Help!....I am stuck..again.

As my Muse showed no signs of returning (for the uninitiated refer: Once upon a Time ) , I thought of resorting to my favorite topic (thus titled coz I never seem to run out of things to write under it) namely, My embarrassing moments. But then I realised that I had already written an article on it in the magazine which wud have been read by my NITC friends and knowing fully well that 99.9% of the people who do visit this blog ( if at all) are my NITC friends ( love u all..hehe) it wudnt be fair on my part , to make them read a repetition of the same ( thus also driving them away forever..:)). I was dejected.I had nothing else to write(curse u,Muse).

And then..out of nowhere, when all seemed lost and I had almost decided to make a quick exit from this cruel(sob..) world of blogging..I heard a voice...no, not from my head this time. It was Dilip's ( the malayalam actor) . from the TV.

'Don't touch me ae'

he said to that girl who was stuck in the lift with him in Mr.Butler ( lovvveee that movie.) I let out a giggle as he proceeded to make that instant biryani on his Wonder Briefcase. Then , memories of all the times I was stuck flooded my mind. Yes! I cud write about all the times I was stuck.


No not like poor old Pumbaa here.
In lifts.in bathrooms.in rooms. Not only have I have been stuck, I have even managed to lock people in too :D.

My earliest experience of being stuck was in the 4th grade. I had just finished Sunday school and decided to make a quick visit to the bathroom. As I was about to close it, I did realise that well..it was one of those doors which drags on the ground ( u know, the kind that is difficult to close or open and leaves marks on the floor. For the readers residing in the lh , like Shane's door!) but then i didn't think twice abt it ( who wud at that time). Afterwards I tried opening it. It wudnt budge. And the door didn't have a handle inside with which you cud pull or exert your strength. Just a small latch. These bathrooms were located at an isolated area. I started knocking on the door.I was kinda hesitant to scream considering it's a church and all and thought I'll wait it out. Somebodys bound to come along.Minutes creeped by slowly.My imagination being as active as ever, thoughts of being stuck here forever quickly overcame any embarrassment I felt ( the not-so-appealing smell helped too ) and I started screaming my lungs out. Soon, I was rescued by a nun, who was passing by. Needless to say , I never went there again( to that bathroom,that is).

My second experience was in 8th grade (I think). My cousin used to live in this old,huge flat in Ajman.( Those were the days. That flat was big, with a long corridor and rooms to the left and right of it and a long balcony connecting the hall, kitchen and the bedroom. We used to play 'vampires of Ajman' and 'ghosts of Ajman flats' there all nite.hehe.more abt that in a later post.) The only problem with old, huge flats is that their lifts ( if they have them) were just as old and creaky.It was in perfect working condition. So, it made a slight creaking noise every time it moved. But it worked.
One day, as my cousins and I were having a great time , having the house all to ourselves ( aunt and uncle both used to go for work.), it was mine and my same aged cousin, Jeethals' turn to go down and replenish our pepsi supplies. She insisted we take the stairs while me, always of the belief that one must conserve one's energy whenever possible, thot we ought to just take the lift inside of going down three flights of stairs. Both of us were in a stubborn mood that day, not ready to give in. So I decided to take the lift and she, the stairs and have a race as to who wud reach the bottom first.
I clambered into the lift hurriedly as the lift opened and pressed level '0' reasoning that that must be the button for the ground floor.I cud hear jeethal's footsteps above. I was smiling smugly to myself as I thot of reaching there first and waiting for her, when the lift suddenly gave a lurch and stopped. I looked at the digital box indicating the level, it showed 1. Wondering what went wrong and irritated at the thought of losing more time, I pressed 0 once more.It didn't move. I pressed again.and again.but in vain. Puzzled,I pressed the open button. Nothing happened.Then with the sudden realisation that the lift was stuck, I started screaming for jeethu. Thankfully, the stairs was near to the lift and she heard my screams. She didn't know what to do either.She tried pressing the button from outside but the lift was stubbornly still.
At last, we thought of calling the watchman. He came out sleepily from his room, calmly listened to my cousin's plea for help, went in, took a bunch of keys,went to the lift and opened it. A breathless, flushed me stumbled out of the lift and looked at the watchman with a new found respect. He gave a smile and said that the 0 level thingy doesn't work anymore. 1 goes to the ground floor. Then why on earth, is it still there??? . The watchman, just shrugged and went back to his room. Of course, after that , the stairs didn't seem all that repulsive to me .

