msg on a coffee table

Have u ever wondered how significant the role of destiny is in everyday life, in every single step of life, its a plan really that reveals itself time and again at every point. i used to be this absolute believer in signs and clues that destiny would give me every single day of life, i would find meaning or a hidden msg in every single moment that'd pass me by. like that first crush of mine in school days, he'd just be singing some dumb song and I'd think its destiny giving me a clue, or like that old pile of pathetic poetry that I'd find each time i cleaned my cupboard, I'd think twas destiny... it was fun, back then it was lot of living. what happened later?? well i just stopped making a note of reading destiny's signs on my 'to do' list.
i was walking down mg road the other day alone doing some unnecessary shopping (read as killing time waiting for... u know what!) i was meditating on how i had become this 'oh my fate i surrender to thee' types and was just being carried around by daily routine and days had run into weeks and weeks into months... when i happened to pass by the old coffee house and since i had very few lesser mortal goals to achieve ahead of my evening, i stepped in for a coffee. The place still had its aroma (of real coffee unlike the contemporary coffee shop clones) the way it used to , years back when my uncle used to take us to the park down the lane and then buy us cookies or a sandwich and we would indulge in happy idle pratter and cause havoc to everything from the furniture to the cutlery and the hotel staff would just let us be rather than stop us brats from the rampage. and of our favourite pastimes would be good ole graffiti, i used to write my new word of the day on it bad spelling et al...then walk down to the park again buy helium balloons, and on the way back home buy lots of lilies and roses for my room, then spend the rest of the evening putting up the stuff all around my dwelling. Madness!!

i walked up the stinking side stairs to the first floor, sat idly on the worn out wooden seaters on the rear side... the interior had hardly changed and so had the upholstery (all about keeping tradition alive!!). the friendly forced smile bearer uncle came around to take my order, one veg cutlet and a coffee ordered i sat down with my miserable attempt at finishing Chaucer's Canterbury tales, as i ran through his description of each pilgrim at the inn i looked around at each of my co-coffee pilgrims, quite a variety indeed!! I'm sure twas worth a Canterbury tales dwitheeeya!! after some attempts at playing Chaucer i got back to the books, my food arrived too, i began eating, hardly paying attention to the food, when the coffee cup drew my attention by rubbing against my arm and spilling some of its contents on my papers kept on the table, god why couldn't i just eat without spilling stuff over, as i tried rescuing my papers on history of literature to be tampered by the advent of caffeine... my eyes took notice of the table, graffiti!, twas a writing i recognised, of course it was my own writing... the good ole graffiti alright!! i suddenly felt 'me' from the past was talking to the 'me' in the present. i that one moment visuals and scenes of a girl full of life hope love and joy running about and doing little chores for people, buying flowers, writing poetry, waiting for calls , writing bday cards, laughing singing dancing...believing in the certainty of destiny and the prince on horse top!! i missed her, that one moment i wanted to stretch my hand out into the words scribbled on the table and touch that lovely girl and get into her world of beauty and truth and destiny. bearer uncle came back to check if i was alright and offered to bring me another cuppa, i mumbled a yes and continued staring at the table, i had come here a lot of times after school days through college and later but i never saw the table or the graffiti i couldn't explain why i discovered it now and why did it matter so much now?? and guess what the me from the past had written on the table?? "Happyness" with the y instead of i.

something happened within me then. i was shaken awake by my phone's beep, twas time to leave, i hurriedly drank the second cup of coffee, caught up with a movie... we watched "the pursuit of happiness" that evening and incidentally happiness is spelt as Happyness in the movie :-)

as we returned home that night i bought myself some helium balloons and lots of flowers, destiny was my friend again, we had met after a long time, twas time to celebrate!!