Curious Coincidences

The other day as I was standing at the rounded windows of my attic room, I suddenly noticed something written in white on the outside brick sill of the window. On close inspection, I found the letters "J-o-y" written in thick white lettering on the brick (see photo). Unless I have been sleepwalking and sleep-painting and procuring paints and stuff in my sleep as well, it was written by someone much before I came to this house, probably by the person who painted the windows white. As none of the other current inmates of the house have any idea about my nickname, they couldn't have done it to surprise me. Whoever did it, I must say it is one of the most amazing coincidences that I have come across in my life.
Another strange coincidence concerning me occurred last week. A local Bengali association in New Jersey called Sreeshti created a webpage dedicated to Durga Puja 2008. On visiting this site, I found a "kash phool" photo on their homepage which was actually taken by me! Now I'm not really thinking on the lines of suing them for copyright infringement (at least not at the moment, as I am quite grateful to them for streaming "Mahishasur Mardini" from their site at 4:00 a.m. on the Mahalaya day) but I would have felt better had they asked for my permission before using the image. However, what seems strange to me is that out of the hundreds of images available on the Internet, they chose to use the one photo that is taken by a person currently staying in New Jersey!
And while we are at it, it also seems no less a coincidence that only last Thursday I was collecting information about the Disney's musicals on the Broadway, wondering when I can accumulate enough wealth to go see the Broadway Musical version of "The Lion King", my all-time favourite Disney animated movie. On Friday, I get this mail stating that the Graduate Students' Association in our university is selling tickets to the students for The Lion King at a fraction of their original price, and the show is due on... hold your breath... 15th October! Well, in case you didn't get it, the "hold your breath" bit was because it is my birthday on the 15th. "The Lion King" has been running for the last ten years and several reviewers say it is the most spectacular show on Broadway ever. It sure seems my first birthday in the United States will be a memorable one.

.

And since Durga Puja starts here tomorrow, I wish all my readers a very happy Durga Puja 2008. I'll be back after the Puja here with more posts.