BRAToSPHERE

Category: ARTICLE

  • House Hunting

    One of my colleagues pointed me to this article where a celebrity was denied accommodation in Mumbai. It reminded me of my own troubles in finding a house.

    I have stayed in five cities in the last five plus years that I have been working, and have changed seven houses since then.

    Right since my early Delhi days, to Bangalore, Hubli, Mumbai and now Gurgaon, one thing that has always remained common across each of these cities is the pain associated with house hunting.

    If it is the astronomical amount demanded in the form of deposit in Bangalore, it is the high rentals demanded in Mumbai that becomes the sore point. The fact that I would be  a single bachelor staying in the house any which ways got seventy percent of the houses out of my realms. And this Anti-bachelor resonated in all of the cities without exception.

    The most troublesome place to find a house is Mumbai. As it is popularly said in Mumbai, getting a roof on your head is the toughest part, everything else can be sorted.

    The worse thing here, among other things, is the lease expiry issue. The lease is always made for eleven months and the owner has the complete right to kick you out of the house with no reasons whatsoever. This in spite of having a strict “no party at my place” rule to your friends, in spite of having a travelling job and rarely staying in the house and in spite of having no visitors at all.

    I believe I am like the ideal tenant to have. The real tenant was not me at all! It was my stuff which needed a roof and I had to pay a huge monthly premium to let it be. I was out most of the time.

    The other worse thing in Mumbai is the concept of a “co-operative housing society”. The whole purpose of such entities seems to be to ensure that the rental process becomes difficult. Even the owner has no say most of the time.

    Non-Vegetarian? Sorry!

    South Indian? Sorry!

    From South India? Even then sorry!

    Bachelor? Well, non-starter this one is.

    Bachelor is the word that every landlord shuns like plague. So much that many a brokers suggested that I lie that my Mom would stay with me, or even go to the extent of lying that I was married!

    Things here in Gurgaon seem to be slightly better. That I think is more a function of the huge supply!

    Hopefully I would not have to embark on this journey again any soon.

  • Summer of 2014

    After a brief hiatus I am back. After my move to Gurgaon, life sure has become quite hectic.

    The initial weekends spent in looking for a house to rent, and then a couple more weekends spent in dressing up the house. This was interrupted by a short weekend trip to Sujangarh, in Rajasthan, my maternal place.

    Why only weekends? Well, after joining the Gurgaon office I seem to be living weekend to weekend, as the entire working week just seems to fly by without any “me time”.

    Amidst all the chaos over the weekends, I managed to take a week off, for a short trip to Mumbai. A very much needed trip to unwind, as well as complete some pending tasks.

    Back to Gurgaon in end June, the preparations started for the Big day (more about that later).  The general day to day work, and talking to everyone and planning travel took up most of the time.

    A short two day trip mid-July to Bangalore (my first official trip after joining the Gurgaon office) was very fruitful – both work wise and personally. My first ever trip where I was involved in something very different from the routine market work, was very enriching and a learning experience.

    This trip to Bangalore, after a full three years, when I had left the garden city to move to Mumbai, was also filled with nostalgia. Walking down the brigade road and the MG road, did bring back a lot of fond memories from what now seems like a different era.

    Post the Bangalore trip, Most of end July was spent in malls, shopping for the big day and taking full advantage of the sale season. The Credit Card bills from the retail onslaught still gives me sleepless nights!

    Like I had hoped on my move to Gurgaon, I have picked up a sport. Have started playing Badminton regularly every morning, and the occasional bout of table tennis in office does keep me indulged in the recess hours.

    Amidst all this hysteria over the past couple of months, writing unfortunately took a back seat!

  • Adios Mumbai

    July 2011, amidst the heavy Mumbai rains, I landed in this city of dreams.

    I had a new job, and this was going to be my new place of work. I had mixed emotions then. Mumbai was touted as an expensive and difficult city to be living in. The famous (or infamous) pace of the city was a cause of concern, more so as I was relocating from the calm and peaceful Bangalore.

    Overcoming all of that, I think the last three years have been an amazing experience in this City. These last three years have developed many a fond memories that I would be cherishing for a long time to come.

    I still remember during my first week in Mumbai, I had complained to my manager how I already hate the city due to its rains and the overcrowded roads. She very calmly smiled back at me and said, “give it some more time. Mumbai would grow on you and you would start liking it”. Grow on me, it truly did, so much that I now find it difficult to leave this city.

    After the horrendous experience in the first month, where I had to commute by the non-existent auto to office every day from my hotel, I had decided that I would stay as close as possible to my office. My 1 bhk flat, was a 10 minutes’ walk away from office and I so much loved it. Think, this was one very big factor that helped foster my relationship with the city. I could avoid its roads and traffic that it was unpopular for.

    Catching up with old friends, working double triple hard on my new job, and spending sleepless nights to catch up with the city comprised my first year here. I was staying alone, and all of my weekends would be with friends trying to explore the city.

    Different places to eat, to hang out and every possible popular pub in the city was on the radar in the first year of my stay here in Mumbai.

