Say, I swish my wand, call out 'wingardium leviosa' at your hat and cause it to hover in mid-air. Well, that's classic magic for all potter-heads to believe, and may I confess that officially, I am a committed potter-head myself. Or say, you feel like eating chocolate
fudge late at night and the delivery boy drops one at your door-step by mistake. You can take it as a lucky coincidence, or a wish of the moment granted, or perhaps a little bit of both. Or say, you had a dream about a friend's visit and the next morning you find that the very person drops in for a Hello.

So what's your interpretation of the event - an intuition, a premonition, or was there something more to it? When you want something, want to have something, want to see somebody, or achieve something, the entire universe conspires to grant you your wish. Sounds familiar? This pearl of wisdom is dropped from Paulo Coelho and the Guru goes on to tell us that there are omens strewn across our path, we only need to recognize them and realize their significance. After all, everything happens for a reason and there is always a good reason behind it.

Magic may be a simple five-letter word, with two vowels and three consonants, but means different things to different people, has varied interpretations, and conjures up myriad images and allusions. When a mother holds her baby for the first time, the moment is magical for her. When you return home after a bad day at office, a simple reassuring smile from your partner can work magic. A guy's first date is magical and so is every girl's Cinderella's night. The belief in the existence of the greater power, the omnipotent and the omnipresent Almighty God only implies the existence of something else, which can be paraphrased as 'good things happening to good people'.

For me, magic is love, and love is the greatest magic, the supreme philosophy, the truth stripped to its bare minimum, the life giving force which cradles this planet through sunrise and sunset. The fact that this earth is but an imperfect sphere, hanging mid-air is magic - a thread that runs deep through this creation, its existence and its truth. There is nothing sub or super about it. Everyday we sleep, we get up, we breathe, we eat, we drink and we procreate because that's the magical law of nature - as natural as can be, as obvious as it seems, and yet continues to mystify and baffle generations.

Guess, simplicity does leave one stumped!!!

Concluded.

* Contributed by -
Amit Srivastava & Heena Khan,
Team Communique,
MBE, Department of Business Economics,
University of Delhi, South Campus, Delhi.
Article posted on December 1, 2008.