Even blogwriters need inspiration. I have been moving around places, doing some new things, meeting some new people and feasting on some new delicacies, still I am not convinced I can write another blog.
However, here is a snapshot of a grand scale househunt, the rigour anyone moving into Mumbai (The Maximum City of India) needs to make. Thus, starts the househunt out of a small hotel room allotted to you by your employer, the room stay so cozy yet ephemeral. This sudden realisation came to me on the 15th day of my stay, when I was enjoying watching a TV soap on a lazy sunday. My phone rings and from the other side comes a query, "Sir will you like to extend your stay!" And this was the defining moment, the one which made it amply clear that I was on streets in the big bad city of Mumbai.
Unsuccessful in my search for an apartment that was ventilated, spacious, came with amenities such as gym, market proximity etc and 15 minutes drive to my office I had by that moment spent half the first month of my new employment in a hotel room. But Mumbai was never meant to be easy, what was uncalled for were my desires and this city doesn't help much when you become extra picky about matters concerning real estate. Amongst my friend circle, we share a joke on Mumbai real estate which goes something like "while you find houses elsewhere in the country, in Mumbai you just seek a better roof above your head."
I rang up brokers of all kind who took me to several places, including one where there was almost rent bidding happening, with owner, a broker/s and at least 3 prospective tenants (and that didnt include me). It took me a few more visits to figure out the entire broker network, a broker will suggest I meet Mr/Ms XYZ at some place and he/she would take me to show a vacant flat, where I would find a couple more of brokers with keys and more mindshare on that particular flat. So there would be 4-5 of them marketing the same one flat, while they were brokers their duty and loyalty was only with the landlords. In Mumbai you can't work without brokers for the want of a lot of paperwork that needs to be done once landlord and tenant agree on the transaction. So I met brokers of all kinds, short, tall, fat. lean, english speakers, native speakers, men, women all. And I loved it when finally a shabbily dressed woman broker said "ye party hai ya broker", the famous quote from movie Khosla ka Ghosla.
I saw flats which were furnished, unfurnished, under works, in market areas, with gyms in complex, and many more but I couldnt make up my mind. I finally did and managed the unthinkable, transacting directly with a woman landlord, no brokers in between. The flat was new, it was spacious (infact extra spacious, considering Mumbai), it was ventilated and yes it had a gym and all this packaged very close to my office. However, what seemed an easy, most vouched for transaction, wasn't. Madame landowner was tough to deal with, she would make (in the coming days) me visit her office thrice and twice to the registrar office. The moving in just got extended for the want of keys, which took its own sweet time. Finally I managed to lay my hands of those keys to the door, the door which was meant to lift me from my misery. Ah! how I wished, the night I enter the place I realised I could hear every flight take off from Mumbai, the busiest airport in the country. All this while I was pleased to see every plane land in Mumbai at a distance, without any disturbance here, however, they also take off is something went unnoticed. There were bandicoot rats running all around, plumbing was faulty and the list goes on. I simply basked in the glory of an airport view (at a distance).
Mumbai won't bend, so you have to hence, the nights of using ear plugs were here and they are here to stay....bandicoots and plumbing is something which I had to deal with and I did, for some more relaxed nights in this city which still feels foreign, though I spent a good span of my life here.
However, here is a snapshot of a grand scale househunt, the rigour anyone moving into Mumbai (The Maximum City of India) needs to make. Thus, starts the househunt out of a small hotel room allotted to you by your employer, the room stay so cozy yet ephemeral. This sudden realisation came to me on the 15th day of my stay, when I was enjoying watching a TV soap on a lazy sunday. My phone rings and from the other side comes a query, "Sir will you like to extend your stay!" And this was the defining moment, the one which made it amply clear that I was on streets in the big bad city of Mumbai.
Unsuccessful in my search for an apartment that was ventilated, spacious, came with amenities such as gym, market proximity etc and 15 minutes drive to my office I had by that moment spent half the first month of my new employment in a hotel room. But Mumbai was never meant to be easy, what was uncalled for were my desires and this city doesn't help much when you become extra picky about matters concerning real estate. Amongst my friend circle, we share a joke on Mumbai real estate which goes something like "while you find houses elsewhere in the country, in Mumbai you just seek a better roof above your head."
I rang up brokers of all kind who took me to several places, including one where there was almost rent bidding happening, with owner, a broker/s and at least 3 prospective tenants (and that didnt include me). It took me a few more visits to figure out the entire broker network, a broker will suggest I meet Mr/Ms XYZ at some place and he/she would take me to show a vacant flat, where I would find a couple more of brokers with keys and more mindshare on that particular flat. So there would be 4-5 of them marketing the same one flat, while they were brokers their duty and loyalty was only with the landlords. In Mumbai you can't work without brokers for the want of a lot of paperwork that needs to be done once landlord and tenant agree on the transaction. So I met brokers of all kinds, short, tall, fat. lean, english speakers, native speakers, men, women all. And I loved it when finally a shabbily dressed woman broker said "ye party hai ya broker", the famous quote from movie Khosla ka Ghosla.
I saw flats which were furnished, unfurnished, under works, in market areas, with gyms in complex, and many more but I couldnt make up my mind. I finally did and managed the unthinkable, transacting directly with a woman landlord, no brokers in between. The flat was new, it was spacious (infact extra spacious, considering Mumbai), it was ventilated and yes it had a gym and all this packaged very close to my office. However, what seemed an easy, most vouched for transaction, wasn't. Madame landowner was tough to deal with, she would make (in the coming days) me visit her office thrice and twice to the registrar office. The moving in just got extended for the want of keys, which took its own sweet time. Finally I managed to lay my hands of those keys to the door, the door which was meant to lift me from my misery. Ah! how I wished, the night I enter the place I realised I could hear every flight take off from Mumbai, the busiest airport in the country. All this while I was pleased to see every plane land in Mumbai at a distance, without any disturbance here, however, they also take off is something went unnoticed. There were bandicoot rats running all around, plumbing was faulty and the list goes on. I simply basked in the glory of an airport view (at a distance).
Mumbai won't bend, so you have to hence, the nights of using ear plugs were here and they are here to stay....bandicoots and plumbing is something which I had to deal with and I did, for some more relaxed nights in this city which still feels foreign, though I spent a good span of my life here.
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