TO MISS SARAH,

I did not expect you would write me another letter given that I haven’t yet replied to yours. And for that, I sincerely apologise. The fear of not getting to read anymore of the interesting stories that you compose has obliged me to take up a pen. Despite how lethargic I feel and how much I dislike writing, I have sat down to write to you. 

I am glad to know you enjoyed witnessing the wedding of two of your close friends. I wish them nothing more than a lifetime of happiness and love. You have also mentioned that in your opinion sometimes destiny works in favour and sometimes against people. And I would like to disagree with that, respectfully.  

You are well aware, my dear friend, I have always been a reader. Stories, real or fiction have made me learn a thing or two about life and people in depth. There’s one line about naseeb; destiny I read once that is engraved on my mind ever since. And in life, when I am faced by a challenge of making a difficult decision, I think of it. “Naseeb is what people blame for something they can’t change themselves” 

When a woman marries an ill-natured man, she’s told it was in her naseeb to be married to that man. When a misfortune occurs, people grieve for a period of time and then say to themselves, it was in their naseeb, something they couldn’t change. It is meant to be said as a consolation prize. By saying so they satisfy themselves that they couldn’t have possibly changed anything even if they had tried. But that line has changed my perspective of blaming naseeb for the things we can’t change for as long as I shall live. 

When I face a conflict or when I have to make a tough decision or when I am expected to take matters in my own hands, I realised I didn’t want to blame naseeb when my cowardice is to be blamed instead.

Moreover, I didn't want to regret not having even tried to change my naseeb when I am old and wrinkly thinking about the life I have lived. 

When I wanted to get a scholarship for my program and I wasn’t selected for five consecutive years, I like to think I kept going, kept applying every year to know for sure that I had tried as much as I could. When I did get selected in the sixth year, I believed then that I had changed my naseeb. Had I given up upon my first unsuccessful attempt, I would just blame my naseeb for not having gotten in.  

When I was brutally injured in a car accident last year, lying on the hospital bed with multiple fractures, I didn’t blame naseeb for my condition. Instead I pondered upon the changes I could make to not remain dependent on anyone for even a small thing such as getting water for myself. Needless to say, it took me a year and a half to be able to stand on my own two feet. 

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong in depending on someone in times of adversity. I meant I didn’t want to sulk in place thinking about where my destiny has led me.

How did I get the determination to go on and not give up after some unsuccessful attempts, you may ask. For that, let me remind you the story of the famous Thomas Elva Edison and how he didn’t choose to give up after not one, not two, not five or ten but 10,000 times in perfecting the incandescent electric light bulb. Do you believe he would be as famous as he's now had he given up after a few unsuccessful attempts? 

Everytime that I failed, I would think to myself: “maybe if I tried one more time, just one…I may succeed” and the curiosity of finding out whether I would in fact succeed, has gotten me where I am today. 

And so, my friend, I do not agree that destiny has anything to do with what happens to us. Instead it is what we don’t dare to do, the chances we don’t take, the lantern of hope we don’t hold tightly to, that shapes our destiny. 

It is here I rest my pen and in doing so rest my fingers too. I am eagerly waiting to receive your contribution to my observation.

Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours with irrevocable affection.