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Chance, Destiny and Design

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Compared with several tragedies claiming far more lives, the recent accidental crash of an air-ambulance killing several of its occupants and 3 residents has occupied a disproportionate chunck of media attention and evoked strange emotions from citizen.
At the heart of the issue is the human tragedy of a 20 year old young IIT aspirant boy suffering from acute liver failure whose chances of pulling through without a liver transplantation were minimal, and who was being air-lifted to a premiere hospital in Delhi for this heroic and costly treament. What adds to the sense of tragedy is that in a desperate bid to save thier dying son, the family had staked all their fortunes into his treatment (cost of air ambulance Rs 3 lac, cost of liver transplantation at Apollo hospital Rs 21 lac), and sent a young healthy cousin accompanying Rahul in the plane, who died as well, doubling the family’s toll.
Was Rahul, in hindsight, destined to die at this young age? He seems to have been unlucky on several counts: he was among the rare 1% (chance) to come down with hepatitis from every 100 who get exposed to the virus (A or E) that spread in summer months through water or food. He was further extremely unlucky to be among the rare 2% (chance) of young people who slip into liver failure and coma while suffering from hepatitis, from which 98% recover spontaneously.
And at the very last, when the family was striving desperately to save Rahul, his death while being air-lifted seems most unusual (one in a million chance) as civilian air-ambulance crashes are extremely rare, making the “Theory of Chances” look unconvincing.
Also, each desperate attempt by Rahul’s family to change the course of events seemed to have led to further losses. Apart fom Rahul’s cousin, another 7 people, mostly young with their own aspirations and futures, and unconnected with Rahul, died with him. These were 2 young doctors and a male nurse working in the emergency services of Apollo Hospital, Delhi, 2 pilots and 3 women living peacefully in their Faridabad homes, till Rahul’s fate got entwined with theirs.
When too many rare events occur in a cluster, and seem to defy the laws of chance, two lines of explananation begin to emerge: a “Conspiracy theory” in the West and the role of “Destiny” in the East.
While a “conspiracy” theory, in this case, would hardly have any takers even amongst the die-hard paranoids, most would invoke the role of “Destiny”, an ill-understaood phenomenon that accounts for whatever occurs beyond the fringes of chance.  “Destiny” cannot be explained it by the laws of science known to us today. When it begins to touch our lives, we often realize that it usually defies logical deductions, and often seems to have a design and a regulatory force that shapes it. Some may call this cosmic force, God.
As published in HT City (Hindustan Times) dated 29 May, 2011.
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