    Our new found interest in plays comprised a vital part of our weekends those days. We religiously checked the schedules of Prithvi Theatre in Juhu and made up our plans around it.

    Like every city, I developed my own favourite places to hang out, where I could spend hours and hours together. Powai was one of them. The whole locality gave a very European feel to it, and I wish that I could stay here someday. The other favourite is Colaba causeway. The whole street has fascinated me right since my Summer intern days, where it turned to be a daily hangout place, from our hostel near Chruchgate.

    And like I have a favourite coffee shop in every city, Mumbai too had one – the CCD at Carter Road, Bandra. I remember having spent hours and hours there. This place just made me forget all about the daily life chores and helped experience a different world. This was pure meditation! The entry of Starbucks did not change this preference at all.

    This, and many other experiences truly enriched my stay here for a little less than three years, and yes, I would love the opportunity to be residing in this city again someday.

    For Now, Gurgaon it is!

  • Early Mornings

    In the morning a man walks with his whole body; in the evening, only with his legs ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

    This one statement captures it all. Mornings are indeed the most productive hours of the day. The birds chirping, the chill in the air and the dew droplets on the leaves – the atmosphere is so soothing that it brings out the best in you.

    Alas! Most of us (including me!) have wasted most of our mornings, and we keep doing it. Unfortunately, most of these mornings are spent in slumber missing out on the best moments of the day.

    Of late, I have started this routine of waking up before dawn and ideally hitting the ground before the early morning sunlight. Taking a walk around the ground, slight stretching exercises, some yoga exercises or sometimes just sitting there on the bench and observing the beautiful nature – the day seems all charged up.

    Some things that I try doing in the morning:

    Exercise: Work out in the morning. After running, or brisk walking, 10 Km at a stretch early in the morning, heaps of work in the office should be a smooth run. Anything in the form of exercise – Yoga, stretching, meditate, etc. A 45 minute brisk walk session followed with half an hour of Yoga works perfectly. Have been trying to accommodate meditation into the routine for sometime now.

    Planning my day: The extra fresh hours in the morning, give me ample time to put my day in place. Mapping out the schedule for the day, and the to-do list, makes it so much easier.

    Healthy Breakfast: No stress on the importance of this meal. So I tend to have a good, hearty one for this.

    Writing: Well, reading and writing is supposed to be a leisure activity and thus should be done anytime during the day right? Well, true. But bringing in some amount of discipline gets more productive results. Also, mornings allow the mind to think freely and be more creative.

    All this waking up early and getting into a routine forms a very strong and powerful thing within ourselves (other than the six pack abs, if you are the gymming kinds) – HABIT.

    Habit is probably the most powerful thing that drives us to do anything, and the best way to form it is in the mornings when it sticks the best!

    Developing this habit in the daily routine has made me realize that the day actually has enough number of hours, it just needs better planning.

    With this, I am off to get my breakfast, yes a whole and hearty one.

  • Allure of a Coffee Shop

    14th February, Valentine’s day. Here I am sitting at the Starbucks coffee shop waiting for a friend. We planned to go out for dinner tonight.

    By the looks of it, it does not seem to be happening. All restaurants seem to be completely sold out to the romantically inclined! So, I guess, we would have to do with the coffee alone today.

    Coming back to the main topic – Coffee shops.

    I have always liked whiling away time in a coffee shop. As far as I remember, this fixation with coffee shops started with that unaffordable espresso shot at barista on MG road in Bangalore. This was way back in 2005, when I was in third year engineering. That barista has now become a CCD, and my tastes have changed from espresso shots to a hot chocolate (yes!).

    It has been a long on going journey since that espresso shot at the barista. Right from the “4 seasons” cafe in Vizag for the inexpensive cup of black coffee after CAT classes, to the present day Starbucks, every cup has for sure been totally worth every penny.

    Coffee shops are so energetic and full of life, and at the same time calm and inspiring. No wonder many bestsellers have been written in coffee shops.

    Whenever I am in a new city, I always make it a point to spend some time in a coffee shop. Just looking, and if possible, eavesdropping, at people and their conversations is a complete course in human psychology. You get to know the talk of the town? What is the current favorite? Which movie you should be watching the coming weekend!

    One week later.. 21st February..

    Am again at this Starbucks, and it seems that it is just where I left.

    It is as if time has frozen in this part of the world, inside this hideous place and everyone is still having fun. Of course, the people have changed (but I don’t remember their faces!), and the talks have changed. But the energy still remains the same. The same infectious energy.

    See, this is the joy of going to a coffee shop. It feels like returning back to a familiar place. It is not without design that most Starbucks outlets across the world are designed in the same fashion. Or CCD, or Barista, or at other coffee chain. They intend to give you the same familiar look and feel to bring back the warm memories and freeze time for the couple of hours you are here.

    I can keep singing hours and hours about this wonderful modern day creation, and am sure I would in many more posts.

    Am off now to get my hot chocolate, and to spend some time eavesdropping.. Er! solitude. See you soon at the next cafe.