CD: Of padlocks,coconut oil and other in(s)anities
This is an attempt to chronicle the unforgettable madness that was this weekend:D
Around last Monday, the upcoming weekend seemed something to look forward to,because Siva,a much beloved member of Wolf Pack, said that she would try to visit us. Those of us who were shuttling between college and home decided that this was our cue to put in an appearance to college this weekend.Monday turned to Wednesday and our plans seemed to be masked in cloudy uncertainty because of some issue that seemed to make travel across the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border dangerous.Since Siva was coming alone from Chennai,none of us thought it wise to force her to travel in such conditions. We nevertheless came to college on Friday, with just a sliver of hope that she would somehow come.
Saturday was here and we had settled into the thought that she probably wouldn't be here,and this made our day all the more drearier. When suddenly around noon, she texted, telling us that she was on a bus and would be reaching in a few hours. To say we were delighted would be an understatement. Time flew by at a meteoric pace, and soon she was standing in front of us, in the flesh,after almost a year. She told us that this had been an impromptu plan--her shift had ended at 7am and she had simply booked her ticket and then got onto the bus. This was quintessential her and we loved her for it.
As all friends do, we spent the afternoon and evening catching up and talking nineteen to the dozen. We headed out for dinner and then came back around 11. Now,our hostel is really strict about visitors, and that they wouldn't be let in even for a minute. But then, just as there are rules, there are exceptions, and we've all long since crossed the days when we used to look at rules as absolute.
So we sneaked her in without being caught. Now,the next step in our mission was to find her a place to sleep for the night. Minu did have a spare mattress, and so it was decided that Siva would bunk there.
But then, Minu,who I admire for her awesome presence of mind,pointed out that Bala was out of town, and Siva could sleep comfortably in her room instead of on a mattress on the floor. Makes sense, all of us thought. But this hinged on a colossal if. If we could get Bala's door to open. We all had the same thought. Try to pick the lock. :D
We headed off to Bala's room, armed with a hairpin,a tic tac clip and a phone flashlight. It felt exhilarating to be doing this; and we huddled around the lock, whispering in sibilant voices.The door had a padlock based locking system.But after ten minutes of watching youtube videos and poking around in the dark hoping to align the "tumblers", we were on the verge of giving up. All of us have, at one point or the other, confronted a locked door in despair, and it is safe to assume that we have tried this hairpin trick all too many times, without any tangible results.
But there was this exhilaration that felt all too nice to abandon in the middle and so I said, Let's think out of the box. This hairpin thing is never going to work. What if,instead, we unscrewed the portion of the latch that was screwed to the door? There was a minute of silence where all of my friends visualised this, and we realised that we had the answer. It was this simple. Four screws and no lock picking at all. :D
But who would have a screwdriver and who can we ask at this hour? My friends ask in uncertainty.
Meeee. Actually, I even know for a fact that it fits the door. I grin in glee.
I may not own much of makeup, but a screwdriver I certainly do. It is something that has proven incredibly useful in a dozen situations, and this was going to be just one more. I ran to my room, got the screwdriver and in less than two minutes,we had the screws out. We filmed the last portion where we actually got the door to open. And lo and behold, we had done it. Somehow, this(more than all those complicated projects we've worked on) seemed to make us all feel that we were true engineers:P I guess it was because it was a practical problem and we could actually solve it in a way that was simply perfect.
But it also made us realise that anyone could just as easily open our rooms without leaving behind any evidence. The perfect crime, as my friend called it. So, we solemnly agreed not to tell anyone about this major loophole. It was only to be used for good purposes, such as what we were doing:D
Bala was supposed to be coming back the next morning, and we decided that this would be an amazing prank to play on her--we would screw the latch back in, with Siva inside the room and then watch her reaction when she opened the door. All of us agreed that this would be an awesome thing to do, and we subtly found out that Bala would be back around 9.30. So our plan was to do this early in the morning.
