A Murphy’s Law states “If Analytical skills fail, use brute force”. Another similar law called William’s law states “There is no mechanical problem so difficult that it cannot be solved by brute strength”. Today I had the great pleasure of realizing these facts.
Well.... the beginning of the story dates back to last year when I joined my present organization. Like everyone, I too was gifted a cubicle with a fancy table with a cupboard attached, an ergonomic chair, a cozy dustbin, expensive office stationary, a dumb headphone etc. Ahhh how good it feels to have a place of your own even if it’s just 5 X 5 feet in dimension. However the pleasure of enjoying my fully furnished shelter was short-lived as I happened to loose the keys of my cupboard. All my stuff in the cupboard suddenly became inaccessible. It made me feel like living in a house without a TV. Initially I thought I must’ve left keys at home, but after a week of home, body and soul searching, I decided to give up the hopes of finding my lost keys. The next logical step for me was to approach facilities help desk and request duplicate set of keys. As an honest to god employee I went straight to facilities helpdesk and confessed my act of irresponsibility. The guy there looked at me from top to bottom with a frown on his face making me feel like a schoolboy who hasn’t done his assignments. Without changing his expression he explained the process of obtaining duplicate set of keys. After completing all the formalities I finally managed to get the other set of keys but I was asked to get a duplicate set done at my own expense and deposit the spare set back with facilities. Once I got the spare set my intelligence got better of my regular law abiding citizen attitude. We were moving to new premises shortly and I thought why waste money on getting a duplicate set done? My left brain shouted “Anyways you would be getting a new cupboard and table in the new office space and it would be a smart of you to use the obtained spare set till you move and return it back when you occupy your new cubicle there by conserving some amount of personal fortune”. I diluted my integrity and developed instant selective amnesia. Time quickly passed and we were just few days away from moving to new building and I got one more jolt. On a sad Monday morning while suppressing the infamous and recurring Monday morning blues, I found I’ve lost the spare set of keys too. Someone said mistakes repeated amounts to crime and this time I was clearly a culprit. How the %&*# can I loose a spare set of keys that too when I was on the verge of moving to new place. My right brain did not spare any kindness and showered vitriolic vituperations on its left counterpart. After the rage against self receded, some sanity prevailed. I consulted some folks who could give me some suggestions with out making me feel stupid and ridiculous. It was almost impossible to carry myself to helpdesk again and cut a pathetic figure so I ruled it out. Finally after reaching my wits end I figured few ways out of this imbroglio. First I befriended front office security personnel and casually asked if anyone has handed him a set of lost keys without disclosing my pathetic situation. All my friendly efforts went in drain when he replied in negative. Next day I went to all my friends and asked for their cupboard keys with a hope that one of their keys will be similar to mine. I exercised enough care and restraint while asking for their keys and always maintained that I’ve left my keys at home. After trying more than a dozen of such keys I concluded that the supplier of our office cupboards is smarter than I thought. While trying several such unsuccessful methods I reached the penultimate day in the old office building which happened to be today. Today we were handed cardboard boxes to pack our stuff and get ready to move to the new haven. Clearly I had very few options with me and the likelihood of me getting a proper dressing down by facilities department turned northwards to cross the danger level. Finally I was at a staring distance from the moment of truth. I dunno what struck me at this point of time. May be it is a divine intervention. I suddenly reached my cupboard, pushed my legs against it and pulled a drawer real hard. I could feel blood gushing through my face and sweat beads lining up on my forehead. I stopped pulling when I heard small thud. I slowly reached drawer again and pulled it gently. Eureka!! It opened like my mouth. Hurrah!!! I had managed to break the lock. Finally my physical power achieved what my mental power could not, saving me from acute and obivious embarrassment. At this point I had what alcoholics call.....a moment of clarity (I am all apologies Mr. Tarantino) and saw how accurate Mr. Murphy and Mr. Williams have been in their assessments. With this new found knowledge I am moving to my new cubicle tomorrow hoping not to commit the crime of loosing my keys again.
