I am stranded without the key!

India
May 21, 2009 2:17am CST
Last Saturday was one hell of a day I would not like to be repeated. For one, hubby dearest bought about one kg of prawns from the market…alive and kicking! Now he knows how I just hate cleaning prawns at home and he was supposed to have shelled them at the market but he did not have time! So poor me put them in lukewarm water to just make them soft. Now this was supposed to be for a few minutes but in the haste of making breakfast for hubby (he was just planning to rush out without any) I completely forgot about it. By the time I remembered, the prawns were quite stiff. Anyway I started shelling them and this continued for about till 1pm by the time I could just collapse in a bucket of water…I was so smelly and sweaty and tired. Just as I was preparing for a well-deserved bath, the tap runs dry. Well well well, by this time, I could scream at the heavens and I just grabbed the key, pulled the door and made a dash for the ground floor to switch on the water pump. That deed done, I climb up again and just as I go to open the door …I HAVE THE WRONG KEY! How worst can it get??? The door has self-lock so it locked itself automatically when I pulled it while going down. To cut the crap short…in all my dirty smelly clothes, I had to go to the neighbourhood grocer and make a call (on credit, as my purse was inside the house) to hubby who came took around an hour to come back and open the door with his set of keys. All this time, I was out in the hot sun on the road, begging the earth to split so that I could go in… Now if you have gone thru this SUPER MISHAP in my life, has anything like this ever happened to you? Have you been stranded outside with the keys inside? And BTW, any easy method of shelling live prawns?
5 people like this
8 responses
@dpk262006 (58675)
• Delhi, India
21 May 09
Sudipta! I am startled to read your post. OH! It is really feels bad that everything you did on that day went hay wire and you had to be on the road with your messy and dirty clothes close to one hour(BTW, How many known to persons noticed you standing on the road in your messy closthes?) But why did you demand prawns and if they were not shelled, you could have waited for your hubby to return, so that he could have done it for you. What I gather from the whole episode is that actually Prawns were very naughty and they just did not want that you should relish their dish. They made the happenings hellish for you on that day. So next time, please go for ready-made prawn dish, instead of doing it yourself, else you will lots of problem and a big headache. Deepak P.S. - we do not cook Prawns for that matter do not even buy or try prawns at home, so unfortunately cannot help you in providing you an easier method of shelling them.
1 person likes this
• India
21 May 09
Oh Deepak, you can always manage to make me smile….next time I am really down, I’ll be sure to call you Now regarding prawns they are an all time favourite with us and fresh prawns taste heavenly…I so wanted to make prawn fried rice and prawn pakoras over the weekend. Regarding waiting for hubby! Forget it…I could as well have thrown them in the garbage dump and then in some ways I am like the typical bharatiya naari…I cant make him work (even if I swear to have my revenge) The road was mostly empty (1pm in this heat)…a few people did notice me but they were so startled to see me standing like that, they did come forth to ask…you know that was more embarrassing, if somebody had asked and then offered to take me to their homes, my insult and discomfiture would have been complete.
2 people like this
@dpk262006 (58675)
• Delhi, India
21 May 09
Sudipta, It my pleasure that I can make you smile (even if the cicumstances are not conducive) You can surely call me, if you land yourself in such troublesome situation, next time. Few months ago, when I was in Balasore, Orissa, I had occasion to savour delicious prawns and I understand fresh prawns are tastier. I know you are a pacca Bhartiya Nari and you won't allow your hubby to do the nitty-gritty of cooking (my better half also does the same). So some of the people did notice you standing on a shop in a preplaxed state but to your good luck they did not ask you the reasons for standing there and did not offer their help.
1 person likes this
@riyasam (16556)
• India
22 May 09
yup,it did happen to me,i was to go to church,i had just gone out to throw my dustbin bag and i forgot the keys in hurry,i was strandedoutside in my nightgown and had to wait outside till the locksmith made a duplicate.(and i couldnt go to church that day)and i donot know how to shell prawns.
