A matter of chance

Carpe diem is a Latin phrase which literally translated means ‘Seize the day’. Like take control of your life, make the most of your opportunities, et al.

For some strange reason this phrase was stuck in my mind all day yesterday. I just remembered the Latin thing, not even its meaning. So I looked it up on the net. I then proceeded to wish birthday to my bestie using the very same line. (I used the English form- Latin as such might sound pretentious on birthday wishes!)

And just as I had posted the wish on her timeline, I read another friend’s post about actually seizing the day instead of just sitting and saying carpe diem.

I was surprised. I mean what are the odds of two people thinking about some random latin thing on the very same day? In a population of seven billion, any two people will be thinking similar stuff at any given instant. But the chance of them talking about it to each other is low.

That is when it all started, a retrospective on the element of coincidence in human life.

We all write our exams to the best of our abilities. But only some of us come out at the top. There are two reasons for this. First, it is statistically unviable to have two toppers with the exact same percentage. (If it does happen, I will attribute it to the wonderful event of coincidence).

And two, manual checking of answer booklets can never be completely objective.

But what about that religiously worshipped breed of toppers?

How come they score so well in all subjects?

Well I guess, they just get extra marks for great handwriting :P (and maybe they actually put in that much effort).

Or perhaps somehow all examiners simultaneously get the intuition that a particular student is going to top the exam and they check the paper leniently. But that would not explain the MCQ heroes!

No one can predict topping an exam. You can speak for yourself and say that you will do well. But better than all the others? That is hard to predict.

 For those who do, it is about the hard work, but also a factor of luck that comes in. No wait I was talking about coincidence…why did luck have to butt in?

I think it is perhaps all correlated. Luck, coincidence, chance…Its kind of like luck by chance!

 And it is very hard to keep track of. I think I’ll just congratulate the toppers of all exams that were held this year.