Age of Decadence

She scanned both of them from top to bottom as they entered her house with a humble and unfortunately a fake buttering smile. It was like she was taking an X-Ray report and her eyes was the machine. All that they wanted was, for her to rent out her flat to them. It was the only flat within that locality which suited their pockets. The rest of the flat-rents would completely spill out of their budgets.

‘Shrewd’ was the first word which came to their mind which came across as a ‘first impression’. And as they started the discussion, they realized that it was an underplayed term. She was much more than just being shrewd; selfish, dominating, miserly and many more words were bouncing off their mind as the flat-owner spoke about herself, the flat and the rules.

Kritika and her husband, Siddharth however tried to concentrate on the nitty-gritty of the agreement. Poor uncle, the flat owner’s husband was sitting around simply observing his wife wielding her whip. His face expression revealed how much she would have curbed him throughout their years of married life. They realized that they must focus on the rent agreement instead.

The owner had already assembled prepaid cheques from them, for every month, for that complete year. ‘Prepaid Cheques’ was proof enough that she would not let go off her money anywhere. Maybe she did not trust them enough or maybe it was a precaution. The only good part was that the deal was closed.

They shifted to her polished apartment flat in no time. Shining all the way from the newly painted walls to the gleaming floors the couple had loved it in the first go itself. There was morning sunlight and evening sunset views, available at each of its balconies and being nature admirers, they were more than comfortable to move in. They certainly felt privileged.

The entire weekend was consumed in the shift-in activities and it took completely two days to just get the basics of a house arranged. They had calculated that it would take them at least an entire month to get everything settled. They would have to be at it with daily minor arrangements of the packed boxes.

An exhausted weekend, whiffed off like a gush of dusty wind. And then, life started as usual. From the morning haste of reaching their offices to searching for a maid. Thankfully they had settled the kitchen, and none was starving. The flat actually took more than a month to settle with small work-instalments even on working days. The evening teas at the balcony and the peaceful mornings of weekends was a huge relief. Life had started settling down. It was winters within a month.

They realized one morning that the geyser was not working. There was no time to think and reflect where they had kept their heating rod. Instead, they got some water boiled over the stove to assist them in the morning ablutions. Delhi was shivering and there was no option but to get the geyser rectified within the same day. In the evening, the electrician was called over and he amended it to a hefty demand. They had no options but to pay. When later, over the weekend they talked to the owner she declined refunding the amount bluntly. It was merely a month of their shifting-in and the first winter with the geyser not working. However, her explanation was that ‘they would have used it incorrectly’. Funny to use a water-geyser incorrectly since it was merely a switch play away. None of them wanted to get into a fuss with the owner and they simply let it go; both from their minds and their pockets.

And then, one month after another it was to their gradual discovery that there were dysfunctional tube-lights, defected power-points, broken curtain-rods, cracked wash basins……was any aspect missed? And it merely took one winter rainfall to reveal the actual picture. There was seepage through the walls and the paint and cement started peeling off already. The rosy picture of a perfect flat which was built in the beginning by the property dealer and the owners had collapsed within three months. The façade was lifted and reality was unveiled within three months. Appearances are deceptive, they say!

Needless to say, all the repair work was done by the couple with no penny from the owners. With a family completely settled and them inhabiting in an embellished villa, the renters really wondered what prevented them for paying for their own flat for refurbishing it. Anyways, one could never know what was actually going on in the other person’s life. The renter couple hence, gulped it all down under the emblem of ‘benefit of doubt’. They knew the discomfort of shifting again and there were many more important issues to concentrate upon, rather than the expensive repair bills.

A year flew past in that apartment. And in the middle of the second year, Kritika’s mother fell seriously ill. She was anyways fighting with few symptoms for the entire previous year, but unfortunately those had now amalgamated into what is called ‘Multiple Myeloma’. Or in simple terms, she was detected with ‘Bone Cancer’! The shock that the blood report revealed inflicted grave grief and immense agony to the entire family. What they had been actually fearing for all these days had happened.

The parents moved into their flat at the earliest, since the chemotherapy sessions needed to be started at the earliest. There were weekly hospital visits with Kritika’s mother mourning in pain. And all this was gradually translating into inability to walk, inability to talk and her entire body weakness. The family was a silent supporter and they grieved as much in pain mentally and emotionally.

In the middle of all this, the owners notified the renters that they had plans of selling the flat and they could live in it, till it was sold. It was a good bargain for the owners. They would be reaping in yields both from the renters and the buyers for the same period of time. This was what we called ‘Both hands full’!

