WPC: Security

In South Indian villages, there is this concept of Guardian Spirits or Guardian Gods who are located at the entrance of every village. It is believed that these spirits/gods guard the village from evil, more like providing spiritual security to the villagers. This one was taken in a small village on the way to Rameshwaram.

A wake up call!

Before I get into the wake up call, let me give you some context here.

When I moved into my flat years ago (this was when my ex was residing next door) I had installed an iron gate before the door for additional security (my ex had a set of keys for my flat and he was causing lot of trouble at that time). Locking that iron gate was mandatory. That was my primary safety door since I was the only one who had that key. Ever since my ex moved out of his flat, I haven’t been locking that door every day. I do it once in a while when I remember. My apartment complex is pretty secure and the watchman and their family (the watchman’s wife is my house maid) have kind of adopted me and they look after me. I haven’t had any issues so far. So I literally stopped locking my iron gate at nights. Also, unless I get up for my gym, I usually switch off my alarms (two with a half an hour in between them) and go back to sleep until my maid rings my door bell. And my door bell sings a song for close to a minute and then says ‘Please open the door’ at the end of it. Not an ideal one to hear in the middle of the night for sure. Not to mention that it is a plaything for my friends whenever they visit. Thanks brother for getting me that door bell.

Yesterday early morning I hear the door bell sing and I wake up thinking, I did it again. I overslept. Why can’t I get up for the second alarm…blah blah blah. And then make my way to the door thinking that it would be my maid. But then something felt wrong and I realize at the last minute (just one more latch to be removed to open the door) that it is still dark outside. I switch on the light and see the time and its 4 am. I am awake instantly. I am like what the hell! who is there at my doorstep at 4 am. My brother didn’t tell me he is on his way for his business or anything. I see through the peep hole and see a scowling fellow who had opened the iron gate (it was not locked but latched from inside) and ready to open my door. I have never seen that fellow ever before in my life. I instantly panic a bit and ask him with my rudest voice about who he was and what he wanted. He immediately looks around wondering where the voice is coming from and says that he is the cook. I am like why the hell someone would tell that they are a cook if they wanted to do me some harm. probably he is a cook…but what is he doing at my place then. I then ask him which house number he wants and he looks around wondering why he is being asked these questions. I immediately ring my watchman but then after a couple of rings cut the call and check through the peep hole once again to check if he was still there. Lo and behold, the guy has vanished. I wait for sometime to check if my theory was correct and there, after a minute I hear another door bell ring. And I decide that he had indeed got the flat numbers wrong.

I lost my sleep in the process wondering about all the what if’s. I was thinking if this wake up call was for me to be more careful here on and lock the iron gate irrespective of whether it is safe or not. I almost opened a door for someone in my sleep addled state without checking. If the iron gate was locked it would definitely be an added protection in the worst case scenarios too. I told my maid in the morning about this incident because she was wondering why the iron gate was not latched from inside. She knew the cook and told me that she will talk to him. And by that evening she did indeed tear him apart 🙂 Poor fellow.

The result of this early morning wake up call was that I ended up locking my iron gate again, at least during the nights and I also realized that even in my extreme sleepy state, I managed to think rationally and not panic and cause a commotion. I did end up sleeping after 6 am until my maid came and rang the bell again 😉