What if the stabiliser destabilises?

So I was on the pot and reading. Am sure a whole host of us do. It helps pass the time when you're waiting to download (thank you technology for giving us what has now become such a generic term).

And the mind then wandered to a conversation I had had about the voltage fluctuation and of the erratic power supply situation in the Silicon City. The conversation was simple and not intellectual - "You know I was sitting with my neighbours and their TV just went phut! Poor souls, they'd just bought a 42" Flat TV, so beautiful, but there was a flash (not in the pan) and a blank screen. They'd just bought it a month and a half ago. They had to pay Rs.3,000/- more for some part and it's ok now. Retired souls and the TV costs more than Rs.40,000/-."

"Yes, my cousin you know was so startled, her mixer grinder spewed some sparks, it chortled and it threw its lid in the air with a flourish like a magician and then, nothing."

So the conversation then veered to other equally interesting but mundane day-to-day stuff. So while sitting on the pot, I thought I just had to get a 'stabiliser' for my new TV and Home Theatre system. I'd be heartbroken and probably die if something were to happen to them thanks to the power supply. Then my mind wandered to the fact that a few weeks ago, our stabiliser (is it with an 's' or a 'z'? Hmm..depends if I want to be a Yankee or a true blue Brit), which we'd got for our refrigerator had a problem. So we called an electrician and after many weeks of 'bas aaj le aaonga' (will get it today, just now), he finally returned it glumly and said it couldn't be fixed. So ma went and bought another one. The stabiliser was about 5 years old and had served us well and had seen many an electric roller coaster ride. Guess it's time had come.

But that's an electrical appliance and most things have a shelf life. Including humans. But what would I do if the 'stabiliser' in my life, my mother, had some problem and couldn't serve and function as one takes for granted? I know my home, my work, my finances, everything would be in a state of utter disruption and turmoil. Unlike the above electrical appliance, I wouldn't be able to go and buy another one and replace ma. Ma's are all irreplaceable. So also the human 'stabilisers' in our lives. Be it our husbands, our wives, brothers, uncles, siblings, children, whatever you consider the factor/s for lending a certain sense of stability in your life.

My car's taken for granted. My work's almost taken for granted, though in this day and age of 'shut shop' and increasing M & As, that cannot be taken for granted, salaries, life style, a certain service, etc. Basically things have to 'just be' for us to think that life is stable and the 'stabilisers' are functioning. We take everything so much for granted including relationships. And if someday, any day, any one of those predefined stabilisers stop functioning or are in some turmoil, we sit and ponder. We regret, we wish, we remember, we resolve. And if things are righted and we're back on the stable path, then life's once again ok, stable, stabilisers in place and we're off on our merry way, ho hum.

Our need to latch on to something that gives our lives stability seems to be such an innate need. Ironically everything in life is really so unstable. Even our very own earth is bubbling under and then we have volcanic eruptions. We even have coined our feel-good phrases - 'Change is good,' 'Change is the only constant', and so on.

But I know that life would not be the same for me if my stabiliser had a malfunction. Stabilisers can have a bad day too you know. Maybe it's time for us to redefine, relook and rework our relationships with our stabilisers. However much life is transient and ever changing I need my stabiliser/s. They keep me sane.