Accidents and Pan-determinism

Chatting to one of my friends a couple of days ago, we came across the discussions about accidents and how they affect ones life. By accidents here I don't mean the one's you see on the road or the earthquakes and floods. These are the little accidents which basically decide what you do with your life. My friend, while chatting along, mentioned how he accidentally joined the company, how he happened to be a part of a CRM project by an accident, and how his life so far has been steered by series of small accidents like these.

In fact, until recently, even I thought that the position I am at is all because of a BIG accident called 'Campus Recruitment'. I still remember those days, when my knowledge of the world outside the college campus was limited to say the least. I was a student of Mechanical engineering having just completed the 3rd year. That's when the thing hit the campus and suddenly even without having a degree to show, people were getting recruited. Year 1998-99 was the year of the IT. The first few companies to hit our campus were Software cos. Out of curiosity and because of lack of any firm opinion about future; I started appearing for the aptitude tests for these companies. It was all well till that moment, as I was not clearing these tests, forget about the other stuff like GD and Personal Interviews. What I did not realize then was that I was about to clear one of these tests on one of these days.

I promptly did and went on to pass the interview and was offered a position in a famous IT company. The rule on our campus at that time was once you get an offer, you are not allowed to appear for any other interviews. As I watched, the flood of IT cos slowly receded and the mechanical industries started visiting the campus. Here I was, a Mechanical engineer, all set to join an IT firm. A mechanical engineer with no job, once out of campus was as good as jobless those days. So I did not have the choice but to join the IT co. A year later, under the looming shadow of getting assigned to a Y2K project, I joined the company. Was it a stroke of shear luck that the Oracle Consulting department of that company had 6 vacant positions and that I was one of the six to join that group? Since then all has been well. I mean I went on to become an Oracle DBA and to enjoy the benefits that come with it. All accident it would seem.

But my view has changed now, or so I would like to think, after reading a book a few years back. During this chat I had with my friend, I kept saying that we choose what we want to be, but couldn't bring out the exact words. So I went back home and started re-reading that book, when I stopped at what I was looking for. The name of the book is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, the inventor of Logotherapy.

Pan-determinism was what I was looking for. Frankl says:

"...However, there is something which seems to me to be an even more erroneous and dangerous assumption, namely, that which I call 'pan-determinism.' By that I mean the view of man which disregards his capacity to take a stand toward any conditions whatsoever...."

I felt, when reading it for the first time that "taking a stand toward any conditions" were the key words in the statement. Going back to campus interview days, one of my very close friends did not appear for these interviews and we were all wondering what was happening to him. Then, when it was turn of the mechanical industry to visit our campus, he started appearing for each and every interview, ultimately getting selected in one. Now it clicked. Taking a stand.

Further, Frankl in his critique of pan-determinism says:

"...Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them. In other words, man is ultimately self-determining. Man does not simply exist but always decides what his existence will be, what he will become in the next moment...."

That makes sense. I had a choice to take a stand. I did not due to various reasons, ignorance being one of them. But I think I have learned from this. Now I know I have choices and what ever happens to me will be because of me, not because of series of small or big accidents. As Frankl says "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

The Saga of a Stolen Purse

I had bought a new car recently, a Hyundai Getz Prime GLS ( the 1.3 Ltr one) and was driving it in and around Pune roads trying to build confidence. I had ventured out on small drives to Sinhagad in it a couple of times but nothing else.

It was a Sunday and by the time I was finished with my goofing about and sleeping, it was already 5 o’clock in the eve. My wife Swapna and we were deciding on the plans for the evening and decided to try and catch up with my friend Prasad and his wife Daksha for the evening. We tried calling them a few times but, as we later found out, they were deep in their slumber and did not hear the phone. We had to go somewhere and that too in the car. Otherwise it would seem like a wasted Sunday eve. So we hatched a plan to go to my home, pick up my mom and dad and then decide on where to go next. Just as I was about to put my car in the first gear, I got a call from Prasad and the plan changed. Now we would be heading towards Dhayri to meet them. So we did, and after 15-20 mins., we decided to move out again. We could either go to DSK Vishwa which, Daksha insisted, was a nice place. Or we could go to Khadakvasla dam and come back. We chose later. Prasad decided to get his bike and park it at Dhayri Phata for the convenience while returning. Rest of us went ahead and after a frustrating stop for buying some Samosas we caught up with him at Dhayari Phata and we were ready to go.

It was raining, the roads were wet, atmosphere cool and mood generally jovial. Then I remembered reading in papers that there was a change in traffic thru Khadakvasla village and the road which comes thru the village was converted to a one-way going towards Pune. It was a bad road which was assigned the job of taking traffic towards Khadkavasla dam from Pune, and after a bumpy and slow drive we could see the dam wall, and a lot of traffic in front of us. Luckily there were police monitoring the traffic and, although slow, it was not a jam.

The next problem was to find a parking place and we couldn’t find any on the road which runs along the dam’s water front. I got a place to park just after the road takes a slight right. It was raining so we decided to leave the electronic stuff (mobiles etc) in the car. Daksha left her purse and Prasad his sack on the back seat of the car.... I guess a mistake. We went down to water front, chit-chatted for a while and ate some Samosas.

