I’m currently here in India for the Sangam conference, and I’m always a fan of coming to India, because there is always an adventure. Coincidentally at breakfast this morning, I was telling one of the first-timer speakers that India is so good for repeat trips, because something is different every time.
Now truth be told, I was not expecting this particular “different” thing was going to be the topic of my first blog on the trip … but I figured we’d have some fun.
After spending the day on slides and demos, I went and did a workout and afterwards popped into the sauna and then into the shower in the gym. The shower in question is below
I closed the shower door, cleaned myself up and then went to open the shower door and … nope. The handle wont budge – it wont twist up or down or any which way. I figured it must have self-locked in some way as I closed the door.
Not really many option for me except to start yelling. Because I’m sitting there starkers (aussie slang for naked), I must admit the cries for help started at low volume, but after 10mins I was pretty much screaming down the place 🙂 Eventually a staff member from the gym/spa arrive and lo and behold they also could not budge the handle from the outside. They try some keys – none of them do any good. She grabs a staff colleague with a bit more strength – and he can’t budget the handle either. Something has broken in the lock.
So what then ensued was nearly an hour of an ever increasing number of hotel staff and maintenance people having various forms of attack at the lock. Many interesting variations were tried – bending the door assembly, using a vice-grips on the handles, trying to move the entire lock assembly, removing the hinges only to discover that the hinges are glued to the glass and cannot be removed…. Thankfully during all of this time my modesty is somewhat protected by the frosted glass 🙂
During all of this, I tried to get their attention several times because on my side of the glass, the door nib is partially exposed and potentially vulnerable to attack. Finally…when they seem to be almost conceding defeat to the stubborn door lock, during a moment of silence they listen to ME 🙂. I told them to find a piece of wire, remove the door handle arm and pass the wire through the hole where the handle used to be in.
And surprise surprise … well, perhaps not such a surpise, being from Australia where we are all descended from thieves 🙂 … I managed to loop the wire behind the door nib and jimmy it open from the inside with a little cunning and force…
Thankfully (more for the staff than me I suspect) the door did not open all the way and so I could shield my dignity behind the glass as to my amazement, an entire fleet of hotel staff are there waiting to apologies for the chaos 🙂 I got dressed and sadly many of them scurried before I decided we’d all capture the moment for posterity.
Onwards to the conference 🙂
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