We were just packing up. Just then I heard a little knock on the door. Both of us turned. Who could it be? The whole lab was deserted. We decided to have a look. It was Wei...our friend Wei from the next door lab. We often have these long conversations at night when we got bored by the monotonous job we have. By we I mean Me, Dipto, Wei and Super Dang....yeah this is wat they call him...his self assumed english name.
Today there was no Super Dang. I particularly missed him because he was the better of the two Taiwanese when it came to English. We had one of our long talks. The topic is mostly..how to get to this..how to get a train ticket....blah blah...
I whispered to Dipto " Dude, lets go home. I'm kinda hungry". So we did our goodnights with whatever souls left and mounted on our bicycles completely unaware of what lies ahead in the next few moments. The road was dark and abandoned as usual. Although it was 12:40, earlier than our usual time of return, it was still spooky. I always feel a little chilly when the light next to the guard room automatically lights up when I enter the main gate. On the first day, I just jumped. We reached our house or the building. Standing in front of the backdoor, we locked up our bicycles and I reached the front door to unlock it. Here is where all the fun begins.
Before we begin, lets rewind. I had arrived a bit late for the internship. Mr. Dipto has lived here for quite a while now. Once he left the key inside and locked the door. Now that is careless, but can happen to anyone and was just a small mistake.
The savior was the lady, supposedly the house keeper or whatever. Now she is a strange character in herself. Short about 5feet 2" may be with a evenly frame. She is my idea of athletic granny. The people in Taiwan seem to have some kind of secret. You just cannot guess there age correctly. She might be in her late 40's or early 50's I guess. Now to why I call this lady strange. She lives opposite to our room, I mean when she is there. I have seen her only once before yesterday. I don't know but some afternoons I hear some kind of musical instruments play, like the one's in Japanese sad melodramas. She comes and leave without a trace.
Just a week ago, we had borrowed bikes or bicycles from our friends,Super Dang and Wei. We usually kept both cycles inside our rooms. We entered them through the back door. I always make it a point not to leave any of the doors unlocked whenever no one is inside. So I leave the standing next to the back door went to the front door to unlock it. I get in and unlock the back door from inside. It is the always the same exercise even when I leave for the lab.
One last thing before we proceed, door locking in Taiwan is pretty different from that in India without all the heavy locks. It is always self lock. A locked door in Taiwan can be opened in two cases. One, if someone opens it from inside. Case two, if you use your key to unlock it. The front door has a latch like we have in India for added safety. Whenever we are in we keep it locked and latched. The housekeeper lady gave us only one key and that is for the front door. All the doors have same kind of lock and unlock system that I explained. So if you accidentally lock the bathroom, it stays lock.
Now lets go ahead. I reached the front door while Dipto decided to stay there at the back door waiting for me to open the door from inside. I found my key in the pocket. The corridor leading to the front door was all charcoal black. I could not see a thing. Luckily I have only two keys in my key ring. Both of them absolutely different from each other. I felt both the keys and found the right key. It was all dark and silent. I put it in the key hole, the key turned and I heard a click. I tried to push the door, it did not move. I felt the keys again making sure I had the right key. I even took out my cell phone to see and double check. I put the key again and tried to turn the knob. It turned and clicked again. The door still did not move an inch. I did not understand. Where was I going wrong with this simple and such a trivial thing. This time I turned the knob with a greater force hoping that it had got stuck and a jerk might help. It was all in vain. The door stood there. Puzzled and hungry I started going back to Dipto then standing at the back door to get his key. I marched and thought what was wrong. My mind was not working but stomach was craving for some food. I just wanted to open the fucking door somehow and get in.
