This is one of the stories that I produced when being utterly jobless at office (which doesn't allow google, blogger, orkut etc). I usually broadcast it through my company mail or the in the blog that I created for the company. This is for all those who missed it.
Welcome to The LOTR Experiment, the biggest misadventure of recent times. I was planning to say that I like to ‘experiment’ in a recently concluded interview (the MT interview, for those of you who know), but then, I never expected that failed experiments could have cosmic ramifications in a personal universe. Anyway, here it goes:
I have recently shifted to Navi Mumbai and I am the only one staying in the flat for the time being. I got so bored that I unpacked my computer and started playing the real time strategy game, The Lord of the Rings – The Battle for Middle Earth. While it is one hell of a game and I would like to speak volumes about it, I feel the misadventure is more interesting.
The computer is in the bed room and I went to the hall to fill water. The speakers were turned on with a pretty high volume and I wondered if the sound waves would go out and the neighbours would one day complain about it. I decided to experiment: I put the volume at an appropriate level and went outside the house to check the volume. Not much; and that’s when Murphy struck! I absent mindedly closed the door behind me! Shit!
I was wearing one of my worst night pants and a decent tee‐shirt. No floaters. I ran down to the watchmen and told them the problem. The fellow suggested that the best solution would be to get a key maker and get the thing fixed. It was not as if I had an option. But then, where can you get a key maker at 10.30pm? The watchman (WM) ran here and there for around ten minutes and came with the inevitable bad news – yeah, you guessed it right.
I had told him that I had given the real estate agents a duplicate key of my house for some plumbing work (Thank God! Even though I am an atheist). The WM noted down the number of the real estate agent. No phone. Ok, here is a guy coming, smoking merrily, oblivious of the situation at hand. His mobile was borrowed. Two tries; real estate fellow not picking up. Wow, now we have something.
I stood there perplexed pondering what should be my next move. Bizzare as it is, I started enjoying the situation I was in (!?). The other fellow was also thinking (Incidentally, his name is Raj and he stays in the same building). I told Raj, ‘Look pal, I have some friends over at Koparkhairane where I can stay overnight, but then, I need two things – one, a pair of floaters and two, some money). And thus, I borrowed slippers from an arbit stranger and 100 bucks from the watchman (can you believe it?) and was on my way to Koparkhairane in an auto rickshaw and finally managed to reach my friends’ house.
The rest of the story is mundane.
What better way to ward off boredom than to have such a wonderful experience – disturbing people around me at night, taking a night ride in an auto, being uncertain of the future, being penniless (that is not a new experience – I will tell you the Prince‐ Pauper cycle that I go through, some other day), having an excuse to take a casual leave, another night with my friends; I can talk all this crap once the incident is over. I wonder what would have happened had I not given duplicate keys to the broker fellows. I am planning to make a duplicate key and hide it under the carpet!
Welcome to The LOTR Experiment, the biggest misadventure of recent times. I was planning to say that I like to ‘experiment’ in a recently concluded interview (the MT interview, for those of you who know), but then, I never expected that failed experiments could have cosmic ramifications in a personal universe. Anyway, here it goes:
I have recently shifted to Navi Mumbai and I am the only one staying in the flat for the time being. I got so bored that I unpacked my computer and started playing the real time strategy game, The Lord of the Rings – The Battle for Middle Earth. While it is one hell of a game and I would like to speak volumes about it, I feel the misadventure is more interesting.
The computer is in the bed room and I went to the hall to fill water. The speakers were turned on with a pretty high volume and I wondered if the sound waves would go out and the neighbours would one day complain about it. I decided to experiment: I put the volume at an appropriate level and went outside the house to check the volume. Not much; and that’s when Murphy struck! I absent mindedly closed the door behind me! Shit!
I was wearing one of my worst night pants and a decent tee‐shirt. No floaters. I ran down to the watchmen and told them the problem. The fellow suggested that the best solution would be to get a key maker and get the thing fixed. It was not as if I had an option. But then, where can you get a key maker at 10.30pm? The watchman (WM) ran here and there for around ten minutes and came with the inevitable bad news – yeah, you guessed it right.
I had told him that I had given the real estate agents a duplicate key of my house for some plumbing work (Thank God! Even though I am an atheist). The WM noted down the number of the real estate agent. No phone. Ok, here is a guy coming, smoking merrily, oblivious of the situation at hand. His mobile was borrowed. Two tries; real estate fellow not picking up. Wow, now we have something.
I stood there perplexed pondering what should be my next move. Bizzare as it is, I started enjoying the situation I was in (!?). The other fellow was also thinking (Incidentally, his name is Raj and he stays in the same building). I told Raj, ‘Look pal, I have some friends over at Koparkhairane where I can stay overnight, but then, I need two things – one, a pair of floaters and two, some money). And thus, I borrowed slippers from an arbit stranger and 100 bucks from the watchman (can you believe it?) and was on my way to Koparkhairane in an auto rickshaw and finally managed to reach my friends’ house.
The rest of the story is mundane.
What better way to ward off boredom than to have such a wonderful experience – disturbing people around me at night, taking a night ride in an auto, being uncertain of the future, being penniless (that is not a new experience – I will tell you the Prince‐ Pauper cycle that I go through, some other day), having an excuse to take a casual leave, another night with my friends; I can talk all this crap once the incident is over. I wonder what would have happened had I not given duplicate keys to the broker fellows. I am planning to make a duplicate key and hide it under the carpet!
