The Improbability Clause

At this point of time you may think, I'm going to talk about India and its struggle for freedom. Freedom. Seems like a heavy word. Dense with meaning. Understood by the oppressed, and the stoners. Free beer, free software, freebies. Free has connotations of cheap, easily available. But oh boy' is it expensive. People say best things in life are free. Like clean air, or beautiful scenery. But if you are not naive, you know these do not come free. Clean air requires existence of trees, giving up on comfort of individual vehicles for the common good, to reduce pollution, expensive pollution control devices in the factories. Beautiful scenery ? Where? In your living room? Or in the mountains, beaches, famous tourist spots? Is it free to travel there? To stay, to eat? Enjoyment of beauty is free of course. But getting there has a cost, like the fine print on a contract or an agreement. Is it freedom, to curtail individual desires for collective good? Is it freedom, t

This is a story of a series of unfortunate events. And true to Murphy's law, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. I know this seems like a concluding statement, but I’m an impatient guy, and hence should be given some liberties as such. A trip to Bheemeshwari; rumoured to be beautiful, a place of green and blue.  Anticipations were high, after a stressful week at work, a chance to unwind and relax. Four people, two bikes. One rented FZ in reasonably good condition, and a old rickety Discover 150, which ran more on faith than on petrol. First item on agenda naturally for me, was breakfast, for which we confidently  went to MTR. It opens at 7:30 am , I assured them.  As a prelude to the rest of the day, it was not open.  We waited about 15 mins, after which, to my relief, they opened. We had a sumptuous breakfast. Deepika chose idli vada, Ken got some sweet Chandrahara, Sandeep settled for medu vada. I wanted wheat dosa, but the cashier looked bu