"...every damn light is red today..."

"...every damn light is red today..." I cursed.

So I had a morning meeting yesterday. It was my office day, so I had planned to reach the office a few minutes before the call and attend it with a colleague from the office. It was a Zoom call (post-pandemic, is it even a meeting if it's not on Zoom/Teams?) with one participant from my Mumbai office, one from NCR, and one from Singapore. So yes, it had to be partially virtual.

I planned my morning well, but to my dismay, our domestic help took an unplanned day off, and I had to get some things done before I could leave. Finally, I sat in the car and turned the GPS on. I have a GPS OCD (too), and I just don't go anywhere outside of a kilometer radius without depending on Karen Jacobson's [the voice behind Google Maps] directions.

So I started the GPS navigation. The ETA shown was 2 minutes after my meeting start time. I calculated 3 more minutes to park and reach my desk. So 5 minutes is what I had to cover. Easy peasy lemon squeezy, I thought. I am not the slowest of drivers anyway, and I knew I could make up that time easily.

But oh, the Signal Gods had a wicked sense of humor yesterday. They must have sensed my urgency and decided to play an elaborate prank. The first three signals I encountered were devilish red, taunting me as I approached each one. I found myself stuck at the third signal, a monstrous 180+ seconds of crimson illumination. I shifted my car into neutral, mimicking Michael Schumacher at the starting line of an F1 race, anticipating the precise moment to unleash my inner speed demon. Little did I know that this was just the beginning of an uninterrupted streak of red lights. The ETA on my GPS screen grew worse with each passing second. "I will take the first 10 minutes of the meeting from the car then," I resigned, as I reached a kilometer away from the office.

The Gods must like collaboration. The Roadworks Gods seemed to be chilling with the Signal Gods and wanted to have fun too. A kilometer away, I found the road leading to my office blocked, which meant I had to turn back and take a different route. I finally reached the office, 20 minutes into the call, having taken most of it on the phone and the last 5 with my colleague at the office.

1. Reflecting on the eventful morning, I realized the undeniable truth: Murphy's Law is more than a mere adage—it's a force of nature. It manifests itself on those days when we are determined to arrive somewhere on time, throwing obstacle after obstacle in our path, testing our resilience.

2. Or perhaps, Murphy's Law is merely a trick of the mind. It selectively registers the adversities we face when striving for achievement. Who's to say that I haven't encountered a barrage of red lights on other days? Perhaps my mind disregarded them in the absence of urgency.

3. So often we unnecessarily build pressure on ourselves, setting unwanted targets and expectations on silly things. I drove all the way to work worrying about not being able to reach by my target time. Eventually, I did not. But well, no one has fired me from the job (atleast not yet) for taking a Zoom call from my car instead of being my office.

The cherry on the cake? The zoom meeting did not have the zoom link due to some glitch! So I had to park the car and request the organizer to add me to the meeting as I wasnt able to hunt my emails for the link, if it was sent just prior to the meeting.