In Agartala, when I was a little girl, there was a famous, ‘Saath lakhi bari’ or ‘the house of seven lakh.’ No, it was not the house that was worth seven lakh, the owner of that house, an old gentleman then, had once won a lottery worth seven lakh. I am talking about the early eighties. He had made the great win over a decade back, sometime in the late sixties. Seven lakh rupees must have been worth crores then, making him an affluent person in Agartala. Since then I had always wished for a win like that, a windfall that would wash away all my worries.

I had occasionally and surreptitiously bought lottery tickets with my pocket money as a kid. Needless to say, I never won even a penny. Paper lottery tickets were a thing of the past soon. Betting went online, betting became big and often illegal. Several scams cropped up exploiting the dreams of a windfall of many like me. There would be frequent e-mails from supposedly rich people from remote corners of the world eager to bequeath all their riches to me.

Of course, I read about those scams, bank accounts of gullible, wishful people skimmed. Yet, in some corner of my silly heart, I wanted to believe that one of them might be for real. In fact, I even responded to one of those e-mails where the generous donor wanted my address. Thankfully, I stopped short of sharing my bank details. I happened to mention my folly to a colleague of mine who started forwarding all her scam e-mails to me with a one-liner, “I bequeath all my wealth to you.”

A few months back I received a message via WhatsApp informing me that my phone number has been selected in Kaun Banega Crorepati lucky draw and I have won a crore. I was asked to call a certain SBI manager via voice call to claim my riches. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that it was a fraud. Yet I deleted the message with a heavy heart and a very faint hope that it might be true.

Call me silly, gullible, stupidly optimist or a dreamer who believes in miracles. Of late I have realized there’s magic and miracle in every corner of our lives. Finding friends who stand by you no matter what or a chance meeting over a cup of coffee that changes your life. Having beautiful dreams no matter how grim the reality may be.

And there is magic in little things too. To see my pretty flowers bloom no matter how harsh the sun or the silver rain suddenly washing away a hot day. When I walk out to the balcony every morning, I feel the miracle called life and my flowers tell me all will be fine, no matter what. To see that magic and feel that magic, you need to believe in magic and make it your own!