1 person likes this
• India
22 May 09
Oh Riya that was real bad, I mean you had to finally get the locksmith for you! I was just lucky that day you know, sometimes my hubby goes out of town for office work so that day if he was not in Calcutta, I'd have had it real bad. Not only do I not know any local locksmiths, the self-locking systems are quite expensive and the door would have had to be broken at that particular place...hubby would surely have buried me alive!
@mayka123 (16583)
• India
21 May 09
The easiest method I have found of shelling prawns is getting others to do it for you.... Too bad everything seemed to be going wrong for you. It has happened to me also sometimes and I just feel like banging my head on the wall or else locking myself in a room so that nothing worse happens!
1 person likes this
• India
21 May 09
Yes, that was the standing instructions to hubby…whenever you get prawns, get them shelled from the market. But I suppose that day was just supposed to be bad.
1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
16 Mar 10
oh my!! i really dont know what they are but will go do a search now as im sure i would not do the cleaning of these since you've explained about them. you poor girl, what a sad situation. i once was very tired and sweatie on my way home from work in the car and just wanting to get home and soak in a warm bath. well, im terrible about yard sales and bargains. I happened to glance over and see several people looking over furniture at one and low and behold the people had several book cases on sale. anxious for a bargain and needing book cases, i pulled over, jumped out, automaticly hitting my locks car doors button, not thinking to grab the keys. i made the buy and told the people we would be by after hubby got home from his job to pick them up. well, turns out it wasnt much of a bargain when you consider, i had left the keys in ignition we had only 1 set, wouldnt you know! uuuhhgg! had to call the lock smith so there was money for that plus the wait and embarassment.
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
16 Mar 10
wow. just did the search on them and apparently would like eating them since it seems they are similar to shrimp which i love. but certainly would NOT clean them..uuuhhh.
• United States
22 May 09
Wow, that's a bad day! I'm sorry that all happeend to you. I've only gotten locked out of my house a few times, when I was still living with my parents and I'd just break in through a window. LOL I'm no good at shelling shrimps so I'm not much help there either, I'm just sorry you had such a bad day. If I were in your shoes I would have embraced hubby while I was all stinky and gross to teach him a lesson about bringing home unshelled prawns! I would have rubbed my yuck all over him. LOL
• India
22 May 09
Good point Marianne, I think I'll try it next time, only I think there will be no 'next time' for quite sometime now...he's learned his lesson by having to come home in this heat and then go back to office again! You broke in thru windows!!! what else hidden talents do you have, dear?
1 person likes this
@krajibg (11923)
• Guwahati, India
22 May 09
Hi Sudipta, take it easy. Hota hei. And that you had this experience is a treasure that you would be sharing with your grand children. I too had similar situation when was stranded in a metro and was ready to pay Rs 500 for a bottle of water. I can well imagine the condition you were in.
• India
23 May 09
Yeah I know, hota hai...after this incidence, now whenever I go out, I check my keys more than my make-up
@SViswan (12051)
• India
7 Mar 10
LOL...I'm sorry...I understand that you would have been really frustrated that particular day (around 10 months ago!) but I couldn't help laughing at the thought of a flustered Sudipta out in the hot sun in smeely clothes!! I've been stranded outside the house a couple of times but never in a similar situation as yours. I can't think of any one incident that has had me in this kind of a fix (btw, I have selective memory). And as for shelling live prawns...we don't buy prawns at home....lol..esp. because my husband has been instructed not to get any that hasn't been shelled and he NEVER has the patience to wait for them being shelled. Easy way out...NEVER, ever buy prawns. The last I shelled prawns was before I was married...these kind of time consuming jobs were always mine at my mom's place.
• India
13 May 10
Hello sudipta Shelling of live prawns in my home is done by the maid servant, she seems to be expert in it, my wife tells her to remove the legs, arms (are they not legs, arms?); and this women removes almost half from head size.. it is her share.. I had faced a situation long back, at about one am at night i went to toilet, while there the power failed, i did not had any torch, nor even the cell phone..i was forced to stay there for almost 30 minutes.. Thanks for sharing. God bless you. Cheers. Prof