A Fine Balance

by Rohinton Mistry

‘There is always hope – hope enough to balance our despair. Or we would be lost.’

‘After all, our lives are but a sequence of accidents – a clanking chain of chance events. A string of choices, casual or deliberate, which add up to that one big calamity we call life.’

that is the central theme of my life story – loss. But isn’t it the same with all life stories? Loss is essential. Loss is part and parcel of that necessary calamity called life.’

Thanks to some inexplicable universal guiding force, it is always the worthless things we lose – slough off, like a moulting snake. Losing, and losing again, is the very basis of the life process, till all we are left with is the bare essence of human existence.’

The Law is a grim, unsmiling thing. Not Justice, though. Justice is witty and whimsical and kind and caring.’

Where was God, the Bloody Fool? Did He have no notion of fair and unfair? Couldn’t He read a simple balance sheet? He would have been sacked long ago if He was managing a corporation, the things He allowed to happen …

Never look back at the past with regret,