Monday, June 28, 2010

To-Let

To-Let
2BHK only for families
No Batchelors

Based on our real life house searching experiences :(

ding dong...

A door was opened with a crackling sound. An old guy who is in his late 60's opened the door. He looked very enthusiastic and as soon as he saw us he said hi. We also said hi and told him that we are looking for a house. He showed us the flat and asked about our whereabouts. Suddenly he stopped us and gave a very weird look. He asked us whether we are a family or bunch of bachelors. We said we are very good bachelors. His facial expressions changed more faster than the decaying of radioactive material whose half-life is less than a second. He said get-out with utmost respect.

This was the 25h rejection of the day and it is almost 3 in the afternoon :@


Before that, we started 'house hunting' at morning 7. Yes, Rajiv woke me up at 7 in the morning...

We started searching the houses in the nearby areas. We saw a Tolet board and went to the watchman to enquire about it. We came to know that it is a 3-BHK flat which is a way too big for us...

Atlast we found one 2-BHK flat which is in 5th floor. We asked the watchman and he asked us to go to the flat directly and ask the owner. As we were searching for a lift he said there is no lift for the apartment and has to use steps. We hesitantly went to the owner and told him that we are searching for a house and would like to see the flat. He happily showed us the flat and when asked about the rent he said 15K rent and 1000 extra towards maintenance. We told him that rent is too high since lift is also not there we asked whether he can give any concession. He said no without any hesitation. Without any option we came down and started our bikes.

We came across another tolet board which is in first floor only. We went to the watchman and he took us to the owners who are residing in the same floor. We told him that we are looking for a house and the owner asked us what caste we belong to... I'm stunned with his question and with full of anger said we are friends from different backgrounds and we do not divulge our castes as it is immaterial. Satti told him that we can show the driving licenses but not the caste certificates. And even before he says no we told him that we are not interested to see the house...

We started our bikes and went to other area. There we saw 3 beautiful girls and they looked awesome. They went into one posh apartment and fortunately we found one tolet board (2-BHK) in the same apartment :P
But just like a small star with conditions apply it was written 'only for families'. We met the watchman and he said the house will be rented only for families. We convinced him that we are all cousins and saw the flat. It looked great and thought that we almost got it. But watchman asked us to speak to the owner who is residing on the next floor. We went to his flat and pressed the calling bell. One of the gals opened the door and she looked like an angel. For a minute i thought she is mine. I looked at my friends and they are also drooling :@
At the same time her father came out. We told him that we are looking for a house and tried to convince him by saying we are cousins. He said he never gave the flat to bachelors. Rajiv tried convincing him that we are cousins but he shut the door.

Everybody was disappointed and vexed with the operation. We searched another 2 colonies where we faced the same rejection.

With not much options left we resorted to the house broker. He showed 5 different houses which are worse than bathrooms :@
We paid him 300 bucks and left that place.

Again started 'hunting' for the flats. Atlast we found one 2-BHK tolet board in a very nice locality. Watchman showed us the flat and asked us to speak to the owners about rent etc. We saw the flat and liked it very much. But i'm very skeptic because i didn't see even a single group of bachelors in that area which implies that no house owner is ready to rent their flat to bachelors. But to my surprise house owner agreed to give us the flat. We were very happy and thought that our search atlast found a result. We told him that we'll occupy the flat in another week and will give advance at the same time. As soon as we reached our bikes one lady came to us. She looked like a servant maid. She came to us and told that apartment is facing water problem and we've to fill tubs, drums etc everyday. The thought of waking up in the morning and filling the drums itself sent a chill through my spinal cord. We thanked her and went to the watchman. We enquired about the water and he hesitantly said that there is a water problem. Since we came from Godavari districts we use excessive water (judicially though). We said we are not taking the flat and can keep the tolet board again.

We roamed entire srinagar colony and couldn't find anything. We saw some 15 houses and came back with all rejections.

We stopped at one shop and took a coke pet bottle. While paying the money Teja asked the shopkeeper about the vacant house in that particular area. He said a new apartment is constructed and there are few tolet boards in the next street. We went to the apartment and indeed saw a tolet board with a contact number written on it. Owner is not residing in the apartment and so we called him. He asked whether we eat non-veg or not. I hesitantly said we do. He said hez not interested in renting the flat and hanged up the phone. That was how our 24th rejection came. With much disappointment we again started searching.


So after the 25th rejection we stopped at a cafe and ate some stuff. Though it was not good, we ate completely because we didn't had anything since morning.

Satti while taking his food looked at one tolet board in one of the apartments. After completing our food we took 10 mins rest and went to that apartment. We went to the watchman and asked about the house. He said 'Ameerpet'. We thought the owner is residing at ameerpet and asked the watchman to show the flat. Then he said the owner is residing in the apartment but the flat is vacant at ameerpet. They kept the tolet board in the apartment where they are staying but the flat is vacant at ameerpet :O

Sanjeev, Teja & Satti fainted. Rajiv's (read laggy) brain is still processing and all my senses were dead :O

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

That's how he cheated mosquitoes

This is a mixture of fiction and real life incidents happened on one 'fortunate' Saturday.
Characters: Satti, Kiran, Murali, Bhanu, Karthik & me.