However, oscillating between the chemotherapy sessions, an ailing mother and office work every week, there was absolutely no time or energy to look for another flat and take the owner’s notification as a priority. Health was a priority at this point of time. This was irrespective of the fact that the entire flat was now falling apart both in its structure and the other needful. And they should have shifted already.

In the wee hours of one fateful night, her mother got numb. And, all had to wake up at 3am to call an ambulance and rush her to the nearest hospital. The cosmopolitan hospital was more interested in completion of the payments done first, rather than going ahead with treating the patient. Kritika’s mother was on drips only after the admission procedure was completed.

And the nurse-in-charge was careless enough to not needle the vein correctly such that some of the medicine was flowing on the floor instead of the vein. The nurse was busy enjoying her morning cup of tea. It was 5am already.

She was served a piece of Kirti’s mind alongside when she had observed the carelessness.

‘You are deployed in emergency. People will lose their lives if you are so irresponsible’!

They family immediately took the call to rush her mother to the Cancer hospital instead, since they could figure out that the nurses and doctors at this hour in this hospital were inexperienced enough, to not be able to take care of the situation. Rather than calling an ambulance from the concerned Cancer Institute, a more pragmatic option was to take the current ambulance services from this hospital itself. The papers and payments were concluded at the earliest and the ambulance started, with her mother on drips and all, by her side inside it.

It was a crucial morning and with the sun rising, there were prayer chanting across all the temples that they crossed past which were by the road-side. They sincerely prayed for her mom’s recovery as the ambulance speeded-over due to less-traffic at this hour.

Scrrrrreeeeecccccch!!!!! They had managed to reach the hospital within one hour. And even before they were ready to board off, the ambulance-engine flared suddenly. They banged the ambulance doors for exiting and the Hospital Gate-Guards immediately assisted them in coming out. Leave apart the choking environment inside the ambulance, the petrol had the capacity to have blasted the vehicle!

However, there was no time to think for all this. Her mother was admitted to the relatively known emergency-ward. And in no time transferred to the ICU. Kritika and her husband were still outside with the guards and the firefighters who were called upon. They had finally managed to extinguish the flame. Leave apart the cost of life, the driver of the ambulance did not refrain from asking for the payment of the ride. It was not his fault but an ambulance on fire was shameful for the elite hospital. Appearances are deceptive, they say!

It was daytime and in no time, the specialist doctors were already doing their rounds much to their relief. Kritika and her husband informed their respective offices regarding their absence. Fateful night that it was, it was also a fateful day since the very same day her husband got a call from the owners to vacate the flat within a week since according to them, it was sold.

The news was truly amusing since firstly, ‘Who had lost his mind to purchase a flat in tatters?’ and secondly, ‘Even though the purchaser was paying for the location, would they have not come to inspect the flat before risking-in such a hefty amount. And ‘Isn’t one week too short a notice for them to move out?’ But those were the terms and conditions on the agreement sheet, in case the flat was sold. They were not in a position to question that.

In the middle of syringes, blood drips, medicines, band aids and office calls, it was already three days before her mother could be brought back home. Unfortunately, now there was an added serious kidney concern. She was discharged with the recommendation of visiting a nephrologist at the earliest and starting the dialysis process. They chose a hospital which was nearer their flat.

And that reminded the couple that out of their one-week notification for vacating the flat, three days were already over. They called the owners and pleaded them for an extension of the deadline and explained the situation at their end. The compassionate owners extended it by merely two days.

‘There should not be any delay after that’, she had declared in her stern voice.

They were perplexed and had no option but to take immediate action on it. The couple went for a house-hunt after dropping-off their parents for dialysis. After an exhausted day of house-hunting, they finally managed to find a flat available in the coming month. It was the 25th of the current month and shifting was possible after five days. They checked upon all the paper-work and finally the deal was concluded much to their relief!

‘Aunty we shall manage to vacate within five days’, Kritika announced to the owner excitedly expecting an absolutely positive response.

‘Two means two’, she yelled back. ‘We had already given you a week’s notification earlier!’

‘Please try to understand the situation. We would also need some time for packing.’

‘So, what have you been doing for the entire week?’

Kritika knew there was no point arguing further.

While her father took care of her mother, the couple started packing from that night itself. It was a complete random packing with any item fitting into any box. That was the only way they could be fast.

Siddharth managed to convince the new flat-owners for an early-shift. He agreed. ‘At least someone was not cold-hearted’, thought Kritika. Maybe she was wrong, he would take extra charges for the five-day early shift, to his vacant flat!

The family finally shifted within the stipulated time and the previous owners were called upon, for handing over of the keys. They were travelling and were unavailable. That really made them think, ‘Why were they so rigid when they had pleaded for an extension of the shifting-time. Had they actually sold the flat or were they cooking up a story?’

