I'm feeling lucky!

It happened in January this year. I was going back to Delhi. I had decided on taking the seven o' clock bus, but my mother somehow persuaded me to take the eight o' clock one instead. Getting up so early would be inconvenient, she claimed. Whatever,I thought. So,at eight thirty, I was sitting comfortably in the bus, looking out the window in the outskirts of Agra, when I saw the seven o' clock bus lying overturned on the highway. It had met with an accident and the windows were all shattered.
 
I could only thank my stars as I sat there contemplating the consequences had I gone forward with my earlier decision. 'Luck' was on my side.
 
Or was it?
Was it simply a case of cause-effect? A cosmic game of probabilities and alternate universes? I mean,it was all in my hands,wasn't it? I could have taken the bus and it could have not met with any accident or the bus I was on could have been the one lying overturned: who knows? who can predict the occurrence of events?
What is luck, then?

What is it that makes people change their names: spelling them with a twist to obtain that magical numeral, wear bracelets/rings or adorn themselves with only a select range of colors? And they claim it to work! Our very own MSD is obsessed with 'lucky' number seven- and hasn't he guided us to the number one spot in world cricket? But you'd say that it was because our squad was genuinely talented and that the most formidable men down under had decided to retire. But,would that be a matter of luck too?

As I see it, luck is basically the child of probability, a series of events occur or don't occur and things are in your favor. But then, can you 'invoke' luck? I assume not. It's only a matter of belief I guess. Present day philosophers would tell you that if you 'believe' and wish for something in the right way, the universe will conspire for it to happen. Hm. Your subconscious is a magnet, they claim. Methinks it may be correct after all, 'cause I've experienced it. If you think about something with all your might and program your subconscious for it, I'm sure unconsciously you'd start taking the steps for your wish to materialize..
('be careful what you wish for,'cuz you just might get it all' )

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, we read about a potion called 'liquid luck'. It was claimed that anybody drinking that potion would succeed in whatever he attempted. Harry gives the vial to Ron who has his first quidditch match that day and surely enough, they're victorious.
After the match, Hermione confronts Harry for having used unfair means. Which, it turns out, he had not! He'd replaced the contents of the vial with something trivial! The only thing Ron lacked was self-confidence, and the 'potion' gave him just that.

Fortune favors the brave,doesn't it?