Murphy's Law Is For Us All !

Murphy's Law (ML) - `Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong' is not some esoteric thunderclap that periodically affects only big-time, multi-million dollar projects, sparing ordinary mortals.  Whether those projects have a few hurdles erected by ML or not, each individual would have experienced some ML pitfalls in his life surely.  We have grown used to being confronted by ML so much that we placidly accept its inflictions on us without even a second thought or paying too much attention to the what or why.  Here are a few of my own anecdotal experiences with ML and I am sure most of you can identify with the situations easily.

My first known tryst with ML was even before I knew that some such thing existed.  My middle school days.  My brother had a bout of pneumonia/dyphtheria and was just in the process of recovering.  At such times, we know the victim is banished into a `virtual' dark room where he did not hear or see anything good, especially relating to food, lest he be tempted to partake of accompanying goodies.  So was my brother. I was sternly and categorically instructed by both parents (and a few uncles, aunts, grandparents et al who were part of the scene) that he was not to be allowed so much as a sniff at anything half decent to eat or drink, especially if brought from outside. This coaching was imparted to me repeatedly because I was suspected to be the only possible potential violator of the edict.  You will see, this was not without solid reasons.  Out of boundless brotherly love, I had already smuggled a few assorted prohibited items like pieces of onion pakoda, vegetable puff, salt biscuits, jamun fruit etc (everything sourced from outside of home) into a mutually agreed foxhole, from which my dear brother retrieved them gleefully when he was not under surveillance. I took the risk because there was a very clear agreement about the expected quid pro quo in future, should the shoe unfortunately end up on the other foot.  My father was very punctilious with his own and our lives and followed some hard-coded habits - like leaving for work at 9 am.  My brother and I left for our school at 9.30 am and we never met our father on the way to school, even though all of us took the same path for the first 300 metres.  One day during his convalescence and not attending school, dear brother developed this urge to have this `javvu mittai' (the vendor can shape the raw material of sugar and a stretchable dough into some shapes) or he graciously offered me an option, the stick ice cream. I was very aware of the fact that either of those obnoxious things could have actually caused his illness in the first place and refused to oblige at first.  But the pathetic look on his face melted me and with a sense of adventure, I took him out with me for a walk, for some fresh air.  Time 9.30.  The stick ice cream was available on the way to school and we were both watching our home, not far off, to check on any snooping relative.  The coast was clear and we were quickly devouring the delicacy when I felt a rather firm hand on my shoulder.  I had a sickly feeling immediately in my gut and turned to look at our father, his face flushed with anger, glowering at both of us.  Even in that delicate moment, my brother was happily licking the last of the ice cream, without realising the parental presence and this enraged the father more.  Soon we were hauled back home, I got a severe thrashing while my brother got an earful (he was recuperating, so no beating for him and also being the elder I was supposed to be the beacon of light guiding him!).  Our father was never in that spot at that time in the previous decade or more and never again in the future, but he made his only guest appearance on that fateful day to catch us in our act.  That was the first application of ML in my life!

Context:  Cricket Test, India vs England in Madras.  After a lot of begging and cajoling, my father had arranged for tickets for himself, my brother and myself.  Train tickets booked.  Two days before departure, my brother unwittingly invited chicken-pox to hobnob with him.  His ticket was instantly cancelled.  My father and I left by train, after everyone at home subjected me to close checks under microscope to see if any symptom of chickenpox lurked on my physique too.  After three hours of journey, a man who was sitting next to my father and opposite to me, was whispering something into my father's ears softly.  Then I was scrutinized by 3-4 elders collectively and it was declared that I too had chicken-pox and expert opinion was I should not travel further. So, we got off the train to look for return passage, when my father's cousin came beaming to us, happy to have met.  He was going to my town. So I got transferred and got back home without getting anywhere near a cricket test.  After 7-8 years, ML played another nasty one on me when I tried my luck again when Australia played India in Chepauk.  This time, two days before departure, some typhoid like pestilence took an immense liking to me and thwarted that trip. I had to wait another 3 years before making my debut at a cricket test venue. ML, indeed.

All of us have had trying times waiting at bus stops.  Did you ever notice that if you are waiting for, say bus 27D going towards Mount Road, even as you waited for 45 minutes not one would come your way, 27D to Santhome came to the opposite bus stop about 5 times in those 45 minutes?  And this would happen on a day when you are supposed to be present somewhere about an hour ago.  So, what do you do? You jump into an autorickshaw, literally feeling the hole being burnt into your pocket.  Two minutes into the ride, you turn back and see two 27Ds chasing you.  You curse your luck (that was what you thought it was, without knowledge of  ML) but worst was to come.  One 27D turns a corner breezily and knocks your auto.  Minor collision but major fracas - bus ceases to move, auto had been nudged to take a position in the middle of the road, blocking all traffic. Verbal abuse follows and then some fisticuffs. Great, free entertainment for the willing public, but you are stranded for longer.  Story ends with you still being far away from your intended destination, wringing your hands and waiting for 27D all over again.  No better example of ML.

I am sure each of you have had delayed flights in your travel life.  Once my dear wife and I were at the airport 3 hours ahead of schedule for a flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo.  Everything was hunky-dory till about 45 minutes to departure.  Then came the blaring ML-induced announcement that our flight was delayed.  I looked at the Departures board and out of some 60 flights shown there, only one was delayed.  Ours.  When finally we took off after 5 hours, we heaved a collective sigh of relief - prematurely it turned out.  Just about an hour from Tokyo we were told a storm was brewing and we could not land.  So, fly all the way back to Hong Kong we did, as if we were taking a non-geosyncronous circular orbital flight.  Not without some more drama too.  With one hour to go for landing in Hong Kong, we heard that the same weather system was creating havoc in Hong Kong too.  With just about enough fuel to land and no mid-air-refuelling possibility and a very turbulent weather to contend with,  our pilot was wondering whether he should divert to some other airport when he was ordered to head to a god-forsaken Chinese city in the interior, which had a shack for a terminal and nothing else.  We had to spend a miserable half-day there - no food, no water, no toilet facility, nobody to tell you where you were -  before we were mercifully flown back to Hong Kong and home, which were very, very wet with a deluge, caused by a typhoon. One helluva trip (can we call it that, since nothing was accomplished and we did not go to the intended place at all?), indeed.  My dear wife talks very fondly of this trip because with that she deems to have visited China.

One of my friends, who is a movie buff, wanted to see Come September very badly, bunking college classes. I very wisely refused to be party to such a scheme.  He went with a few others.  Those days we could not afford anything other than the lowest class, within touching distance of the screen.  So, there he was enjoying the movie from close quarters.  During the interval, his uncle who was visiting from another town and was in the privileged balcony class, spotted him (and unfortunately my friend did not notice him).  In the night, when the congregation was stuffing its mouth, the uncle blandly asked my friend `so how was the movie'?  Shrinking like a chicken on which some ice-cold water was thrown, my friend tried to blabber his way out but his uncle had the ammunition ready to nail him - the names of all the other friends with whom he graced the movie.  My dear friend did not know where to look and had to confess to his parents he bunked college and went for a movie - not the outcome he desired.  All the time cursing that malevolent uncle who was not supposed to be there.

So far in life, ML has played truant with me many times, but without any disastrous consequences, thankfully.  My dear wife says hopefully future ML inflictions will be as mild as we have had so far. 

Thank God and Thathastu!!