Random Muse

The electron is at two different places at the same time.

By accident? Probably not. Interestingly, this line which I happened to read from a book on Richard Feynman's work set me thinking in a new direction. It's funny that I started thinking about accidents because of an accident accidentally. The influence of accidents and ‘randomness’ and ‘random events’ in our lives quite amused me.

As I started to think more about the idea of 'randomness' initially, I began to feel drawn into a liking for 'theorizing' it. However, I managed to come out of that tendency soon. I wanted to experiment with accidents in real life, apply my ideas and see how it worked. It's a little strange for the reason that applying it requires you to not apply anything at all. It was as simple as skipping the usual lunch and going for a stroll on a busy street on a Sunday afternoon. I started from my home with great excitement and greatly hoping for something fascinating to happen. I couldn't think about the best thing to do, but that was supposed to be the whole idea. I went to a roadside juice-shop and grabbed a cup of butterfruit juice. I continued walking. It began to get a little tiring. I had been walking for about half-an-hour under a scorching Sunday afternoon sun like an idiot with nowhere to go. Then I saw a church nearby. I entered the church deciding to spend some time and even try and take a nap. A virgin choir was rehearsing as I entered the church. They had beautiful voices. I felt happy that I finally landed a good accident. Then I decided to try something nasty. I started staring continuously at one of the choir girls. Not an approving behavior but the intent was to have fun. I was enjoying it. A few minutes later the girl noticed me and started indicating it to the other girls. It was funny, but she probably got embarrassed and left the room.

I started walking back to my home happy with the random fold of events unfolding with no planned intention guiding them. But more was in store. As I walked back, an old man about sixty years old approached me. He looked like a well-educated and adorable old man. He walked up to me and started narrating his situation. I was a little surprised. He told me that he was a resident of Bahrain and that he had come to Bangalore to bury his father's ashes according to his father's wish. Some local hooligans robbed him of his belongings and money. So he had no money to travel to Cochin where he knew a few people and from where he would leave for Bahrain. He really appeared desolate and desperate. He promised to return me my money back as soon as he reached his place. I trusted him and gave him the money he needed to reach Cochin.

The random afternoon worked quite well for me. It gave me more than what I expected from it. I tried more such random strolls following this experience. Some of them were dull, others were just fun. Exactly the reason I call it 'the random experience'. The old man kept his word and also sent me a digital camera as a gift. Most of us would see this as a kind and humane act. I see this as an act of randomness.

It sounds like the butterfly effect, doesn't it? Our lives are governed by such abstruse, hidden forces that it makes foreseeing events an amusing and often an intellectual and a spiritual activity. However, I do not much appreciate the thought that one's life-plan is laid out on her palm or lies emblazoned among the constellations. I would rather love to go out and make my own 'random' events and let life do the rest. I do not much appreciate a lifestyle wherein one runs tight on her schedules or boasts about living an organized and disciplined life. There is so much 'randomness' around us to grab. My theory about randomness says that one needs to let go of herself in order to see more of life. Purely unintentional and perfectly random events might be a more interesting alternative. And does that answer the question about how we landed on this planet as living souls? Someone up there already knows about my theory. Sigh!