Meet the key man

For those who are passionate about a hobby will go to any extent to practice it and eventually master it. Sometimes even they spend their entire lifetime, learning and experimenting on their own to achieve complete mastery over their passionate hobby.

Here is one such, 53-year-old lock smith G Ashok who open several different varieties of locks by using standard techniques and instruments developed on his own, some of which include innovative ones not found anywhere.

He has converted a portion of his house into a workshop in Agrahar, where he takes various research works and has developed hundred of self invented tools and other instruments to open the locks. For all most all types of key he has different type of instruments. Based on the lock, using suitable instrument he will open the keys. He says, only in countable cases he has failed to open the keys.

What initially started as a hobby for Ashok when he was a 15 years old boy, gradually grew into a profession. By the time he completed his PU he had acquired all the necessary skills required to open locks without using keys.

In his 40 years of self taught practice he has opened locks of thousands of houses when the owners approached him. Because of his services, he has not only saved property and other inadvertent incidents, but even a couple of lives.

When KL Sudheer (present Commissioner of Police for Mysore) was Deputy Police Commissioner II in 1992, Ashok was appointed on adhoc basis as a special Police officer to avail his services for the Police Department.

The money he obtains from the service he donates it for good cause. He says, apart from money service is important. Based on the instruction of KL Sudheer, he has even created awareness among people about safety measures to be followed to avoid theft, and tips about safeguarding keys.

'I always desired to come out with something innovative. The result of my hardword and dedication is what I am today. As thousands of combination of lock and keys are available I have to constantly come out with new innovations and update my knowledge, which is suitable for present day technology,' he says.

'First I make a thorough study of the case, whether its genuine or not. Later, I open the keys,' he adds. He claims, even most of the lock smiths also fail to say about his instruments.