Chance

This post is courtesy a really passionate argument with my friends over taking chances in life.

Life is all about taking chances. Whether you play late at nights or you adopt a dog or you invest in the share markets, you are risking something or the other. What if some goons were to waylay you on your way home after playing cricket in the evening? What if the dog you adopt were to bite you for whatever reason? What if you were to lose all money after investing in the share markets?

Life shall not be as we know it, if we were to not take chances. Some live at one extreme end of caution, while some live at the other extreme end of recklessness. Some succeed, while some lose. Some are satisfied, while some are dissatisfied. But never shall one live without chance.

Chance is as pertinent as death itself. It is omnipresent. What binds all human beings and all creatures is chance. So now the question arises - to what extent?

That can be best answered by the individual and not as a collective whole. Will you take a chance and ask that girl out? Some shall, some shall not. Will you risk your life in a trekking trip to the Himalayas? Some shall, some shall not. And to be trivially mundane, will you chance tripping down to your death and still climb the stairs? Again most shall, but a minute few shall not.

Chance defines the individual. The difference between you and me might well be defined by our abilities to risk chances in life.

And so, I shall never rub down chance as something to be afraid of. Because the day I do that, I shall not be myself.