John

Fluorescent-orange coloured John has been the protector of our room in the hostel for three years now, although he was first referred to as John only five months ago. One afternoon, when he absconded as usual, Arun said, "John! John! Where are you, da? Dai John, where are you?"

At first, I didn't understand what he was talking about. Then, I put all the facts together. Firstly, it was Arun Sri Kumar speaking. There had to be a bad joke involved. Secondly, we were searching for our lock at that point of time. Then the badness of the joke dawned on me, and the name stuck.
Our lock was called John.

John is the safest lock invented by mankind. He is a complicated number lock with a dial that has to be turned alternatively in clockwise and anti-clockwise direction three times, with a fixed number of full rotations each time, and terminating in three different numbers. Ok, that sounded a lot more complicated than it actually is. I re-explain - first, you turn John's dial in the clockwise direction, cross 0 set number of times, and then reach a number. Then, you turn it anti-clockwise, cross 0 a set number of times, and reach another number. And lastly, you turn John back clockwise, cross 0, and reach a third number. After you do all this, if you are lucky, and have been treating John well, he will let you in.


For me, John has always been a person - even before he got his name. There were days, when you could almost feel his anger at the world that doesn't respect him. He'd refuse to open. Irrespective of how much you yanked at his orange self, he'd just not open. Then, you have to be nice to him. Turn the dial slowly, taking care to ensure that every number was reached exactly, and all your counting was done properly. After that, you pull John carefully to set him free. John also takes a lot of pride in his work. When strangers try entering the room, he is very hostile towards them - even when they know the combination, he refuses to go down without a fight.

Today, John's growing old. His dial that once moved smoothly creaks with pain when one turns it. If I try telling him that, he makes a face (goes more orange) and continues doing his job with pride. I personally don't have the heart to ask him to go away, and get a new boring silver padlock in his place. And even though the joke would apply to any lock, no other lock will ever be called John, for our John is a legend.