Homeless

Pooja knew only one aspect about changing rented flats. Which was, that she detested it!

With she or her husband getting regularly transferred, there had been multiple times that she had already switched over from one city to another and changing flats to arranging stuff to organizing the kitchen to everything else it required. She disliked it so much, since it would extract all her energy and leave her drained. She considered it as a waste of time and energy. But although unwillingly, this was one more time.

And the onus was this time on her, to select a flat, negotiate on the rent and security deposit since this time her husband was busy getting all the belongings packed and loaded on the logistics team’s head before he could fly to the new city. He also had the compulsion of serving in his office till the last day mentioned in the notice period, of the strictly regulated private company.

Since, Pooja had done this before she definitely was confident. Confident was a humble word. Overconfidence fitted in perfect with her attitude. She decided to stay at her college friend’s place before she could hunt an zero in on a location.

‘Off course you can! Most welcome. Tell me when you are coming’, chirped in Antara. Antara was her college friend and was already living a happy married life in the city in which Pooja was moving. What better than the two friends being together in the same city! They could meet anytime when time permitted or whenever they wanted to unload their minds of any baggage.

‘Take care…….and be careful with the brokers!’ were the last words of Siddharth as he dropped Pooja off at the airport.

To her delight, Antara was already there to receive her! She had taken a half-day-leave to meet her long-time separated friend. What a true friend! They hugged as their eyes glinted at the sight of each other. As the onlookers wondered, Antara had already loaded Pooja’s stuff on her car and took-on the steering wheel. They chatted and gossiped and updated each other on the world around themselves continuously, till they finally arrived at their destination. That evening reminded both the friends of their old days. They cooked together and chatted at the same time as Antara’s husband enjoyed the meal and silently tried hard to understand their college stories.

As the ladies were chatting the entire night, Antara’s husband was busy snoring on the sofa. The friends were not running out of conversations but they decided to call the day off since it was office the next day for Antara and house hunting for Pooja.

Antara wished Pooja luck and handed over the numbers she had shortlisted for her dear friend.

‘Let me know if any problem!’ yelled Antara as she left hurriedly for office and handed over the house-key to Pooja. Pooja had a late breakfast and started the hunt.

She called up on the shortlisted broker mobile numbers precisely five in number. In no time, Pooja had her mobile constantly ringing from vague, unknown brokers to whom she had never called before.

‘Ma’am I have two BHK and 3BHK flats at a very good price!’

‘Ma’am I have a high-profile apartment with swimming pool and gym. It has 2 BHK, 3 BHK!’

‘Ma’am I have builder floors in the area you are looking for.’

There were at least ten miscellaneous calls. As Pooja noted down the new numbers along with the location of the flats, she was unable to recollect all the names. The only thing she remembered was BHK. Bedroom, Hall, Kitchen! Which one was where was hard to remember! As she started on her expedition, she was disappointed with one very fact that she would have to chose a home which would be far away from Pooja’s since her husband’s office location was such.

By afternoon, Pooja had already been through multiple flats and floors and apartments. She hated doing this and she was simply unable to decide upon which one. The buttering brokers were able to pinpoint the benefits each of the places had while she exactly knew what would be the disadvantages of each. There was not a single home which included all required. Some had water seepage, some did not have power backup, some didn’t come with a parking and so on and so forth. Maybe, that was the reason a dream home was every individual’s ultimate dream. That was one of the primary reasons why so much money was earned by every individual. An ideal abode was what everyone craved for.

Pooja decided to give herself a break. As she munched upon the delicious burger, her mobile was ringing continually she received the call in an irritated mood expecting an unwelcome broker.

‘Tell me….’ she said in a harsh tone.

‘What happened?’

‘Oh……It’s you? Didn’t see your name, I was expecting a broker!’

‘Did anything work-out?’ her husband asked eagerly.

‘Not yet yaar! I just don’t know which one is good enough!’

‘Oh C’mmon…..we are not buying one, we are just staying on rent. Just choose some with all the basic facilities. We can think about the rest when we are ready to purchase one!’

‘Has the all the stuff been packed?’

‘It has been loaded already and is about to move in some time. I shall leave for the airport too in some time.’

After disconnecting the call, Pooja thought what Siddharth was saying meant sense. They weren’t purchasing one, so all the beautification could be overlooked for now. She had to just concentrate on the location and water and power backup. It was sad that these basic amenities were also like luxuries one had to hunt for. Not all places provided all. Her mind mentally strolled through all the places she had inspected in the former-half of the day. And she finally decided to go ahead with a builder floor which was spacious and closer to the malls. Yes, that too was one of the criterias for Pooja’s selection. How could she have ignored this one?

She called upon each of the brokers one after another, as she had jumbled her mind up on which one was for that particular floor. She finally traced him and went once more to the floor, to survey upon everything before confirming.

‘You can get the papers ready. We shall be finalising upon this tomorrow’, she instructed to the respective broker who was at his buttering best.

Pooja and Antara almost reached the same time at her house.

‘Do you work this late every day?’

‘Look at the time, it’s just 9pm’ mumbled Antara as she unlocked the door.

‘Rohan will be here in no time.’

‘And, so will Siddhartha. I guess we wives should quickly get into preparing dinner’, added Pooja.

Siddhartha and Rohan both were there by ten. They all had a luscious meal, as each one shared their experience for the day. While Rohan and Antara had the same corporate topics, everyone listened anxiously to Pooja’s experience.