Then I had a niggle in my mind that I forgot to lock the car. So me and Prasad left the waterfront and went back to where the car was parked. I was wrong. I had locked the car properly. After ensuring everything was fine, we went down again. The girls had entered the water and seemed to enjoy it, which both of us did not. This dam has a nasty reputation for drowning. Another ten mins. at water front and we decided to head back. It was already dark and the traffic had not thinned by any means. I was all tensed up doing a U-turn in that bumper to bumper traffic. So just got in and started doing the circus of forward-reverse until, finally, car was facing in the right direction.

All others started jumping in…. That's when my friend, trying to get in thru rear door on the left hand side, felt like he sat on something crunchy...... To my horror it was the small triangular window on the rear door lying broken on the rear seat. My first thoughts were, did I hit anything while doing that forward-reverse thing? But then I was sure I did not. So how did it happen?

Then I was enlightened and my first reaction was to go for the glove compartment to check if all the electronics were in place. To my relief they were. While we were still trying to figure out what was happening there, boooooom... MY PURSE IS MISSING. It was Daksha trying frantically to locate her purse some where in the car. By the time we realized that it was the purse for which this whole break-in thing has happened, Daksha was already in tears. There were quite a few important documents, a couple of debit cards, a mobile phone, some cash and other sundries in the purse.

After few moments of panic, we gathered ourselves. We drove a bit further and informed a police guy standing there about what has happened. He asked us to talk to his boss who was stationed further up somewhere. We located him, parked the car again. Swapna, Prasad and Daksha went to talk him, leaving me to guard the car with a broken window.

Some discussions later, the trio decided to go look for the purse if it has been thrown somewhere along the road, unfortunately, to no avail. We were advised to go to Kinwatwadi police station to lodge a complaint. Off we went again. On our way to police station we successfully blocked one of the debit cards. The other debit card was from a nationalized bank and, not for the first time, we realized why you should never do business with these banks. I got their number after a quick call to my dad. We kept trying to call them, but never got through.
All this while we also kept calling Daksha’s mobile and it was ringing. That, sort of surprised me... We reached police station and tried to lodge a complaint. The officer there was not very keen on putting it as a theft. I guess theft means an FIR, and FIR means work for them. He advised us to put it as “missing” instead. Finally at around 9.15 PM that part was done and we left for home. I dropped Prasad and Daksha at Dhayri phata.

What to do with the broken window was the next thing on my mind and after thinking through the matter I decided to go to the service center first thing in the morning and get that glass fixed. Swapna and I had our dinner at a near-by place and thru habit of last couple of hours, I dialed Daksha’s number again and it was still ringing. Swapna echoed my thought when she said that purse should be there somewhere on the road. So I called up Prasad and advised him to try driving by the road a next day morning as soon as possible.

In the morning I went to the service guy as decided, to get the window glass fixed. It was to take a couple of hours. So I was just waiting around when I got a call from Prasad, I guess for a customary check on my car window. I was very sure they would not have slept well through the night and expected some sadness and tired ness in his voice. But hang on, he sounded very fresh and most of all very exited. He almost yelled his first lines in the phone - “Nachyaaa, purse saapadli !!” (I found the purse.) This was one of the best surprises, though one of the most weird, I had got. And I guess we all needed this to happen to get us out of the gloom we were feeling since last evening. I mean here I am at service station, getting a window fixed on a car which is not even a month old. The mood was gloomy for sure.

Aparently they found the purse lying under a tree, may be a kilometers distance before the Khadakvasla village. The purse was neatly zipped and kept under the tree and only thing missing from it was the cash. The general feeling was – all is well. We shared another 5 min. on the phone discussing the matter in an excited state of mind and said good-bye. I called up Swapna and gave her the news. That must have set her mood right too.

I started thinking about the thief. The first thing I thought was that he must be a pro. Firstly, he did not try to unlock the door or anything. If he had, it would blow the siren on centralized locking system and give him away. He knew that. I also think what stopped him from searching any further was lack of time. There was heavy traffic on the road with people moving around frequently. So he probably had only few seconds after breaking the glass to grab whatever he could and run away. Secondly the mobile was still there in the purse. I wondered why? There was the answer. The mobile was a Reliance mobile, and as most of us know, no use stealing a CDMA mobile.

All in all it was an experience one, given a choice, would not wish to have, but worth having anyway. I guess I learned a few lessons from it.

1. The obvious one. Try not to make your car seat, a display to exhibit valuables :-) If you must leave the valuables in car put it in such a way that they can’t be seen from the outside. Boot space is provided for that I guess.
2. Always carry the bank/credit card customer care numbers and keep them separate from where you keep the cards and stuff.
3. Do not do e-business with nationalized banks :-) They don’t know how it should be done.
4. Trust your instincts. Prasad told me later that at one small moment he thought it to be a waste of time to go look for the purse the next day.
5. Throw those fancy mobile out. Use CDMA ;-) (well, not really!!!)