Strange serendipities — The banknote

Perhaps everybody goes through inexplicable experiences in course of their life. Unless paranormal they go unnoticed. It has been the same for me but having retired, I now have time to look back at my life and recall strange serendipities, which I will recount in this series.
(Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4)

Part 1: The Banknote

I was a student of engineering from July 1959 to March 1963.

In February 1960 my father passed away due to which I faced a little financial crunch but I managed to get part time tutoring job which gave me just enough money to sustain myself.

After my father’s death I took the jacket which he used to wear during winters. It had several pockets and was made of very fine woolen fabric. Although there was a dress code in the engineering college, sometimes when casual clothes were allowed I used to wear my father’s jacket.

After completing college I returned home in March 1963, and started looking for a job. It took more than two months to get a job. Around mid-June I had to proceed to a city called Mirzapur to join my first job. At this point I discovered that I didn’t have enough money to buy a train ticket for going to Mirzapur!

My father had once advised me that I should try my best not to take money from others, and rather my hands should always be giving. Due to my father’s advice being registered deep in my psyche I felt deeply embarrassed as I reached a situation where I would have to ask my uncle for money.

Nonetheless, I started packing my bags. One of the items that I make sure to pack was my father’s jacket . As I was folding the jacket I somehow checked each of its pockets and to my utter surprise found a Rs. 100 banknote in one of the pockets! and on the banknote there was scribbling in pencil in my father’s hand writing!

The amount was slightly more than 10 times cost of the train ticket (for perspective: my first salary salary was to be Rs. 340 per month, which was slightly more than one ounce of gold at the time).

I didn’t think it odd at the time but now I feel that this event was strangely serendipitous.