About "me" not being Lucky in life...

“neenu bandiddu oLLe panauti bandange aitu” [you came like a bad omen for me]

That’s how my Dad used to tell me whenever he lost a game of cards with his friends. I never liked Mumbai and the only reason I visited Mumbai was my parents were there and also my siblings. I was made to stay back at my village with my ajji [grandma] and chikki [aunty].

He says he always used to win and whenever I go there he used to lose the game and lose good amount of money and at the end of the day, it was me who was responsible for that. For initial few times I was kind of taking it as joke. But as the frequency of he telling me the same increased, I used to feel offended and once I told him not to make me responsible for any of his illegal business, I was never unlucky for any of my friends and my friends always wanted to sit beside me in exam hall as they knew that I would help them somehow to clear the test.

As of I remember I was never unlucky for others, though it is almost evident that I am not lucky enough in life [to myself] as me getting screwed up in life is more than me getting something worthy without much of effort [I think that’s what is luck is all about – to get something without putting lots of effort]

I was not lucky enough to spend my childhood with my parents, and not even with my siblings. I was not lucky enough to hold university rank in BE [I missed it by few marks, and I was lazy enough to apply for revaluation for 2 papers in 5^th semester and those who went for revaluation got minimum of additional 10+ marks], but this is one thing which I was not worried much and the only reason for mentioning this here is to quantify my luck quotient.

I was not lucky enough to save my first love, though she said, “Girish, let’s elope and get married”. Even now she says she will never forgive me for saying a NO to her at that time. I was not lucky enough for my Dad either. I got my whole family from Mumbai to Bengaluru [was where I was working and living then] and he survived for only 6-7 months after coming to Bengaluru and last thing he did before his death was having a fight with me.

I always wanted to donate blood though I have phobia for blood [Haemophobia]. I was thinking that its one way to get out of this phobia. But I used to fail every time. Sometimes they used to declaim telling I was under weight and sometimes I used to faint during the process of blood donating, looking at blood bottles and once [here in USA], they declined saying “One has to live in USA for minimum of 3 years to donate blood!” . I was never lucky to donate a bottle of blood till now!

Whenever I walk through the corridor, I always make a point to look around before walking through a door. A friend of mine always tells me, “Dude, don’t be that conscious, take chance, you might be lucky enough to dash with a girl” and my response would be, “Dude, I know about my luck”. During my 29 years of life, I don’t remember hitting a girl, except for once!

Then I came here to Dallas, during end of August 2008 for some good reasons. And my streak of bad luck lined up big time! Immediately after a month, my girl friend broke up with me! My mother was keeping good health all these years and 3 months after me coming here she fell down from somewhere and broke her knee. I was finding it tough to manage with those two things and my sister came to me with her own problem.

I was unlucky enough to get 2 speeding tickets in a day. When many guys are lucky enough to not to get a ticket even when they were ripping off at 100+ mph, I got one when I was driving at 35 mph! My car got hit by someone behind me when I was not even a mile away from home, that too when I my car came to complete halt because of a car stopped in front of me. I was not lucky enough to enjoy my car for at least an year, forget about losing good amount of money!

And to my horror, the Police report was fabricated such a way that, it says, I was responsible for the mishap! Now I need to fight for this and my India travel is just around the corner, not even 10 days away from today! And to go through all these, all I did was, postponing my India trip by 3 weeks by paying some extra money and the day I was supposed to reach my family, I was met with that accident! Now I wonder whether I can make it as per my current plan or not!

After me coming to Dallas, and joining Nokia, 4 guys sitting in our bay changed the team or moved to different bay! And today my manager was telling me, “Girish, did you observe this, everyone sitting around you have moved to different team. Are you sure that there isn’t any problem with you!?” Though he was joking, that was when I realized, “Oh! Yeah, isn’t it! I came here and occupied this desk and all the 4 guys around me moved out!”

And he continued, “Next its Dennis’s turn”. Dennis is the one who got settled in one of the vacant desk adjacent to mine.

I replied, “I hope, he proves you all wrong”

5 minutes after that we all smelled some burning smoke and they all felt that it is coming from the PC installed 2 minutes before that in the vacant desk next to me. We all turned it off and immediately after that we got to know that it’s coming from a PC in the other corner of the office.

And by then I got a call from my manager, “Hello Girish, what is the problem with you. Even the PC next to you has burnt!!”

I said, “No no, it’s not the one, it’s from a different PC”

He responded, “I was just joking”

I just smiled and he disconnected the call.

I hope and wish that I am not unlucky for others at least! Being responsible for someone else’s misery is the last thing I want to be!