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Mirror Magazine

Murphy's law - overtime
It seemed like Murphy's Law was working overtime on me these past few weeks. "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" is the common interpretation, but in some of these instances it's more the other law that applies, "If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway".

My string of mishaps began with that darn power cut. I undertook to handle the inaugural switching on of the inverter that was installed at my mother's home. Given the never ending blackouts we have been experiencing, I assume everyone (at least the over charged, poorly serviced electricity consumer) in Sri Lanka knows by now what an inverter is but for those of you who don't, it is far less noisier than a generator, it works on a car battery and is supposedly easier to operate.

The man who installed the gadget was very emphatic even writing out step by step instructions of how it should be switched on and off. That's easy, I thought paying scant attention to what he was saying, such as always remember to switch off the refrigerator, TV and very importantly the trip switch every time you switch on the inverter. So that night when the lights went out, I ran off to turn it on, conveniently forgetting to turn off the trip switch and Murphy's law immediately took effect - the inverter's fuse burnt out. I had to fork out Rs. 1,400 to have it fixed. Fair enough, as it was solely my fault.

Operations ran smoothly for a few days until my sister returned home one hot afternoon and decided to switch on the inverter wanting to sit under the fan and cool off. Lo and behold, once again, we were in trouble. It was the trip switch. That was goodbye to another Rs.1,400.

These mishaps will seem quite small compared to what was to follow. A few nights later, my eight-year-old son sitting alone at the dining table, suddenly shouted "fire". The fan regulator had caught fire. My sister put out the fire with a jug of water but the entire regulator had melted by then. The electrician blamed the fire on the poor quality of the gadgetry and so a new regulator said to be of better quality was installed.

The next evening, my mum and sister set off to deliver a small suitcase containing mainly foodstuffs for a sibling living abroad. A friend had volunteered to carry the bag. They returned a couple of hours later with my sister breathing fire. She had been booked for a traffic offence she claims she never committed. The traffic policeman had said she jumped the traffic light, taken her licence and given her a ticket.

We retired to bed that night wondering what other "surprises" were in store for us. Sure enough I woke to the sound of the phone ringing in the middle of the night. It was around 1.30 a.m. and from the exclamations my sister made as she listened to the person on the other side of the line, I knew it couldn't be good news. And I was right. Our friend who was to carry the suitcase for our sister living abroad, was calling from the airport to say that he had forgotten to take the bag with him. There was little that could be done as his flight was taking off in less than an hour. That meant another trip for my sister to pick up the "forgotten suitcase" but this time she swore she'd take another route to avoid the traffic cops.

Anyway, the next morning, my kids and I went off to spend a few days in the east where my husband is stationed and I hoped the short vacation would pass off peacefully. But it was not to be.

The afternoon of our arrival there, my husband came in, looking rather upset. His official car, which had been brought to good working condition after several weeks of repairs, had been in an accident. The incident was bizarre in itself. The driver thought he was reversing the car but had obviously had it on another gear and rammed it onto an iron pole in front causing considerable damage which would take several more weeks to fix. So much for a good start to our precious vacation.

Being the eternal optimist however, I have been trying hard to look at the bright side of all these little accidents. How much worse it could have been, for example, if no one noticed the fire and the house burnt down or what if someone was injured in the car incident etc. And just as I was sitting at my table making some changes to this copy, my colleague whom I shall refer to as Ms. T came over to pick up her cup of coffee from my table and guess what happens. It slips off her fingers and spills all over my table even seeping into my drawers.

It's another of Murphy's laws at work, I tell myself. "If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one which will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong". Guess these are one set of laws you cannot escape however law abiding you may be.

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