my daily mirror

The Search – From House to Home – Part I

February 22, 2010 at 01:36 (Uncategorized)

One of the major reason of our worries is a self nurtured demonish apprehension , that something or everything may go wrong with me. I repeat , for most part it is self-inflicted and it always comes with the gift of anxiety along with it. A lot of times ,what appears is nothing but a reflection of what our apprehensions and fears wants it to appear.

Let me explain.

I have ventured out …ahem … let me correct myself politically before I head further , we have ventured out to buy ourselves a new flat. I said new flat , but that does in no way mean I was the owner of an old flat. According to my wife , we never had a roof above our head to boot for while I had always thought foolish men make great houses only to rent out a portion or whole of it to tenants.

For me, the first few days went in understanding , whether it’s an apartment that I was out to buy or a flat in an Apartment . Once , I happened to slip out my intent of “buying an Apartment Complex” little loud , in a busy corner of the cafeteria , which bought me few serious gazes.

The basics well learned, began the search. It reached feverish pitch and intensity in mere 2 weeks, and every house that my wife and her friend ( another spirited lady , who found a similar husband who she had hard coaxed to buy a flat ) saw happened to be the best flat in the whole of Hyderabad. Screams and swears ( forgive my blogger’s exaggeration ) would emanate the moment we entered a new flat , only to be replaced by a changed loyalty in favour of a new one , by the very next hour. Frailty …thy name remains woman …

By the end of two weeks , we had visited nearly 5-6 possible localities of Hyderabad which could cater to our miserly budget and over the moon specs ( well almost ). My wife even happened to whisper in my ear , if one of those 20 Lakhs Flats would offer us “CC TV ” facility , to which I sheepishly retorted , petty thieves don’t come by the common entrance, instead they use the pipes and balconies and hence “CC TV “s were pretty redundant for our budget.
One Sunday afternoon , we reached an area in the outskirts of Hyderabad , where a few gated communities were getting erected at frantic pace.That I was made to look for Apartments at the outskirts was backed by my self built vision and logic , for which my wife wasn’t a buyer. I remember, during my early days in Hyderabad I used to hear from my local friends how the Hitech City was a barren rocky wasteland at one time , and continued to remain at the outskirts of Hyderabad as a less lucrative residential area. Now I hear those same friends, without a batter of their eyelid , proclaim Hitech City to be at the heart of the city and supposedly meant only for AVPs and VPs to give a shot at a residence. I learned quickly, the city never stops spreading, and what is outskirt today is pretty much inskirt tomorrow and is much wanted ( forgive my chauvinistic pun ).  During my search I also learned another nice thing , to which our wives ( I include my poor friend as well for solidarity’s sake ) remained ever oblivious. That even the best and costliest of Apartments in its early days would merely look like a stone and concrete foundation , bereft of any colors and hitherto glamour ,until they stand completed. Our wives more often went by the colors of the Apartments than anything else , and on three occasions downright rejected the Apartments, as Brown and Yellow didn’t soothe their senses. Aesthetics …ehh

Here was one Gated community , which possibly had a Builder with the mind of our wives , and happened to paint his Buildings in an attractive combination of emulsion paints which called for an immediate need to visit. The Apartment complex ( by this time I was fairly clear with my basics and my buying limitations ) promised a lot at less and was at its finishing stages. Enter the Celestial Towers …well there were still a few things in life along with mother’s love which came free and big , with little searching . Apartment names were one for sure. There was no dearth of sophistication when it came to nomenclature , and for a nine storey Apartment complex no wonder they named it ” Celestial Towers “. I was told, the next Project of the same Builder was named … ” Luxury Kailasa” and I dared not make a guess on its storeys.

After a good 60 mins of our customary floor visit, it was clear that there were no 2 BHKs that were ready for sale from the Builder. However, my mind kept saying , that an Apartment Complex with 100 2BKH flats cannot have everything sold so simple as a Nursery “Jack and Jill ” rhyme.A Builder’s story never ends with a “NOTHING” , it always makes way for a “They Lived Ever After in My Apartment ” ending, not to mention of the Happiness which keeps reducing in EMIs.

I got my call while on my way home , and was asked to meet up one Mr Rajesh who happened to be willing to sell off his 2 BHK flat in Celestial Towers.

On Saturday morning I met Mr Rajesh. How often , we are fooled to make an impression of a person by their mere voice over phone. I have heard ladies with super sexy , huskiness personified voice over phone only to be greeted by a spectacle clad gal who could with little luck pass off as a minor. Rajesh , who had sounded like a suave and stylish businessman,in a hurry to whiff off the miniscule of a deal that his Apartment was, appeared straight out of some Telugu movie. He was clad in whites ( I was told by my friends from AP , that anyone who wanted to sell their squeaky clean image in this state, would opt for some shade of white ) . Apparently, there wasn’t much doubting that politicians and realtors were the biggest buyers of white laundry. Here was Rajesh,looking in his 50s and clarified later as 39, with Ray Ban even inside his office and bailing abuses in dozens to his half a dozen sidekicks. He chewed some costly Pan Masala , the smell of which made the already dark contours of his office room more heady. He made us wait for a good 5 mins in his sitting room before calling us in ( I forgot to mention, I had my old fiend, who was with me during the search,in tow along with my bro ,who had travelled from Bangalore to clinch the deal for me ).
Tea was ordered for us , and as if to drive home the message on who the boss was in the room, we were served tea in plastic cups while Rajesh helped himself with a large Steel Mug …( to be continued )