Lucky and I stayed up late talking as we oft do, and it was 3 when we slept.When I woke up in the morning,I felt a tad guilty about what we'd done to Bala's door. So I headed upstairs with my culprit of a screwdriver, to fix the latch up before she reached.However, fate had other plans, and she had arrived earlier than I'd expected. We missed her reaction, although I hear she was definitely surprised and pleasantly so.:)
I would have ended the article here, but I have one other insanely funny tidbit left to narrate. Lucky was still asleep and I pounded on her door, to tell her that we'd unfortunately missed executing our plan and that Bala was already here. She(Lucky) opened her door looking groggy as hell and listened as I filled her up on what had happened. Then, she heads into her room and emerges with a parachute coconut oil bottle in her hand. I was still talking, and she took a long and hard look at the bottle, before she opened it,lifted it up and took a swig out of it:D
I paused mid speech,transfixed in mute horror,wondering what in hell's name she was doing.Could it be that she's filled up something else in the bottle,like water? No way,too weird. This sequence of thoughts transpired in less than a fraction of a millisecond in my mind, while she was still pouring the oil into her mouth.And then, I find my lost voice. What the **** are you doing? That's coconut oil you're drinking, not water. She then looks at the bottle in mild surprise, as if she hadn't realised that at all. And then,the taste sinks in, and she's fully awake now. :D She runs off to the washroom to spit it out, and I collapse into peals of convulsive hysterical laughter. Coconut oil! Damn.
And on this note I end this article. This is us, a dozen odd friends, who are eccentric in our own ways, and far from the boringly normal people you'd find in the world.I cherish these people and our times together all the more now, because our college life is soon drawing to a close. Honestly, they're more family than friends now, and I hope that we always stay that way.
This article is dedicated to Wolf Pack, the dozen girls of ESD that have made my two years of graduate life beautifully memorable:)
NB: Though technically the brilliant idea of unscrewing the latch was mine, I cannot and will not take credit for it. Because I actually didn't think of it then, it was only prior observation,that too in reverse. The truth of the matter was that nearly a couple of years ago, my door latch(this exact part) was missing a couple of screws and it always seemed precarious to me to leave my door locked that way. So,I got a pair of screws one day, and screwed in the latch properly. At that point, ironically, it never occurred to me that one could exploit this weakness to get the door to open. Somehow, yesterday it clicked into place and hence the "brilliant" idea. :P
Special mention to Bala, for being extremely sportive about us breaking into her room sans her permission. In retrospect, what we did does seem a little extreme. :D But our intentions were nothing but honorable :P
Around last Monday, the upcoming weekend seemed something to look forward to,because Siva,a much beloved member of Wolf Pack, said that she would try to visit us. Those of us who were shuttling between college and home decided that this was our cue to put in an appearance to college this weekend.Monday turned to Wednesday and our plans seemed to be masked in cloudy uncertainty because of some issue that seemed to make travel across the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border dangerous.Since Siva was coming alone from Chennai,none of us thought it wise to force her to travel in such conditions. We nevertheless came to college on Friday, with just a sliver of hope that she would somehow come.
Saturday was here and we had settled into the thought that she probably wouldn't be here,and this made our day all the more drearier. When suddenly around noon, she texted, telling us that she was on a bus and would be reaching in a few hours. To say we were delighted would be an understatement. Time flew by at a meteoric pace, and soon she was standing in front of us, in the flesh,after almost a year. She told us that this had been an impromptu plan--her shift had ended at 7am and she had simply booked her ticket and then got onto the bus. This was quintessential her and we loved her for it.
As all friends do, we spent the afternoon and evening catching up and talking nineteen to the dozen. We headed out for dinner and then came back around 11. Now,our hostel is really strict about visitors, and that they wouldn't be let in even for a minute. But then, just as there are rules, there are exceptions, and we've all long since crossed the days when we used to look at rules as absolute.
So we sneaked her in without being caught. Now,the next step in our mission was to find her a place to sleep for the night. Minu did have a spare mattress, and so it was decided that Siva would bunk there.
But then, Minu,who I admire for her awesome presence of mind,pointed out that Bala was out of town, and Siva could sleep comfortably in her room instead of on a mattress on the floor. Makes sense, all of us thought. But this hinged on a colossal if. If we could get Bala's door to open. We all had the same thought. Try to pick the lock. :D
We headed off to Bala's room, armed with a hairpin,a tic tac clip and a phone flashlight. It felt exhilarating to be doing this; and we huddled around the lock, whispering in sibilant voices.The door had a padlock based locking system.But after ten minutes of watching youtube videos and poking around in the dark hoping to align the "tumblers", we were on the verge of giving up. All of us have, at one point or the other, confronted a locked door in despair, and it is safe to assume that we have tried this hairpin trick all too many times, without any tangible results.
