In Perrault's retelling of the story of Cinderella , he used the phrase pantoufle de verre, which means glass slipper . However, he apparently mistook vair , an old french word for fur with verre which is glass . Now that means Cinderella was actually meant to wear slippers made of fur and not glass in the original narrative !!! Many may not know that , but that is not a big shock for blogger users who reconciled with the fact that google after all was the result of a misunderstanding of the original spell googol !
We all indulge in errors .. some are really fateful and there is nothing we can do about them ..here is a chronicle of some funny incidents in real .They are true,but they were never meant to be ..
Fateful error in college : During my first year at engg ..on a fateful afternoon ..I mentioned to my Bihari friend that we needed to show some will power ( in some context related to academics ) ..he misheard it as "we need wills" . During those days 'wills' was a popular cigg brand and he got me some.. and insisted I should try especially since I had 'asked for it' ....I had to give in and there started a life long addiction.. which continues to this day ..
Fateful wrong number : A Filipino friend of mine once mentioned to me that he 'met' his wife for the first time because of a wrong number . She erred while dialing the number ..but surely it resulted in a lot of rights ...they are still happily married to this day and are a very handsome couple ...
In WW2, Hitler was cruising towards world domination when during the decisive Battle of Britain, a critical error hapenned. Britain mistakenly bombed Berlin's civil areas ( a simple case of target miss ) and it made the Fuhrer Furious. He immediately ordered the London bombings and stopped concentrating on wiping out the British Royal air force. This gave breathing time for the last bastion of Europe to recuperate.Paris already fell and it was just a matter of time for Germany to take Great Britain and secure Europe. However , that never happened and historians know how crucial and how subtle that error in judgment was and how remarkably the tide of war changed in the favor of the Allies. The attack on Russia prematurely led to Hitlers sure downfall , but there is a story behind that too which cant be retold here. Few know what was at stake during those crucial moments of world history. Our own Indian leaders* were blind to the happenings of the world and yet providence made sure the world and India along with it didn't slip into the worst kind of decadence ever seen on the planet ..which surely would have resulted had Nazi Germany succeeded in its plans even partially..
I am sure there are hundreds of course changing incidents in any individual's life and just as it usually is in world events, they appear like apparent accidents or errors but leave a long trail .. So for a change, take it easy and enjoy the roller coaster ride ..after all ..sometimes our best laid plans are overruled by the hands of fate and what results is either simply called life or history .. and more importantly don't drool over your achievements or poke yourself for your failures ..remember there are hidden forces at work all the time and not all we do is our doing and neither is all you see 'yours' ...
* The war theatre of WW2 was not a mere another battle. It was undoubtedly the biggest war waged in human times ( Gandhi was openly clapping at England's fall as if that would free India like an ignorant kid and guess its a little Karmic that India had ignorant leaders leading her at the political level ) . How could India have become free if the Nazis won ? Isn't it the duty of a leader to look at the bigger picture carefully before taking sides? What gave Gandhi the right not to accept Cripps mission which in essence wanted India to put her force behind the Allies? And who is he to comment that the offer was a "post dated cheque on a crashing bank ?" The 'bank' never crashed ..we simply failed to en cash the cheque due to poor leadership and poorer vision. Hope the same providence which helped the world and ensured that the highest attained cultural goals, possibilities and dreams of humanity were kept open and free before the all consuming war machine of Nazi Germany, would, in essence, also help India realise her destiny of being a mighty nation it always deserved to be , in spite of continued myopic leadership at the political level..
