Oldies were wonderful while taking rent. They would forget every grudge, would call me inside to their wonderful house, serve me a soft drink or a glass of juice and take money. I felt like a buck to be slaughtered. You see these male goats are fed really well before they are ready to be served to the flesh eaters. And on one of these days, I also got the key to the main gate.

Oldie 2 (the landlady) would indirectly keep a check on what’s going on inside by sending her servant or driver to my portion. At times she would herself come and see if things are in place. Things were falling into place and I was getting used to them right before this happened. I got late one night in having my dinner and I had forgotten the key of the main gate inside the house. It hadn’t been put it in the keychain that had all the other keys. So at 9.00 P.M., I was standing there, outside the main gate, thinking if I can jump inside without disturbing the sleeping pythons. He would have shouted and messed it up had I rung his bell. I tried everything that could be done to go inside but nothing worked; so I had to ring the bell.

I rang it several times but nothing seemed to be working. I was doubtful if the bell was ringing and thought what would it be like to go and look for a hotel at this hour of the night. But then the door of the oldie’s balcony opened and Oldie peeped out if the thieves are ringing the bell and asking his permission to come in. Or he may be wondering that the dacoits have already taken over the situation and they were having fun by ringing his doorbell, again and again, to tease him even more. But he was disappointed to see me there without a single weapon in hand. He might be expecting some adventure, running in half pants here and there and trying to save and impress oldie part 2.

He came down like there was an issue to handle. With a serious look, he opened the gate and allowed me in. As I was walking in like a school student who was late for the class, he started mumbling something. I turned and he said “this won’t work. You never told me that you would be late. I sleep at 8.00 and if you come anytime in the night, how would that suit us?” I answered, “Uncle, I forgot the key and that is why I had to ring your bell.”

“You still have to inform me that you would come late, even when you can open it yourself.” He came closer and whispered, “Never open the gate yourself from outside as that might hint even the thugs that it can be opened from outside.”

That means if I never open the gate from outside, where the lock on the latch is visible even from a distance of 100 meters, thugs would remain clueless about how to break this squared planning (chakrvyuh) oldie had created. That’s a wonderful way to keep thugs confused. Awesome!

While I was praising his stupidity, the landlady shouted from her balcony calling the landlord back. I understand that they would have been in the mid of something and that might have taken him so much time to come and peep out. I suggested him to go back and have fun. With a frown on his face, he returned back. He was still mumbling. He might have lost all his excitement till then and he might have cursed me the whole night.