| Gokul |
Posted
on 28-Sep-03 07:37 AM
The Master Key
Once upon a time, a family built a house, which was warm, cozy and beautiful. Although the house looked small to outsiders, it was really accomodating from the inside. In fact, many people realized for the first time that even a small house like this could accomodate so many different people. In the front yard of the house was a beautiful garden where almost forty varieties of flowers were blooming. Once the house was completely built, the dwellers decided to give the key of the house to a down-to-earth person who seemed trustworthy and they called that person the head of the household or the HeadMan. The HeadMan securely kept the key given to him by his fellow dwellers. For many years he did a satisfactory job of protecting the house from vandals, arsonists and strangers. The times were good and people even forgot that the HeadMan had the key for he seemed just like everybody else in the house.
Days, months and years passed and the house seemed smaller and dirtier than before. The frontdoors looked deceptively small while there were many backdoors the knowledge of which only few possessed. The dwellers wanted to repair the house and clean the dirt. while it was in everybody's benefit to have the house cleaned and repaired, the dwellers still needed the permission from the HeadMan because he possessed the key of the main door. They also asked him if it was possible to have a duplicate copy of the key so that they could repair and clean the house whenever and wherever the dwellers felt necessary. Although the HeadMan didn't like the idea at first, he decided to give the duplicate keys of some locks to his fellow dwellers. However, he insisted that only he would keep the master key and could change all the locks of the house if he wished without giving notice to anybody. The dwellers were too enthusisatic to worry about all this detail. For the first time, they had seen what a key looked like.
While the dwellers received some ordinary duplicate keys, the HeadMan gave powerful keys to some of the persons he liked. After that, the house was restless and unworthy of residing. Some started building backdoors using duplicate keys. Some even
invited bandits inside the house using the powerful keys. Everything became a real mess. Some wanted to build a front door wide enough only for themselves. Some wanted to burn the house. Surprisingly, the HeadMan seemed aloof this time. At times he even seemed to be enjoying this noise. Some tired and experienced dwellers wanted to replace all the rusted locks and make the house secured again. However, without the master key, they were all like slaves. For they first time, they understood why that key was called The Master Key, both literally and figuratively.
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