Well.... the beginning of the story dates back to last year when I joined my present organization. Like everyone, I too was gifted a cubicle with a fancy table with a cupboard attached, an ergonomic chair, a cozy dustbin, expensive office stationary, a dumb headphone etc. Ahhh how good it feels to have a place of your own even if it’s just 5 X 5 feet in dimension. However the pleasure of enjoying my fully furnished shelter was short-lived as I happened to loose the keys of my cupboard. All my stuff in the cupboard suddenly became inaccessible. It made me feel like living in a house without a TV. Initially I thought I must’ve left keys at home, but after a week of home, body and soul searching, I decided to give up the hopes of finding my lost keys. The next logical step for me was to approach facilities help desk and request duplicate set of keys. As an honest to god employee I went straight to facilities helpdesk and confessed my act of irresponsibility. The guy there looked at me from top to bottom with a frown on his face making me feel like a schoolboy who hasn’t done his assignments. Without changing his expression he explained the process of obtaining duplicate set of keys. After completing all the formalities I finally managed to get the other set of keys but I was asked to get a duplicate set done at my own expense and deposit the spare set back with facilities. Once I got the spare set my intelligence got better of my regular law abiding citizen attitude. We were moving to new premises shortly and I thought why waste money on getting a duplicate set done? My left brain shouted “Anyways you would be getting a new cupboard and table in the new office space and it would be a smart of you to use the obtained spare set till you move and return it back when you occupy your new cubicle there by conserving some amount of personal fortune”. I diluted my integrity and developed instant selective amnesia. Time quickly passed and we were just few days away from moving to new building and I got one more jolt. On a sad Monday morning while suppressing the infamous and recurring Monday morning blues, I found I’ve lost the spare set of keys too. Someone said mistakes repeated amounts to crime and this time I was clearly a culprit. How the %&*# can I loose a spare set of keys that too when I was on the verge of moving to new place. My right brain did not spare any kindness and showered vitriolic vituperations on its left counterpart. After the rage against self receded, some sanity prevailed. I consulted some folks who could give me some suggestions with out making me feel stupid and ridiculous. It was almost impossible to carry myself to helpdesk again and cut a pathetic figure so I ruled it out. Finally after reaching my wits end I figured few ways out of this imbroglio. First I befriended front office security personnel and casually asked if anyone has handed him a set of lost keys without disclosing my pathetic situation. All my friendly efforts went in drain when he replied in negative. Next day I went to all my friends and asked for their cupboard keys with a hope that one of their keys will be similar to mine. I exercised enough care and restraint while asking for their keys and always maintained that I’ve left my keys at home. After trying more than a dozen of such keys I concluded that the supplier of our office cupboards is smarter than I thought. While trying several such unsuccessful methods I reached the penultimate day in the old office building which happened to be today. Today we were handed cardboard boxes to pack our stuff and get ready to move to the new haven. Clearly I had very few options with me and the likelihood of me getting a proper dressing down by facilities department turned northwards to cross the danger level. Finally I was at a staring distance from the moment of truth. I dunno what struck me at this point of time. May be it is a divine intervention. I suddenly reached my cupboard, pushed my legs against it and pulled a drawer real hard. I could feel blood gushing through my face and sweat beads lining up on my forehead. I stopped pulling when I heard small thud. I slowly reached drawer again and pulled it gently. Eureka!! It opened like my mouth. Hurrah!!! I had managed to break the lock. Finally my physical power achieved what my mental power could not, saving me from acute and obivious embarrassment. At this point I had what alcoholics call.....a moment of clarity (I am all apologies Mr. Tarantino) and saw how accurate Mr. Murphy and Mr. Williams have been in their assessments. With this new found knowledge I am moving to my new cubicle tomorrow hoping not to commit the crime of loosing my keys again.
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