Editor – There is an Indian Hindi film song which goes like this. A boy sings to a girl, “If we are locked in a room and the key is lost…” Naturally, it is understood that the boy and girl must have been very happy to spend the time together.
But it was not so in my case when the key was broken inside the lock. It was a Sunday morning and I had decided to go to a morning church service. I had finished my bath and was about to go out when, lo and behold, the door key broke and the broken piece was stuck inside the lock mechanism.
I had the shock of my life for a few seconds and then tried all my tricks to get a grip on the key so the door would open, all in vain. The broken key was just rotating.
I opened the bathroom window to send an SOS call to my neighbour at the back. Then, in the flicker of a second, I remembered that I had locked all the approach doors, both front and back, and also the garage. The funny side of it is that I had stuck the keys to the locks and no one could put in any key from the outside. The only way would be to break open the door. My eyes started looking around for an iron rod, but who would have such an object inside a bathroom? The only help I had was self effort. However, it was only a struggle for about 15 minutes. With vigorous push and pull attempts with both my hands and legs, the door eventually slipped open from the lock.
Being a Sunday, I could not change the lock. I got a new one the very next day and wished to have a locksmith repair the broken one. He opened the box type lock, took out the broken piece and replaced it with a new key.
Do you know what he advised me? Never go for cheap-quality locks. The second lesson I gave to myself was: Never keep keys inside the lock of a door when you are alone in a house.
MSB Christopher / GPT Ladysmith
