The case of the bathroom with no lock

Well, this of course stems from my previous post. It so happended that Dada, Manghani and I reached Zurich a day before Shivi and Jai did. We had decided to see Zurich and stay in a hotel and meet them the next day at the station. I don't remember the movements of the other two members - I just remember that all 7 had planned to travel through Switzerland together (dont ask me why - maybe Dada wanted to be with friends? haha - I hope Dada forgets this by the time we meet again!).

Well, we had a fun day roaming around Zurich. Manghani was our tour guide and I can still picture him walking around with the map held high blocking his view! In spite of taking such pains to be the perfect guide, he would invariably miss out on landmarks and me or Dada would have to keep reminding him. I don't know how I am able to remember all this so vividly today! Dada and Manghani thought of some unique poses for pictures as we walked through the old town. There were so many churches that Manghani got really bored of being the guide and finally he dint let us visit the last one! We did a lot of window shopping late in the evening - the shops in Europe have wares beautifully displayed in windows - along with the prices! We marvelled more at the prices than the objects. The windows are beautifully lit through the night. And then the banks - there were uncountable banks and Manghani, in his responsible role of the guide, had to point all of them out (and most probably we were required to take pics of each). And then there was a sort of mini park - with three statues (I will hunt to see if I have a pic of the statues). These statues were not the run of the mill kind - they were made of a different kind of material. Manghani concocted a story involving them and it was that day that the world realized the hidden depth's in Manghani's imagination. I remember our day had a perfect ending by the lake where we three just sat with our music players, lost into our thoughts, staring into the water. (Ok, maybe I don't remember if the day did end this way but we did sit by the lake with our thoughts and music).

Anyway, back to my story - we came back to the hotel. It was a very nice, luxury hotel and we had got a deal on it on some website (which is why we were able to afford it). When we first came, we were not able to figure out the lock (we didn't even think of the possibility of no locks) - all three engineers tried but had to give up. When we were leaving, Manghani told the receptionist that our lock was not working and he said he would send someone to look at it. When we returned, we found that it was still not working. So Manghani calls up the reception from the room and tells them that our bathroom locks are not working. They finally got frustrated and sent somebody up. This guy comes up and says the "door is working fine". Manghani and Dada try to explain the problem to him - but to no avail! And Manghani, the ever impatient, did a practical demo of the problem. He went into the bathroom and told the guy "I am in the bathroom and he can also get in" (the words may not be the same but, I assure you, the gist was). FINALLY, the guy understood. Then he asked the million dollar question
"Why do you need a lock on the bathroon"
All three of us were flabbergasted. Manghani, the quick, said with righteous indignation "Because we are sharing a room and there is a girl with us".
You would think that this should have been enough. But the guys response was "So"? And, let me tell you, it was a very confused 'So'. Anyway, he fled with his life by hurriedly telling us that all bathrooms were like this. I was nearly dying with giggles by this time.

We realised that there was a big gap - a big 'cultural' gap. We Indians could not imagine a bathroom with locks and hence it never entered our heads that what we thought was a malfunctioning lock was actually an absent lock. This Western guy on the other hand, could not imagine why we were making a big deal of it and emphasizing that it was important because a girl was present!

When I came to the US, I saw that it is quite common for master bedrooms NOT to have a bathroom door at all! My sister tells me that it is very incovnient for Indians because we dont confine visitng family to "allowed" rooms. They finally end up blocking the whole master suite by locking the main door. Luckily, things are changing (attack of desis?) and our bathroom does have a door.

Edit: I dint find the pics of the said statues but got these instead.

Manghani the tour guide 

Dada to the rescue of the guide

One of the unique poses

Window shopping at night


Look at the prices


The lake where we spent some "quiet" time


Some statues in front of one of the banks Manghani insisted on "guiding" us to (and making us take pics)

The team (M is taking the pic) - I don't have one of all of us