But there was this exhilaration that felt all too nice to abandon in the middle and so I said, Let's think out of the box. This hairpin thing is never going to work. What if,instead, we unscrewed the portion of the latch that was screwed to the door? There was a minute of silence where all of my friends visualised this, and we realised that we had the answer. It was this simple. Four screws and no lock picking at all. :D
But who would have a screwdriver and who can we ask at this hour? My friends ask in uncertainty.
Meeee. Actually, I even know for a fact that it fits the door. I grin in glee.
I may not own much of makeup, but a screwdriver I certainly do. It is something that has proven incredibly useful in a dozen situations, and this was going to be just one more. I ran to my room, got the screwdriver and in less than two minutes,we had the screws out. We filmed the last portion where we actually got the door to open. And lo and behold, we had done it. Somehow, this(more than all those complicated projects we've worked on) seemed to make us all feel that we were true engineers:P I guess it was because it was a practical problem and we could actually solve it in a way that was simply perfect.
Evidence! Keep this to yourself though:P
But it also made us realise that anyone could just as easily open our rooms without leaving behind any evidence. The perfect crime, as my friend called it. So, we solemnly agreed not to tell anyone about this major loophole. It was only to be used for good purposes, such as what we were doing:D
Bala was supposed to be coming back the next morning, and we decided that this would be an amazing prank to play on her--we would screw the latch back in, with Siva inside the room and then watch her reaction when she opened the door. All of us agreed that this would be an awesome thing to do, and we subtly found out that Bala would be back around 9.30. So our plan was to do this early in the morning.
Lucky and I stayed up late talking as we oft do, and it was 3 when we slept.When I woke up in the morning,I felt a tad guilty about what we'd done to Bala's door. So I headed upstairs with my culprit of a screwdriver, to fix the latch up before she reached.However, fate had other plans, and she had arrived earlier than I'd expected. We missed her reaction, although I hear she was definitely surprised and pleasantly so.:)
I would have ended the article here, but I have one other insanely funny tidbit left to narrate. Lucky was still asleep and I pounded on her door, to tell her that we'd unfortunately missed executing our plan and that Bala was already here. She(Lucky) opened her door looking groggy as hell and listened as I filled her up on what had happened. Then, she heads into her room and emerges with a parachute coconut oil bottle in her hand. I was still talking, and she took a long and hard look at the bottle, before she opened it,lifted it up and took a swig out of it:D
I paused mid speech,transfixed in mute horror,wondering what in hell's name she was doing.Could it be that she's filled up something else in the bottle,like water? No way,too weird. This sequence of thoughts transpired in less than a fraction of a millisecond in my mind, while she was still pouring the oil into her mouth.And then, I find my lost voice. What the **** are you doing? That's coconut oil you're drinking, not water. She then looks at the bottle in mild surprise, as if she hadn't realised that at all. And then,the taste sinks in, and she's fully awake now. :D She runs off to the washroom to spit it out, and I collapse into peals of convulsive hysterical laughter. Coconut oil! Damn.
And on this note I end this article. This is us, a dozen odd friends, who are eccentric in our own ways, and far from the boringly normal people you'd find in the world.I cherish these people and our times together all the more now, because our college life is soon drawing to a close. Honestly, they're more family than friends now, and I hope that we always stay that way.
This article is dedicated to Wolf Pack, the dozen girls of ESD that have made my two years of graduate life beautifully memorable:)
NB: Though technically the brilliant idea of unscrewing the latch was mine, I cannot and will not take credit for it. Because I actually didn't think of it then, it was only prior observation,that too in reverse. The truth of the matter was that nearly a couple of years ago, my door latch(this exact part) was missing a couple of screws and it always seemed precarious to me to leave my door locked that way. So,I got a pair of screws one day, and screwed in the latch properly. At that point, ironically, it never occurred to me that one could exploit this weakness to get the door to open. Somehow, yesterday it clicked into place and hence the "brilliant" idea. :P
Special mention to Bala, for being extremely sportive about us breaking into her room sans her permission. In retrospect, what we did does seem a little extreme. :D But our intentions were nothing but honorable :P
Comments
Post a Comment