As always I broke it, my birthday gift, this time it was an exquisite time piece, an alarm clock that was presented by my social teacher. He must have hoped that I would retain it through the most trying times of examinations to wake up, time my preparation perfectly, with reminders and alarm timings that would have strengthened my preparatory regime. It was so nice, smooth finish, light blue in color, it closed into a protective plastic frame of cuboidal shape, when opened it just stood majestically inside the two halves peeping outside like a snail from a shell lying in the open on a cold and sweet morning.
I was fifteen and any clever minded bloke of my age would not have tinkered with the marvelous piece of a unique gift from a strict teacher to a promising student, but, I was neither normal nor clever minded. I began by tinkering with the locks on the backside of the clock, which appeared to be quite strong until my finely tuned senses captured the mechanical proficiency involved in the making of the lock. I pulled out a small screw driver form my all encompassing tool kit which I famously gathered from my dad's collections. Holding the beauty in one hand and the screw driver in the other I pushed the tip of the driver’s sharp nose into the screw head of the clock's lock, there was resistance initially, but what was it before my prodigious talent. So, I switched the screw driver with pliers, now I was pulling the screw head out of its socket and very soon, the lock disassembled and the two halves were now lying against each other without the lock forcing them close. one half was lying vacant with nothing in it, while the other one had the clock attached to it, I must have caught the resonance now, with the pressure of inspiration ricocheting in my mind, with the honor of a potential discovery on the verge, it was humiliating that it even took so long.
now, I pulled out the clock and the two shielding cases were lying vacant, as it so happened, it struck me with an impending immediacy that in my attempts to match my infantile curiosity, I totally shut my senses off the fact that the disassembling was irreparable, for the spring loads were now released and only a mechanical device which could hold them back in their sockets, while another turns the screw into the socket could have assembled the whole thing. I closed my eyes and contorted my face into an agonizing appeal, with fists tight and toes curled up, I endorsed the culpable quotient with a tender heart brusquely. How could I have ignored this, it was the basic question of permutations, one in a thousand or so would dare a feat like this on the first day of gift reception. Well, my mom was right, my notoriety paid rich dividends, both in terms of intellectual benefit I accrued out of this ungainly situation and a level of inspiration that sort of permeated into the atmosphere.
This was no time for despondency, gates were open for something very dramatic, I could smell it in the air, I created an opportunity where there was none initially. I cannot put the pieces together alright, but I can put them up into something transcendental, something unique, something that would leak my scientific inquiries though the cracks of a futile network of mundane studies.
the times of half measures were over, I presented myself with utmost dignity before the counsel, my mom and dad, they didn’t talk much, or rather I didn’t hear much, while I stood there, my mind revolved around the various possibilities and how I had to sacrifice the whole array of possibilities to but one final code of conduct, it had to be very special.
My house had a big compound with a decent variety of plants and a dog filling up the voids. the dog was almost everywhere, between plants sniffing at the roots, inside kitchen stealing discarded chocolate wrappers, milk packets, peeing on the huge black gate at the entrance, giving a rat the time of its life on a brilliant chase which frequently ended up in mishaps, and my dad would tie him up where he nervously eyed me pleading for mercy and a fair judgment.
I had this idea, as if descended from the air I breathe, Einstein must have left traces of his exhaled greatness; the gate at the entrance had a huge door at one end which was stationary and a small door hinged on the other end which was mobile, and an invert hook shaped lock at the top. When this lock was in position, the two doors would close the entrance and when unlocked, the smaller of the two would just slide open. My idea was to use the locking mechanism to connect to my presently unaesthetic and un-marvel worthy time piece to trigger the alarm.
I gathered my courage to request another summoning on the same subject, my mom and dad were curious, they must have thought that I was repenting and was about to confess, well, they looked nonplussed presumably putting up a neutral face to my confessional probabilities. I stood before the panel, audacious and submitted a request for a wire of length that would suffice to run up the course, from the entrance to the hallway in the house, care was taken that the wire be hidden behind the bushes, against the compound wall, and away from the reach of my unimaginably curious dog. I complimented my request for wire with concrete length attributes, and color attributes, for it had to be white in color to steal it away from the eyes of any outsider or the whole purpose would be dissolved.
There was a brief pause, during which, with my acquired sense of appreciative guilt, I leant my head downwards to show off my submissiveness. But the interval during which no one spoke, neither the members of the panel, or the acquitted, seemed like it was taking longer than what I had prepared for. Then as if communicated out of my sixth sense channel, my dog came rushing in to break the uncomfortable silence. the marble floor inside the house always attracted my dog to present itself in the more attractive manner possible, where it would ready itself from a good distance away from the hall door, it would start its run up from the compound wall and build up momentum and as it neared the hall door, it jumped into the hall through the hall door and with all the forces of nature paused for a moment, my dog would land on the marble floor and slip its way up until some mishap resulted or it just found as an object of hindrance, some member of the family. On this occasion it was me, the silence was broken, and after some arguments or words to that effect, my dad pronounced the verdict, that I would be acquitted as it just happened to be my birthday. Thanks to the timely intervention of my dog, in its playful mood as always, I took him into my hands and petted him affectionately.
The next day, as it happened to be a holiday, was the more anxious and nervous day of my life until that point in my lifetime. Finally, in the evening, my dad brought me the bundle of white wire; I carefully took it out and placed it on my table with the tool kit awaiting a long day ahead. I pulled out a pair of scissors and cut out the both ends of wire to reveal brown copper inside. I plugged one end of the wire to the birthday clock and ran the wire up the length of compound wall all the way to the gate, then I connected the wires; one to the invert hook lock welded on the long stationary door, other one to the same door where the lock would rest once the lock was disengaged in an attempt to open the doors ajar. Then I came back into the house and timed the clock on the run for alarm sound and connected the batteries. It was perfect. The circuit closed when the invert hook lock's head came in contact with the resting position on the door. It was ingenious.
Then I waited for the first man to walk into my house, never in my life until then or since then, have I waited for a visitor, well, here I was waiting and watching. then the chap from electricity department came to check the meter reading and as he unlocked the invert hook and rested it comfortably, my alarm clock majestically exploded into a tune, it was perhaps the most fertile intellectual time of my life, I did it. the chap walked in without closing the doors of the gate, so my alarm clock was just singing and singing, I did not want to see my invention revealed to him and compelled with the necessity of stopping the battery from running out of charge, I ran up to the gate and closed the doors, the alarm stopped.
After putting my alarm through a trying first day of immaculate testing, I summoned my mom and dad the next day and presented the full functioning of the gate induced alarm sound. My mom went all praising; my dad was fairly impressed with my strokes of inventive pursuits. From that day onwards, my mom always relied on my alarm clock to identify an outsider, for my dad was careful in not placing the lock on the resting side when he pushed the doors open, for he didn’t want the batteries to run out, he was very thoughtful and the whole family followed suit. All of us made sure that we did not trigger the alarm; only an outsider was caught by this ingenious technique of my scientific flavor coupled with my dad's pragmatism.
When I mentioned my family, I included my dog, turns out he thought otherwise. After a good couple of days, where I stood vindicated of my notoriety, my dog suddenly proceeded to spill water over the painfully captured fruits of immense hardship. On the third morning, I woke up with my alarm ringing and I saw the milk man walking into the compound. I then went to wake my dog, I stroked his ears numbly and untied him, he ran up to the gate, he must have had his bladder on the verge of explosion; he peed for what looked like eternity, because when he peed, the alarm rang up.
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