Fate/Luck/Coincidences

Every man has but one destiny - The Godfather

Is the world governed by some supreme power and the everything is predecided with 'luck' being used to enforce its will ? Or actions of a person decide how his life is going to shape up? I guess everyone thinks of these questions sometimes.

People believing in the former hypothesis are sometimes referred to as fatalists i.e. people believing in fate while the believers of the latter hypothesis can be classified as atheists. Some of you might be wondering about the sudden change of mood in my blogs from comic/humor to philosophy. I will tell u the reason behind this

I prepared for JEE in Kota as a student of Bansal Classes. However, I somehow also came in touch with R K Verma Sir and Dr B V Rao, teachers of Physics & Chemistry respectively at Resonance, Bansal's rival class. Both of them are very good teachers (perhaps in the top three of their teaching field) but more importantly they are one of the best people I have met. I did not study much with Verma sir but the little time I spent with me left indelible impressions about his personality especially his modesty and simplicity.

I know this narration is getting a bit lengthy but jsut bear with me for some more time

In my I year at IITR, I came in contact with Arun Sharma. We didn't seem to have anything in common but somehow we just clicked off. We used to spend quite some time 2gether. At the end of I year, he reappeared in JEE and left Roorkee for Kharagpur and we lost contact.

One night, I am just loitering in landmark in Forum (A mall in B'lore) and am stunned to see Verma sir standing just outside the shop. It had been 3 years since I had seen him and I had to be sure. But once I was sure, I had to go up to him and talk to him. Needless to say, he didn't remember me but still it felt good to just be able to talk to him even if for a few minutes.

Yesterday, i.e. Sunday I am just relaxing in my room reading a novel and there is a call from an unknown no. I pick it up (free incoming) and a voice from there says "May I speak with Supriy Shah". I was not used to being talked to like this on phone and replied "Yeah, Supriy here". And the voice says "This is Arun, I m doing my training in IISc Bangalore. Can we meet ?" The feeling cannot be put down in words but we ended up meeting each other and started up right after where we left 2 yrs earlier.

After these two examples,back to the original question. Fatalists will say Makhtub:It's written while atheists will say that all this was just coincidence. This is the real difference between fatalists and atheists other than their beliefs, isn't it ?

So let's have a discussion on this. I am not exactly a fatalist but I trust that there is something beyond normal human understanding that plays a pivotal role in outcome of the events. Some might call it luck, others might call it coincidence but I guess everyone believes that life cannot be defined totally using Mathematical equations or principles of Physics. Let's hear ur side too !