The origin of the word, coined by a diarist, Horace Walpole in 1754, from ‘Serendip’ (a former name by which foreigners in that period referred to Sri Lanka) predated the British arrival in the late eighteenth century.
My rudimentary paperback Oxford dictionary explains the noun serendipity as “ the occurrence of events by chance in a fortunate way” I think that defines my life. One day in the future, if I ever have the chance of writing about my life, that will be the defining theme of the events of my life. Of course life has not always been rosy, and the troughs have been deeper than the peaks, but in my opinion given the odds stacked against me, fortune has blessed me in every way but two, that being money and requited love!!!
Don’t despair I am optimistic about the latter two if I live long enough!!
It makes one proud that a word coined so long ago was as a result of this island, that must have had and still continues to have that feeling that there is nothing better in life than to find oneself in this magical land, that I believe the closest we will ever get to heaven on earth. The sad fact is that few who live here feel that way, as they do not know a good thing when they have it.
Can one blame people from overseas who flock here because they think so too. Arthur Clarke the science fiction writer, who died recently, lived here since 1956 even before I was born and after even SWRD started what seems now the malaise “ the politics of appealing to the masses to get elected without thinking through the long term effects of ones actions as it pertains to those who have to suffer the consequences of his actions”.
If we view our lives as being serendipitous, then we have reason to live and hope for a better tomorrow. Too many of us, due to various unfortunate events in our lives, some of our own making, and others external either succumb to using fate as the intervening factor, not giving enough importance to individual effort to improve on life and looking for serendipity to do the rest.
So look back on your life and the serendipitous events that have occurred and know there will be more in the future to look forward to. At least I hope so.I chose the blog address “kalpanakaranna” for a reason, as we just don’t think about anything we do. So we cannot see the irony of some of our actions and just accept what is fed us, not thinking of the consequences.
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