Dipto still standing by the back door and frustrated gazed at me. Without wasting time I asked him to hand me his keys. As we started to go back to the front door, I dawned. I remembered that afternoon. I was not imagining...I was right. I remembered clearly as ever, that I double checked on the front door to be latched. It was some subconscious thing that happened without thinking. Now the mystery was solved. The front door was latched from inside. We stood there helpless contemplating our next move. The first thing that I had in my mind was to wake up the housekeeper and ask for the back door key. She is an old lady and it was an odd hour, the clock just ticked 1:00 a.m. But there was no other way. We had to get the key. Dipto took the lead to the door and rang the bell. A short ring, we heard standing outside. No answer. May be the lady was fast asleep. He rang the bell again. No answer. There was no movement. Everything silent as a grave. I then came to the conclusion that either the lady was not there or she took some kind of sleeping pills. In either case, it was useless trying. We thought of our next move. There were two options. Either we went back to the lab and seek help or try to get hold of someone who knew English and then inform the security guard. The first was our last resort. We saved it for the end. We decided on the second one. Luckily, I remembered, there were two guys playing basketball and a couple cuddling in the dark. I hoped for either of them to be still there. Couple was gone but the two guys were still playing. For the moment we skipped them and went ahead to the security. I saw three guys talking to each other. This was it now or never. I accosted them about our problem. First I gave a tired smile and asked them if anyone of them knew English. The tiny one blurted "He" pointing to a fat guy. They looked at each other, then spoke to each other for some time laughing. Then he acknowledge saying " Only a little". That was okay with us. Little or no little we needed someone with Chinese.
I explained them our problem not sure whether they got it or not. I kept asking them did they understand. Although I was using hand signals only still I wanted to make sure they got it. Finally they nodded in unison. To my relief, we started walking to the security. It is a small room with all the feed from the close circuit cameras. The guys sitting in was young and was the same who stared at me last night when I ventured out at 3 a.m. to get something. He later told me that he was just doing patrolling last night.
The fat guy kept on explaining the problem. The man went in and made some phone calls. We were still doubting if the guard has understood the magnitude of our problem. We again asked the fat guy to tell him that we need the back door key and the front door is latched from inside. He again made some calls. After waiting for some time, a man scootered in from the main gate. He took off his headgear and we recognized him as the day time security guide. He was older and grumpy. He got off and came up to us and said something. Thankfully the fat guy took over and explained him the problem. I also enacted him the whole scene. The most important of all I stressed on the latch. I think he understood. He again made a call. In the meantime, I asked both the boys about what was he saying and how did the whole situation look. He said just wait and watch.
The old man hung up and came back. Babbling some more to his colleague he turned to us and said something. I turned to the fat guy. He told me that we had to wait till tomorrow 8 am. The house keeper lady will come and do something. Courteous enough the guard offered us a room to stay in. We thanked and declined the offer saying we can stay overnight at the school( read university). They chatted among themselves for sometime. He made the same offer again but our reply was the same. He again went in to make some call. This time relieved we thought of buying these guys a drink for their help. I asked them if they were busy he told me he had the final test this week but its ok. Just then the old man walked out and all of us looked at him. He was smiling and looked cheerful. The fat guy told us the lady was coming for us right now. Both of us let out a sigh of relief and smiled nervously.
Before the lady arrived, I inquired about how to say sorry in Chinese. He replied " Paichung ". The lady arrived, stopped looked at us, said something to the security guards and went flying in. I asked he guys about her temper then. They told me she was a bit irritated. We thanked the guys and wanted them to come with us. Before I can say something he said " we are going with you. She doesnot know english", almost sensing me. When we reached our place, the back door was already open. The lady was standing with a key. She gave it to me. I took it. She said something waved her hand in air as some kind of gesture and went in smiling.The fat guy said " she said no problem. ". I went inside and bowed my head in an apologizing manner and said the lone chinese word for sorry. She smiled again. We offered the guys a drink. They initially resisted but gave in. We took them to 7-11 Taiwanese concept of supermarket which are open 24x7. We thanked them again and went home laughing about the whole incident. The whole incident seemed funny as we were inside but when we were living in the moment both of us saw a night spent sitting on the lab chairs and nervously laughing at out situation.
It was an adventurous night....out in a country where only a few speak your language. It surely is a night to remember. :) All's well that ends well. :D
