Jul 01, 2007 12:23 AM
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HOUSE HUNTING... for a rented apartment, in MUMBAI SHAHAR !
Was living in peaceful thane for quite some time… Okay I hated thane. I admit. Literally 2 cities away. (On the borders of Gujarat !) Depressing façade. trucks trucks & even more trucks everywhere you see. Plus, no one comes to visit !
But on the flip side, it worked out pretty fine !
Cheap, affordable rents. Far from the congested traffic jams. 15 mins from wk. Breezy 11 months a year (thanks to the hills!). Free, vast parking spaces at the biggest malls. Far more approachable to town as compared to western line (thank god for the eastern express h/w!) & most importantly, far far faaaaar away from the well known Mumbai floods/ water clogging / stuck in everlasting traffic jam/ syndrome !
Sadly, the most difficult thing to do while shifting jobs is shifting houses. Cuz the work location shifts. And for anyone living in Mumbai, the idle situation to cling on to one’s sanity is having a nice cozy home maximum 10 kms/ half hour from work! But I guess will have to give up that simple luxury this month onwards.
So after a week of house hunting in Andheri / Vikhroli/ Chembur/ Sion / Mulund, my quest remains unfulfilled. I’m left with even more confusion and no where to look for solution to my simple question. Which is the idle place to live?
What ideally I’m looking for wrt my new home :
Space! (A tiny 400 sq feet build up area would serve no purpose for a person living alone too!)
Good layout… (Had seen a whole lotta twisted layouts…. Like a 25’X20’ living room with a tiny
10’X10’ bedroom!)
Decent area (one house at excellent location, had a freakishly low rent! After physical verification we got to know that the building was made in a slum area! With beggars’ kids etc running around naked around the parking space!)
Decent flooring/ plumbing/ painting. (The old fashioned dark mosaic or dark green walls is quite a depressing affair! on the other hand bright marble/ vitrified tiling/ beige walls could make the rooms far more welcoming & keep your mind at peace!)
Shops nearby. (You don’t wanna travel far for buying simple things like vegetables, or hunting around for a plumber/ electrician!)
Entertainment nearby. (Malls/ multiplex/ restaurants… to basically have a life!)
Double lifts in case of tall buildings (a lotta buildings had lifts looking like they would collapse any time now…. Forget double lifts!)
Parking space.(for my tiny lil car !)
Close to the h/w (so you could make a dash to town side, which is usually several kms away!)
Above all, affordable rent!
What ideally I’m absolutely avoiding !
The typical Bombay-humidity issue…. Where u start sweating soon as you step outta the shower!
Deafening traffic noise!
Too far (>10 kms from workplace, unless you’re working in Fort/Nariman point of course!)
Pokey/noisy/bitchy neighbors
Too worn out a house-for eg. A group of bachelors living there prior to you !
A building right outside your window, ensuring zero privacy!
Sky rocketing rent!
Latest to the list: low lying area!Would be quite depressing to see yr car parked in water up to the roof!
My list looks very simple. I honestly feel it is! But as Mumbai rains are in news again, I’m sitting around in my cozy home in thane, thinking how much I’ll miss living here!
So all I can do at the moment is sigh in vain, and maro a shahrukh khan dialogue! Kuch paane ke liye kuch haarna padta hai ! aur haar kar bhi jeetne wale ko ,… baazigar kahte hai !!