Moving on to being stuck in a room.
Again, I believe this occurred around the same time as the bathroom incident, around 4th-5th grade. I was in another of my cousins' place in balussery for vacation. After spending hours playing hide and seek and other outdoor activities, our parents told us it was time to come in. The guys ( my bro and another cousin) immediately jumped on the comp and started playing dirtbike ( or something like that.) I wasnt interested in computers then and it was a 2 player game anyway. So we girls decided to ahem..choreograph..dance steps for a popular number at the time( cant remember which one). We went into their room and I switched on the music. Before we began, we suddenly came with the idea of locking the room.....to keep away from prying eyes ;). After 45 mins of hard core choreography and practise :), we decided that it was time for a break. I tried unlocking the door. ( again, the structure of the lock becomes important.This time, it was one of those doors with the turning locks. you turn it twice, it gets locked and turn it the other way, it opens). I heard a clicking noise but the door didnt open. I tried again. Then my cousin came and tried. It was no use. This time round, I didnt have to scream, they were all nearby and when we bagan knocking and they came around and started giving instructions on how to open. We tried everything. Atlast they decided to call the carpenter. After two hours of being stuck in the room, he came and said the lock had fallen in or smething and that he wud have to cut out the whole lock area. After what seemed like ages, the door was opened and we came out grinning sheepishly at everyone. That incident didn't stop us from dancing or choreographing anymore, but we were more easy on the privacy thingy :)

And , finally, the time when I locked my mom and my moms friend in their house.
That happened quite recently ( in 11th or 12th). My friend was just explaining to me abt the peculiarity of their front door lock. That it could only be locked from the inside. A half key was stuck inside the outside keyhole. ( This was one of those locks with turning knobs with keyholes). As a result, if the entire family had to go out they had no other choice but to leave the flat unlocked hoping no wud try turning the knob.

Schematic diagram of the kind of lock I was attempting to describe verbally..;).Just remove the head of that key and imagine the rest of the key still stuck in the lock.

So we went out to examine the lock, while our parents were in the living room talking. I looked at the lock and my mind being for quite some time idle, became the legendary devil's workshop and I exclaimed:

" I bet we can lock it with the tip of the pen!" . (Archimedes must felt about the same excitement when he exclaimed Eureka! ).Off I went searching for one and tried locking it. Somewhere in the back of my head , a warning bell resounded indicating this was a bad idea, but I pretended not to hear it and hurriedly tried turning the inside key with the pen. Well, It worked. We could finally lock from the outside. and for a second both of us felt like the Wright brothers and looked on with satisfaction. We then decided to unlock it. I took out The Pen again and tried turning it the other way. It refused to turn. How can that be? This shud work. I tried again. This time the nib of the pen went further into the pen. aaargh! Now what?. By this time, our parents had heard all the noises and asked us what was going on as they tried unlocking from the inside. We looked nervously at each other. I asked to ask the neighbours if they had anything sharp and thin with which we could attempt to turn this lock. Hummphh..Me and my great idea. She brought a compass and I fumbled with it for sometime.Finally I felt the thing turning and then a reassuring click as it unlocked. I never felt so relieved ever. Of course , my relief turned to an embarrassed grin when I saw our parents' face. But then they laughed. Thankfully.

They were more 'I'm stuck' incidents in my life, but they pretty much run along these lines so I shall refrain from writing them down here. Why me? hmm..On the bright side, I guess, I know a lot more about locks now ;).