Saturday 6PM @ Pushkar ghat

I've lots of common sense but sometimes I choose to ignore... That's why I handed my bike (which is not in good condition) to Satti though we didn't had a good track record today...

Satti, smitten by the beautiful road on the bank of river Godavari, took my bike as if he is receiving the best employee award in his company.
Satti is riding the bike. My friend Murali & myself were sitting behind him (yeah, triple riding :) ). I kept a strict condition that we'll be slowly following my friends so that if they see any traffic constable, they would caution us & Murali could get down. We crossed Markandeswara Swamy temple junction safely and thought that we crossed the barrier. Usually police patroling is more near that junction... Suddenly Satti accelerated the bike and we were going @ 60 on that busy road. As soon as we reach PV Narasimha Rao Park we saw a large gathering. Sensing Police presence, Murali asked Satti to stop the bike. Satti slowly decreased the speed and stopped exactly infront of the constable who is leisurely having a cup of tea... Police saw us and said 'aha! Home delivery' :@ I never saw a police man who is more excited and delghtful than him... Again my wallet lost 100 bucks :(
I told myself that today is definitely not my day.. Just see why


4:40AM (same day) in Gautami Train

I suddenly woke up at 4:40 AM. The train just reached Tadepalligudem station and will take min 1 hr to reach Rajahmundry. So I slept again and so was Satti. I woke up only to realise that we already crossed Rajahmundry. Satti was still sleeping. I woke him up and asked my fellow passenger about the next stop. Fortunately in another 10 mins train stopped in Dwarapudi station and we got down.

We saw the TC standing at the exit gate and we planned to get out from another route. We almost made it if only another TC who was coming exactly opposite to us didn't notice. He smiled at us and saw our tickets. We saw 200 bucks in his sarcastic smile :@

Day started with a bang...

We somehow reached our home only to see the locked door... I thought of giving a surprise visit to my parents and in turn, I got a very big surprise... I called them and came to know that they along with my family friends went to Dwaraka Tirumala and will return on next day morning... But my parents gave the keys to neighbours. With a sigh of relief, I took the keys and freshed myself. I called Kiran and we went to his house. After having a heavy lunch we slept there itself...

Later we started to ISKCON temple on Gautami ghat. I called rest of my friends and we all met at Pushkar ghat at 6'o clock. Here satti took my bike...

7PM@PV Narasimha Rao Park

After giving Rs.100 to constable, we started again and reached the most beautiful ISKCON temple at Gautami ghat. After having Darshan we came to enjoy the scenic beauty of river Godavari. It is a very pleasant place and we were enjoying with nice chat...

Suddenly I realised that I lost my bike keys... I still remembered that Satti gave keys to me but somehow I LOST my keys. After searching for nearly 1 hour, I went to the security in-charge officer. He was playing with some keys which looked like mine. He started scolding me for my recklessness and went on to say that todays youth is behaving irresponsibly. He kept on saying something for the next 15 mins but I ignored everything. After his speech I told him that the keys in his hands were mine. He kept on asking questions as if he is taking my interview for Civil services recruitment. I showed him my identity card & driving license and kept on answering all kinda damn questions he asked. Later he asked 500 bucks. I asked him why... but my friends insisted to give the money. Mahatma Gandhi on Rs.500 note, who is supposed to be smiling, is laughing at me. I unwilling gave him the money and left that place.


10PM@Murali's house

We reached Murali's house and decided to stay there itself. Karthik and Kiran also stayed with us but Bhanu left to his house as he had to attend some programme in the morning.

We went to the river bank which is very near to Murali's house and spend 2 hours sharing the experinces at the work places. We realised that its too late and returned to Murali's house. Kiran switched on the TV. We watched the debate between two senior political leaders on how to curb the increasing prices index. It seemed to be a fight between them rather than a discussion. Karthik took the remote control and kept on changing the channels for next 15 mins. Later everybody decided to watch 'Final Destination' which was being telecasted on Star Movies. It is a wonderful thriller and is based on a concept of death chasing the characters in a sequential order. But finally protogonist succeds in cheating the death and breaks the sequence. After the movie we discussed Sunday's plan. Later we rearranged the furniture to make some space so that we four can sleep. We tried to sleep but mosquitoes decided to give a nightmare... We saw that Allout refill is completely exhausted and there is no chance of getting a new pack at that time. Mosquitoes are striking continously and not letting us have a peaceful sleep. It seems there is an SLA (service level agreement) to be met by the mosquitoes. Then Satti came to the rescue. He took the all out machine and went inside & returned back with a refilled one. Everybody is surprised because nobody understood from where he brought that pack and on asking he didn't say anything. He connected it to the plug point and we thought we can sleep peacefully. But after 5 mins again mosquitoes started doing what they are at best. Nobody understood why mosquitoes are keep on coming even when we kept the mosquito repellent. Kiran cursed the TV ads where they show the machine killing the mosquitoes. After 10 mins, Satti got up and told us that he thought of cheating the mosquitoes and filled the pack with water :O

I fainted...