Lampner’s sleight of hand

That the various laws of life come into play frequently at the most inappropriate moments of our lives is something everyone might have experienced. Murphy’s law, Kauffman’s paradox, Salary axiom, Miller’s law of insurance and the list goes on but recently Lampner’s law caught up with me.

The  Project work with the state Govt  that keeps me preoccupied these days took me to 2 places away from Bangalore last week, one of which was  a welcome break from the hustle & bustle of city life to  a vast serene Govt. training campus spread over several hundred acres  on the outskirts of Dharwar town.   An official jeep ferried me from the Railway station  to this  campus as were countless others - all senior & mid level officials from north Karnataka covering several districts who came to attend the  one day workshop cum orientation training. I had requested the department boss (a senior functionary equivalent to a CEO)  to grace these sessions and he had  kindly obliged. But giving company was also another  Sr official (sectional head) who was supposed to oversee the arrangements and facilitate these workshops. 

This guy was anything but helpful: pesky, irritating us all the time with his typical Babu tantrums. He did little to facilitate the workshop but hung around us everywhere. Even tagging along when we met some officials in their chambers after the meeting. So the second day we (myself & colleague) decided to give this guy a slip after the meeting. So when the workshop got over we managed to pack our things quickly and made our way through the Govt building progressively getting away from his visual sight .  First we made our way to the toilets and then watching him through the distance among the Govt office corridors we slyly made our way to the exit. We had spotted him moments earlier walking into one of the adjacent buildings and so were  confident of our final move to the parking lot to make it to our vehicle. 

But as if by Lampner’s (law) sleight of hand, there he was at the parking lot! – a mischievous grin on his face and we were stranded like people with 2 left feet!