Mumbai Meri Jaan

what a week it has been!!
Just the other week, I was feeling restless over having nothing "happening" in my life. To top it I watched the movie "Mumbai Meri Jaan" and ended the week on a rather introspective note.
I was blissfully unaware that up above somebody had scheduled a roller coaster, exhausting week for me and Sharada (my friend and room mate).
It all started nearly a month ago when both of us decided to shift our accomodation to a house of more comfortable size.
we informed our flatmate Anita about the same .I was happy that we finally made our mind to get rid of her. we consulted an estate agent, who showed us a house, and we fixed it immediately.
We paid him the "token" along with PDCs for deposit (dated for 1st of Sept) and
11 months rent. We spent the rest of the days (till 28 Aug) in nondescript activities which ultimately led to the "why am i here" writing the week before.

29 Aug - 1) I contact the estate agent. he assures me that every thing will go smoothly and we will be able to shift on 31st.
2) Anita tells us in the night that we will be required to pay 10 days rent for Sept, since we told her on the 10th of Aug. (Talk about logic!!)

30 Aug - 1) I start to call my agent to enquire about the vacation of the house, whitewash and other things promised to us. But this guy suddenly vanishes. We panic but reassure ourselves that there is time and he must have been busy.


31 Aug - 1) The bomb is dropped. I and sharada get the shock of our lives when the agent (who reappears as smoothly as he disappeared), tells us that the we will get possession of the house not before 3rd Sept. Various unbelievable bolywoodish reasons are supplied to us.

For the first time we come to know that there are 3 agents involved in this fiasco and that our agent is the dumbest of all!! (Talk about luck!!). All three of them were struggling to resolve their misunderstandings and rent the same flat to two (about to be poor) fellows.
2) Enter, an army guy, working with Reliance ( Talk about versatality!!), the tenant staying ( actually oversatying), in our much fought for "new flat". He explains that he has not yet received his deposit. He vows not to leave till the money enters his account. The owner vows not to give him the money till the army guy vacates the house and hands over the keys. ( Well, talk about deadlock!! Databases anybody??)


1 Sept - 1) The bomb is dropped again.Anita tells us in the night that she spoke to the owner of the house and he explained to her his logic of tenancy and that she wants us to pay the entire rent for Sept, whether we stay or not.(Talk about Illogic!!)
2) I and Sharada get abusive(sort of, we actually vowed to learn a few dirty
words and reserve them for the next time!!) with the agents, we get panicky as our cheques get deposited to the owner's a/c.
I mean picture this..We paid the money, we gave our "notice" or whatever it is to Anita, the rent agreement with Police NOC is ready and yet we dont get the house!! ( Talk about helplessness!! )
3) The night is spent explaining to Anita that she is acting mad and that we in the end will be forced act like her ( what ever that means!!)if she insists that we pay the whole rent for the old house. I could not help but remember the witty film Khosla ka Ghosla and that night I spend in making sinister plans to counter ANita's.

2 Sept - 1) We are literally after the lives of our "3" agents and the army man. We start to cook all sorts of stories in desperation and he finally relents. He vacates the flat (ooof!!!).At the end of the day, I am given a worn out key to a flat that is white washed at Guiness record speed.

So yes... we finally moved in on 3rd Sept, but the game is not over( read Anita). A lot has come out of this experience and a lot has been lost too.
1) Estate agents and house owners believe that money grows on the trees for Engineers(especially the unmarried lot).
Sure I and sharada earn handsomely, but does that mean any sum can be demanded from us? All your desparate pleas of not being able to afford does not make a difference to anybody.I dont know how, but there has to be an end to this menace.
2) Even if you have all documents in place, even if you are legally entitled to have a thing, nothing is guarenteed. You can still end up on the footpath.No body is reliable in Real Estate. They simply dont know fair deals.
3)Losing -- I and Sharada spent 2 sleepless nights wondering how could Anita be so rude to us despite the fact that we have never had a single altercation in 2.5 yrs.So we lost a lot of sleep and Anita lost her character and the little bit respect that Sharada had for her.With her act my ex room mate's education, morals, decency, etc has gone right out of the window. Its awful she cannot understand when and where not to apply software logic. I feel awful too because I still have to deal with her.

In the end, I cant help humming the song..zara hatke zara bachke ..yeh hai bambai meri jaan..