‘I just hope you have chosen the right one’, commented Siddhartha as they collected the plates and bowls to place it in the kitchen sink.

‘Don’t tell me, I simply followed upon your instructions!’

Antara and Rohan enjoyed the light-hearted fun debate of the couple as they gobbled upon their sweet-dish.

All went to sleep early since the next day was a working day for all and especially for Siddhartha and Pooja, since they had to finalise upon the home lease agreement along with the dealer and the house owner.

It was the next morning and this time it was Pooja and Siddharth in a hurry since their packed logistics was scheduled to arrive by evening that day. In any case, they had to finalise upon their house so that all the material could be unloaded and the logistics-firm be paid completely.

Siddhartha was pleasantly surprised by his wife’s choice. It was actually more than his expectations. It was a builder floor apartment with a basic lawn and power and water backup. The house was spacious and was recently painted. Siddhartha however, didn’t like the location since it was slightly noisy and it would be slightly challenging for safe parking.

‘Never mind’, he thought. ‘We can always look for a better location and shift as per our own convenience’, he told himself.

‘Good job Pooja!’ he smiled. Pooja felt nice and relieved. However, this sweet moment was very short-lived.

The owners arrived with the papers and the dealers asked them to sign on the papers. On close observation, Siddhartha noticed that the papers mentioned a rupees 1 lac security deposit and a broker-fee of fifty thousand.

‘What does that mean? We don’t pay so much even in a place like Mumbai!’

‘Sir, madam had agreed to this yesterday!’

‘What? You never mentioned this to me.’

Siddharth looked at Pooja in irritation.

‘Sid, they never mentioned this. Believe me!’

‘And you have a tie-up for 1 year’, added the owner.

‘What? Who said that? The broker didn’t tell me.’

‘Ma’am let me explain…..’ the broker joined in.

‘And I will not take any maintenance charges upon myself. You shall be liable for all the expenses.

Both understood that the shrewd broker had tried cheating both ends to earn easy profits. Neither the owner nor the to-be renters completely agreed with all the terms and conditions.

‘Why should we live here then?’ Siddhartha questioned.

‘Its your wish’, the owner said with a shrewd lopsided smile.

‘Sir, they absolutely have no problems’, the dealer again tried to intervene.

‘Off course we have a problem!’ chimed in the couple.

‘There are too many terms and conditions and several flowcharts to be followed!’

‘And that too, when we manged to spot them in this legal document. Don’t know how many hidden aspects are present!’ added Sidhhartha.

‘But you will need to give me the charges’, demanded the broker.

‘For what? For bringing us to this awkward moment?’

Both Pooja and Siddhartha simply walked off completely ignoring the broker. Pooja booked a cab on her mobile application and both of them landed in a restaurant. As they munched upon the dosa and discussed upon the middlemen involved in a deal, Siddhartha got a call. It was call from the packaging company stating that their freight would arrive latest by nine pm. They wanted the address of the house where it needed to be delivered.

Siddharth and Pooja realized at that very moment that they were without an address. They had left their previous home and didn’t have any presently. They were precisely homeless.

‘Will let you know, first let the vehicle enter the city at least!’ Siddhartha disconnected the call before even waiting for an answer from the other side. He knew, they would charge heavily if the unloading is not done on time. And the baggage was of a good enough quantity that there was no temporary place where it could be received and kept safely.

And now it was more like running helter-skelter!

Pooja constantly tried upon all the broker numbers that she had contacted the previous day. Some didn’t pick up, some disconnected, some informed that the flat was already put on rent.

‘Really?’ Pooja shouted. It was hard to digest that the broker had run out of flats.

‘Its just a way of extracting more amount from us.’

Finally, there was one dealer who gave a positive response.

‘Yes sir, we have a flat in an apartment and people are ready to book it in no time.’

‘So are we…..you can come along with the papers’ said Pooja.

As they tried to locate the address shared on phone, a middle-aged man greeted them at an apartment entry gate. He took them on a vicinity tour and underlined the amenities that came alongside.

‘Not good, not bad’, hushed the pair to themselves.

‘And anyways, we have no time for selection.’

‘Yeah, beggars can’t be choosers!’

As the dealer wondered about what they were whispering about he simply presented the lease agreement before they could back off. It was a simple agreement with all terms clearly explained and no add-ons. By now they were knowledgeable enough to guess the rates of the houses. Siddhharth scrutinized the document. And they finally signed upon them. Never before had they finalized upon any house so quickly. But it was late evening already and their consignment was expected within three hours.

‘Let me hand-over the owner signed document to you by tomorrow morning.’

Both Siddhatha and Pooja wondered, ‘Not all dealers are the same!’

Siddharth explained the location of the consignment-destination while Pooja cleaned the flat with a brand-new broomstick purchased from the departmental store. They didn’t even have the time to get it mopped by some worker since most of them had left for the day. The others were not interested in doing it. Heady workers!

The consignment truck arrived by nine-sharp just as they had promised. Customer Service! The unloading was completed within an hour.

After the entire process, Pooja and Siddharth were too exhausted to go anywhere even to Antara’s place for dinner. They ordered for home delivery, ate over the paper plates, and managed to take out few mats for themselves. Thankfully, they had labelled all the boxes with what it was packed with.

That night, they slept on the mats on the floor. It was a relief to have a roof atop their heads and they truly understood the value of it.