Kind of a Surprise

Surprises can offer more happiness (than how it would have been if that thing or situation was expected) when it brings something good.  Is there anything which can came as a surprise, neither good nor bad, make us sad and make us happy as well?

Prologue

I watched the Prison Break only recently, after coming to US; though it was aired internationally (most of us might have heard about this very popular American serial. If not, this serial is about a man who got sentenced to death for killing the brother of the Vice President of USA. When this guy’s brother, who is a genius structural engineer, comes to know that his brother is innocent, he deliberately ‘tries’ to loot a bank to lead him to the prison where his brother is and then successfully breaks him out from that high security prison.  Though the story looks simple, it’s a brilliant work with further twists and the story was written by different people and episodes were directed by different people). 

I am a fan of Clint Eastwood and I have seen most of his popular movies, including ‘Escape from Alcatraz’. Alcatraz was a high security prison built on an island in San Francisco Bay. Only three people ever broke that prison and escaped (they broke the prison and their dead bodies were not found; so it is assumed that they escaped, though some people do not agree).   In that movie, Eastwood plays the lead man Frank Morris who made the escape possible. Alcatraz is not a prison anymore but a tourist attraction.  Last weekend, I paid a visit to San Francisco to have a sightseeing cruise which included passing this island.

The Surprise

Yesterday night, I felt like checking the mail box at 10 pm (since I wasn’t expecting any mails, I did not check in the afternoon) and there is  summons from  the Superior Court of California. I checked the address many times, yes, it is addressed to me. I got worried, what could be this? I used to get some calls from the debt collectors. But they were looking for one Italian guy and not me. So, what on earth is this?

 I opened the envelope and just below my address line, I read this

‘ Failure to respond to this summons will subject you to a fine, a jail or both’.

 Jail? If this innocent man goes to jail, who will break the prison for me?

Looking at my face, my wife grabbed the paper from me and read (she reads at least 10 times faster than me) and told me

“They want you to become a Jury in that court for one trial and you will be paid fifteen dollars’

This is great ! I am the jury of the superior court of California, excellent job ! who care about the pay. I became very happy.

See?

Note: In the U.S. there is this ‘Jury service’ in which the judiciary asks people to become one of the juries. They select people randomly.  It is mandatory for that person, including disabled people, to become the jury if one is qualified (it is not educational qualification but some other criteria and the first criteria is that one has to have U.S. citizenship).  If one is not qualified, one must inform them.  In the case of working people, the employer must give time off. I wasn’t aware of this till yesterday (June 28, 2010)