Story: The Parrot Fortune Teller at Platform No. 4

I don't believe in fortune tellers. Neither do you, I am sure of it. They say things like "You will face a difficulty soon", and who doesn't? But after what happened to me last monsoon, I don't laugh at them anymore. Let me tell you where it all started.

I was 26 and desperate for a job. My company had shut down eight months earlier. My savings were almost gone, and at every family function every relative had the same question: "Beta, anything yet?"

Finally, I got an interview call from a big company in Pune. The interview was on a Monday morning, so I had to take the Sunday night train. It felt like my last chance.

A week before, I went to the railway station to book my ticket. The queue was long and hot, and when I finally came out, I sat on a bench at Platform No. 4 to drink some water. Next to the bench sat a thin old man with a small wooden box of cards and a green parrot in a cage.

"Ten rupees, beti. Mithu will tell your future."

I laughed and said no. But he kept smiling at me in a way that made me feel a little guilty, so I gave him the ten rupees. Just as a donation, I told myself.

He opened the cage. The parrot walked out slowly, looked at me with one eye, and pulled a single card out from the middle of the box with its beak. The old man didn't even look at it. He just handed it to me.

There was a picture of a train on it. Underneath, in Hindi, it said: "The journey you are rushing towards is not yours. What is yours will come to your door."

I thought it was quite clever. A train card for someone sitting at a railway station! I put it in my purse and forgot all about it.

Sunday night came. My bag was packed. My mother fed me curd and sugar for good luck. I reached the station on time. But when I stood on the platform and saw the train coming in, something strange happened. My legs felt heavy. I could feel that card sitting in my purse like a stone.

I know how silly this sounds. I told myself a hundred times that I was being stupid. Eight months without a job, and I was going to miss my one big chance because of a parrot? The whistle blew. People pushed past me. And I just stood there and watched the train leave.

I came home at midnight. My mother opened the door and didn't say a word. I think my face said everything. I cried myself to sleep that night, sure that I had ruined my life.

The next morning I woke up to two things.

The first was the news. The train I was supposed to take had been stuck for fourteen hours near a small town because of a landslide on the tracks after the heavy rain. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but the passengers only reached Pune the next evening. I would have missed my interview anyway.

The second was a phone call. It was from a local company I had applied to months ago and never heard back from. The HR lady said a position had suddenly opened up and asked if I could come in for an interview that very morning. Their office was fifteen minutes from my house.

I went. I got the job. I have been working there for three years now, and last month I was promoted.

What is yours will come to your door.

A few weeks after joining, I went back to Platform No. 4 with a box of sweets for the old man. The bench was there, but he wasn't. I waited for a long time, then asked the tea seller whose stall was right beside it.

He gave me a strange look. He said there used to be an old man with a parrot who sat there, but he had stopped coming a long, long time ago. Nobody knew where he went.

I still keep that card in my wallet. I don't know if it was magic, luck, or just a coincidence. But I have stopped laughing at fortune tellers. I guess some fortunes find you only once.

Note: This is a fiction story.