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Dear Miss Fortune, What happened to the love between us? I remember the time when we were together and it made everyone jealous. It was as if I wore you on my sleeve and with you always around, I could never go wrong. I was winning, and winning like hell. Wherever I went, members of the opposite sex would mob me; and whenever I got stranded in the middle of nowhere, a pretty young thing would come there in her convertible and offer to take me on a long drive. I was the cool dude in college and a role model. Money was in good supply and my refrigerator was always full. I assumed things were going to stay like that forever. Then, you left one day and I was miserable. My brain went blank the day I had to write my first test paper and after that, I could never sit for another examination. The most ugly guy in the world got the girl in the convertible and I was stranded in the middle of nowhere again. Worse, this time, it was a jungle. I got back minus my skin, but the hide came back in the mail the very next day. The tiger that sent it back also wrote that if I had to go there again, I should get another skin because even the rats had not relished this hide. "Don't you ever bathe?" was the postscript. I have never been insulted more in life. I won't lie to you. You do get accustomed to living in a catastrophic mess of silly things happening to you without any reason. If luck is something you have to buy, I had run out of cash. That was the first time you went away. Then you started disappearing more often and I realised there was a pattern to it. You always went away on the 13th of every month. When I confronted you with the truth and said I would not accept it anymore, you offered me a deal. Every time you went out, you would leave me in the company of your twin sister. It was hard to tell you apart from you sister. Even your names were similar, except that her name had only one "s" in the middle. When you went away again, my life touched a new low. I consoled myself: "Look, if it wasn't for misfortune, you would have no fortune at all." A new deal was signed. I'd let you go out on every 13th that fell on a particular day. You asked me to choose the day and I said Friday, because anyway, Friday the 13th was the day of Misfortune. The 13th could fall on any day of the month, and whatever day I picked would make no difference at all. Don't ask me what happened next. Am I any happier? Was my decision wise? You tell me. Write at Mind Games, Windows, The Tribune, or aditya@tribunemail.com. Yours truly, Puzzled |
