India, April 7 -- Defeating Fate! Huh! What a title! What do you say? Is Fate your slave to dance to your tunes? It is always our master. Don't try to jest us. I hear you say so.

There is no doubt Fate is our master. The English poet John Dryden, too, had said the same in different lines:

It's Fate that flings the dice, And as she flings Of Kings make peasants And of peasants kings.

If that is one view, folklore has a different view on Fate. The other day, I was reading a mini story from cowboy folklore that highlighted defeating Fate. The story talks of a mason returning home with his weekly wages. At an unexpected moment, he came face to face with an armed plunderer. "Your money or your life", threatened the bully. The mason humbly r...