कुलूप Kulup (The Lock)

बंडूनानांना कुलपे जमवण्याचा मोठा शौक आहे. घरातल्या प्रत्येक ठिकाणी त्यांनी कुलपे लावून टाकली आहेत - पण ते सुरक्षेसाठी नाही, तर मित्रांना कुलपांचा संग्रह दाखवण्यासाठी.

Our Bandunana has a great passion for locks. He has amassed a whole museum of locks of many metals, shapes and mechanisms... if you ask why he takes such elaborate precautions, it is not to protect his valuables but simply so his friends can admire his lock collection.

एकदा धान्याच्या कोठीच्या कुलपाची किल्ली हरवली. कुलूप लोहाराकडून काढणे नानांना जड जाते, म्हणून घरातील सर्वजण दोन दिवस उपाशी राहतात. शेवटी लेखकच लोहाराला घेऊन जाऊन कुलूप फोडतात, आणि नाना त्यांच्यावर पंधरा दिवस रागावतात.

Once his family lost the key to the granary lock... having the smith break open a lock he had raised with more affection than his own child was, for Bandunana, a truly agonising prospect... in the end, when we learned the whole story, we ourselves brought a blacksmith to his house and finally broke the lock; but Bandunana was so furious with us that he barely spoke to us properly for fifteen days!

अक्षरी कुलूप अंधारात दिसत नव्हते म्हणून तिजोरी उजेडात आणली, पण मग किल्ली इतरांनाही दिसू लागली. यावर बंडूनानांनी स्वतःच एक कुलूप शोधून काढले - दाबले की लागते, उघडायला किल्ली लागते.

First he installed a combination lock, but since the safe was in darkness, the letters were hard to see clearly... 'People say the sons of our Aryan land lack ingenuity. But that charge is utterly false... given the chance, we would have had hundreds of Edisons among us.' With the smith's help he showed us a lock of his own design.

चोरीच्या भीतीने नानांनी घंटेचे कुलूप लावले - किल्ली फिरवताच घंटा वाजेल आणि चोर पकडला जाईल असा त्यांचा प्लॅन. पण त्या रात्री लेखक घंटानाद ऐकून जातो तेव्हा दिसते की नाना स्वतःच स्वतःचा हात 'चोर! चोर!' म्हणत पकडत आहेत.

After this, Nana fitted the safe with a bell-lock... 'The moment the bell rings, I'll leap up and grab the culprit by the scruff of his neck!'... we went to Bandunana's bedroom, and what a scene it was! Bandunana was opening the safe's lock with his right hand while gripping that very hand tightly with his left, shouting 'Thief! Thief!'

एका टोळीकडून बंडूनानांनी अनेक नवीन कुलपे विकत घेतली. त्याच रात्री ते नाटक पाहायला गेले असताना, टोळीने त्यांच्याच कुलपांच्या किल्ल्यांनी घरातला माल चोरला - कुलपे मात्र शाबूत होती! फक्त नानांच्या कुटुंबाने घातलेले दागिने वाचले.

Nana returned to find all the boxes' locks exactly as they were, but the goods inside were gone!... these people had sold poor gullible Nana all their own locks, and that night simply used their own keys to make off with the goods!... What could poor Bandunana say to that? A lock fell upon his own mouth, so to speak!