Daane daane pe likha hai, khaane waale ka naam; goli goli pe likha hai, marne waale ka naam

This is a Hindi saying that used to appear in almost every movie in the 70s/80s. It roughly translates to 'every grain has the name of the person who will eat it, every bullet has the name of the person who will die from it'. I do wonder sometimes if the stories we grew up with shape the way we see the world. In my case it was a rather paradoxical mix. English literature and Hindi movies/shows. Social media came in later so I suppose there wasn't as much diffuse global exposure for us as there would be today but there was also the scope for sustained attention on the forms available to us, which would perhaps not happen today. I would always finish one book at a stretch and then start another one. There was nothing to distract me from it. Books were a distraction from boring or challenging everyday life circumstances. 

But coming back to my original point, I feel like the idea that what is meant for one, comes to one has always resonated with me. It might sound a bit fatalistic when put that way, but it doesn't have to be. If it is a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, it can also be a transformative one. Isn't it the same as saying that belief has the power to shape reality? It doesn't have to mean one passively keeps accepting whatever happens to one... rather it could mean one actively responds to whatever comes one's way to meet one's destiny, creating one's destiny in the process so to speak.

I guess that simply means we do not have complete free will nor are we complete puppets at the hands of fate... as with everything, a bit of both ;)