85 year on, mystery continues to shroud this lock

VANSHIKA  SHRI

Patna, May 3: “Art is something that cannot be explained in words,” they say. When persistent energy blends with creative power, something wonder, at times, evolves, if a lock weighing five kilograms is anything to go by.

What appears to be a truth stranger than any fiction, the lock refuses to be unlocked by anybody other than the family member of its creaton in more than 85-years-into its creation now.

“You don’t need a thing called key to open it. All that is needed is mere a sleight of hand,” said Lal Babu,staging a demonstration right before a motley-coloured crowd at Bettiah, West Champaran district headquarters, about 220 kms north of state capital Patna.

Exactly how and what triggers it’s  unlocking is a mystery to others. The more one tries to unlock it, the more the mystery deepens only. “It after a great efforts of about seven years, it was 1940 when my father Narayan Prasad came up with this creation. Since then, no one could be able to open it,” said Lal Babu, attributing the creation as an outcome of a challenge thrown to his father by a local artisan.

“My father was endowed with immense talent but his works were not receiving the response those days of his struggle. But he gird up his loins to do something unique when challenged by a contemporary artisan of some repute in Bettiah,” said Lal Babu unraveling the history behind.

The lock has certain legends associated with it.

A popular story about the lock goes that during the very first few months of its creation, the lock was put on display at an exhibition organised under the agies of Bettiah Raj in 1940 itself. Bettiah maharaja Harendra Kishore laid bare his wishes to buy the lock after a large number of people tried their hands in hope of winning a reward of 11 coins announced for the opener of the lock. But the artisan politely turned down the request.

In 1972, Godrej India Limited, India’s premier lock manufacturers, reportedly offered Rs. 1lakh in lieu of its patent right. But Narayan Prasad again refused to share to trade secret.

“We want our future generations to carry it as a legacy from their predecessors,” says Lal Babu justifying their stubbornness in not sharing the secretes.

Lal Babu is himself a highly-trained artisan whose deft fingers tamely shape exquisite artistic and interior designing items like buffaloes’ horns, smiling Buddha, dancing dolls among a number of things. Like his father, he too wanted to carve a niche for himself in artistic world.

It was 1971, Lal Babu with the help of his father Narayan Prasad invented a new air riffle which earned rich accodales from the then Bihar chief minister Kedar Pandey at an exhibition organised  on premises of Bettiah collectorate.

At the iniatives of Kedar Pandey and  Congress leader Tulmohan Ram, Lal Babu and his father Narayan Prasad were sent to the Asian Trade fair held in November 1972.

“I can still recall all those arrangements for our visit were made by Tulmohanji . Both of them even assured us of all possible help for setting up of a riffle factory. But things could not move further as they could not be approached again,” said Lal Babu.

However, even against all odds, Lal Babu decided to follow up the project and applied for a loan of Rs. 35000 in 1973. “We never got the amount because of red tapism continued to hunt in every office. Everyone expected a cut for the favour done and we had no money,” revealed Lal Babu pulling a wry smile.

Lal Babu’s desires were so strong that he went to the extent of selling some household things to continue with his inventions. But money generated were too minimal to crystillise his dreams into reality.

It the fag end of his life, the artisan has nothing but to rue at his own helplessness.