In the middle of adjusting all the shift-in cartons, grocery and medicines into the new house, the insensitive souls called back one random day, asking them to hand-over the keys that day itself since they were back from their trip and were now available.

‘Aunty, please let us give it to you tomorrow. Today is chemotherapy and also a working day.’

‘I already didn’t take it from you guys on the mentioned day and gave you some-time. How much more flexibility do you want from our side?’

Kritika lost her temper, ‘Aunty, you were not flexible to anything. You were simply unavailable!’

Siddharth snatched the phone in an attempt to be sober. He mistakenly committed for a time for the handover that day itself.

Given the other priorities of that day; that of chemo session and office work, they reached their doorstep half-an-hour late from the committed time.

The couple rang the doorbell while their parents waited for them in the car. ‘It was simply a key-handover and would be done in no time’ they thought.

The ruthless aunty opened the door. Leave apart the courtesy of asking them to take seat, she yelled at them then itself.

‘How dare you keep us waiting?’ they chorused.

Siddharth tried to explain and underlined, ‘My mother-in-law finished her chemotherapy and we directly came to your house.’

That line was expected to bring in some peace and sympathy but much to their disbelief the normally pecked-in husband gathered all his energy to shout in the presence of his wife, ‘We can’t wait for your mother to be fine.’

Hell broke loose on that comment.

Kritika tried to still maintain her calm and responded back, ‘Please mind your language and your tone’!

The woman threw back, ‘We have given you so much time to move out and still you are late.’

‘Thank you so much for giving us the ample extension of two days. That displays your maturity at this age’, Kirti had now lost her temper completely.

‘You wanted us to hand over the keys on 27th itself and you were the ones who were unavailable, not us. We very much moved out within your notified time’, added Kritika.

‘We called you an hour ago and look at what time you had come.’

‘There were many more important things to be done today’, explained Siddharth attempting to not lose his cool.

‘You were supposed to hand it over earlier!’ the white-haired lady yelled back.

‘It’s happy we are getting rid of you!’ Kritika responded expecting that the comment would pinch them.

‘Has no one taught you how to talk to the elderly?’, the old lady shouted back.

‘Has no one taught you to be sensitive esp. given that you are in the same age?’ Kritika decided that maintaining her decency would not help.

‘Your upbringing is reflecting in your behavior!’ the old owner replied in her fury.

‘And so is yours!’, retaliated Siddharth. Trying to pacify everything down till now, he was amply upset with their demeanor by now. He decided that he had given them enough chance, in respect of their age, it was his turn to speak now.

‘You have unfortunately completely lost your self-control at this age? You shall understand when one of your family members is in the hospital.’

‘You don’t need to worry. We shall see when we get hospitalized.’

Kritika really wondered, ‘Where was this old man getting all this energy from?’

They had never seen him talk before. They always knew that the old woman was like this but this was a hidden talent which was trying to come out in full-blow. Maybe all the curbed anger which he would have wanted to place on his wife was being misplaced on them.

Kritika’s husband intervened.

‘Please sign in the papers and finish it off.’

At least someone was thinking pragmatically in the middle of all these arguments.

The woman’s hands shivered in anger as she signed on the formal acceptance letter of the keys being handed over, of her flat.

Kritika and Siddharth got up and left. Kritika broke down as she entered the car.

She couldn’t remember the last-time someone would have spoken to her like that or for that matter the last-time when she would have spoken to someone like that.

Her parents were unable to comprehend what had happened.

They calmed Kritika down as her husband drove the car trying to explain the entire incident.

As things calmed down with the distance covered, there was a market they crossed which had all sorts of fast-food carts in all its delight.

They decided to stop-by in order to dilute that incidence into some delectable food. They stood by a snack-cart waiting for a kid’s turn of being served the food. It was that child’s turn after one lot of the crowd had cleared.

As the child held his plate for his delightful serving, there was another lady who tapped on her mother’s shoulder and requested, ‘Please can I have these snacks before your child. I’m in a hurry.’

‘It’s not me who’s having it, it’s my little one’, the previous woman responded.

‘I have a child waiting for me at home.’

Kritika and her family was truly amused. Firstly, the lady wanted a helping for herself, overtaking a kid in the queue. Normally it should have been the other way round. And even more funnily, she was weighing the options between having snacks and her child waiting for her at home. And this was no meal, it was simply junk snacks.

From the elite hospital, to the owners of the new flat to the old couple to everything happening around them…….What was this genre? What was this era?

The stylish, the sophisticated, the literate but uneducated?

Or was this simply an age of decadence?