Okay this is going to be completely random. Yes, how can someone develop so much laziness? I sometimes wonder if I lost my thinking hat. It might have got lost with the chaos around me and the blogger in me does get lazy and sleepy and forgets to churn words. It seems he has lost his patience too. With life engulfing him in its chores, he does gets busy – with life.

Well, let me tell you something that made me ponder, why our brain is so like a horse. Yes, a horse! Its been three months since I moved into my apartment. We usually have two keyholes in the door and have two keys to open each lock. I usually open the locks using each key. Sometimes there would be no identification mark to differentiate the keys and sometimes the keys would be differently designed, the bow part where you hold the key.

When I moved in for the first time, I tried to open the first lock with a key but some for weird reason it didn’t open. I might have turned left instead of right or right instead of left. I changed the key and it clicked. So I used the second key to open the other lock. I remembered this and saved this in my mind – brass colored key is for the second lock and the silver colored key is for the first lock.

And so a month later when I got a roommate I had to request the lease office for a spare key which they usually give when we move in the first time. They have been asking me to come on a weekday so that they can ask the key maker to make a spare key. I couldn’t find any time during the day to visit the lease office and hence this has been on hold for three or four weeks. So we started early from office, on a Friday, as we had completed the tasks for the day little earlier or you can assume everyone was in Friday mood and left home early. So we, having confirmed that there are no pending tasks for the day, started early and reached home.

The lease office would be open till 6 pm and so I decided to give them a call and check if I can come and see if I can get a spare key. Having got the confirmation from them, I walked to the office and told them that I have come for the key. The lady in the office asked me to show my key inquiring about my apartment number and door number.

I gave her the keychain which had both the keys nicely secured with all other discount cards from Shoprite, Plenti etc hanging along with it.

She said, ‘So you have two keys, why do you need a spare one?’

I told her, ‘Yeah I need the spare keys for my roommate too.’

‘Well, you can use both the keys to open the lock’

‘Yes, but I need the spare for my roommate’, I repeated.

I couldn’t understand why she did’t get what I said. But she rephrased her words – You can use the keys to open both the locks which means each key can open both the locks.

What!

Its been three months and we have been opening the locks with respective keys – The silver one for the top and brass one for the bottom. When did this change! I even gave a demo on how to lock and unlock the doors using the two keys.

I couldn’t come out of the shock that was inflicted on me. I sheepishly grinned and thanked her for letting me know and came out of the lease office like a fool.

What the..! So each key can open both the locks and I have been using the spare key all these days assuming that they belong to different locks. Why haven’t I tried opening the other lock with the other key, I mean you get it right? How can I be so dumb! Now you get the horse analogy? 😀

I fastened my pace and I couldn’t wait to test this. As I reached my apartment door, I used the silver keys to open both the locks. Voila! the door gave me way like I cracked some complex algorithm. Then I locked the doors with the same key and used the other brass key to open the locks this time. Whoa! it opened.

I hurriedly climbed the steps and walked to my roommate and said, ‘you know what, I was told that each key can open either of the locks and we already have the spare key. Here it is, this yours now’, and handed over the brass key to him.

He asked, ‘Ohh, so one key can open both the locks?’

‘Yes.’

‘Aaah! Now I get it, I have not been using the keys the way you asked me to open the locks. I randomly use one of the keys to open one and the other one to open the other. I have never bothered to notice the color when opening them. Now I realize why I never get struck even when I use any key to open the locks’

I was like, ‘What!’

So he didn’t tell me as well, that the keys are same, even though the design is different. I held both the keys together, aligning the bow and key threads and realized only the bow design changed, the cuts were same!

I’ve never felt so dumb!

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P.S: The photo at the top of this post was clicked by me when I was lazily lying down in my bed on a lazy Saturday afternoon!