that these things can only happen to you. Yeah, right. And then to stop thinking about the damn Murphys law. Murphy is the biggest fatalist I know. I have a sneaking feeling that he was one of the founding fathers of the "Optimist-Pessimist" series of jokes.

I missed a train.

Normally this would not trigger off a cataclysmic series of events which would signal the end of the world as we know it. But then I dont normally miss trains.

Here was a day where I had booked far in advance. Then I get a chance of going home early. Being the homebody that I am, I decide to cancel my ticket, forego 50% of the original amount and reach the station about 1 hour before the departure of the earlier train.

There, I have eliminated any possibility of me missing the train. This includes traffic jams, political rallies, religious processions, quacks selling snake oil on the street, potholes going through a midlife crisis - who came first - the road or the pothole, & the ticket clerk who is having a bad day.

But no! How dare I forget the nimbleness that our railways have acquired in the post Laloo era. Surely train timings must be like everything else that we proud Indians stand for. Something so well epitomised by our cricketers - excellent average without the danger of being consistent.

The ticket clerk is indeed having a bad day - but my stupified look at being told that the train has left 20 mins back has given her whole day a new meaning. I can almost picture her years from now, sitting back on the easy chair & telling her grandchildren "I still remember like yesterday the day when that idiot came to buy a ticket......"

In Kerala, we have translated "misery loves company" as "Coconuts fall onto the head of a guy struck by lightning". And with so many bloody coconut trees sticking up like natural lightning arrestors, "it is not that hard to imagine".

So next time you see a lonely guy sitting in a coffee shop, tell him to stay away from coconut trees while there is lot of lightning.