No it wasn't.... but the experiences I had after I left Bangalore on July 3rd, made me think "Was It....", A gloomy normal day in Bangalore.... gloomy cos i was leaving Bangalore and also the weather added to the gloominess... met all the people i could before leaving! and finished packing a little before 1 AM, my flight was at 5:30 and i had to be at the airport by 2. My friends and i started off at 1... we were quite sure we will be there by 2... until our taxi broke down... and I started singing just to keep the tension away(apparently that got the people around me more worried and irritated than I was..)... little knowing that this wont be the last of my worries... Ohh my god did I not complete this blog 2yrs ago.... Well to cut a long story short I was stranded in London for 2 days with nowhere to go and a transit visa that expires in 48 hrs.... All flights cancelled i had to fly out the next day.. Either stay at the airport which was already filled with about 10000 odd passengers. Found another girl who was kind enough to take me to her dad's friends place whom she herself didn't know too well... Strange how complete strangers can come ones rescue sometimes... I have been lucky so far in that aspect the world has been a kind place...Spent the night in the home of a wonderful gujrati family... There is really something with me and the gujjus I must say.. The next day 24 hrs on the transit visa and heathrow was overflowing with lost passengers it was the most chaotic time of day in London. The bmtc bus would have seemed more organized in comparison. An unending queue to book tickets for a flight that might only get cancelled again... The boston flight was leaving my aquaintance left. Now I officially had nowhere to go....if flights get cancelled which was very likely...noise and chaos everywhere. I had 2 huge bags 50 pounds each that I couldn't lug around... And I waited .. Announcement for the Chicago flight ... And guess what I was late for check in why??? Cos of the maddening crowd of people...that's not my fault but no one really cared... Now what I had to stand in the unending queue to book tickets for a flight I won't get a seat in one once i reach the end of the queue. I was one minute short of bursting into tears before I gave one last shot at the BA phone reservations... Luckily I got a ticket for a flight,boarding for which was in 15 mins.... No time to cry lest I miss this flight too like I did the last... I got in!!! Yeah and bumped upto first class... Like I really wanted it at that time. I would hop into any class even if I had sit on the floor...anyway alls well that ends well...anyone who knows me has this story embedded in their brain... It's after 2yrs but yeah I completed the story.
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
All For a Roof on Top - Part II
... And you thought it was over, so did I ;). Not quite over yet. Came sunday and we (Preethi and I) were all set to move. I was mentally prepared to wake up early(believe me waking up early needs a lot of mental preparation :P) and complete the packing in one hr before madam slowly wakes up from her slumber. but i ended up lazing around in my bed, procastinating thinking about the right time to get up... no time was nearly right!!. I finally woke up at 9:30 and the first sight that i got to see was preethi standing with some 10 packed bags around her,I knew i had no excuse now,I had to get up and start packing.I always dreaded the tyranny of packing moving and unpacking and now it was staring at me in the face...there it all started - chapter 2 of our moving-into-a-house adventure .
After climbing lofts, ransacking cupboards,finding old cards,joking about things of the past we could lay our hands on! I finally finished packing up.... i had some 20 odd bags around me! soon the news about by enormous luggage spread around the PG and everyone came to see it displayed!!
Preethi said most of it was junk which i could throw, but i kept everything for a scrap book that i planned to make some 5 years back (i havent still started work on that....) Well... one day i'am going to make that,I'm hoping it'll be a nostalgic, visual journey into the past!!
It was 1 and we were all set to go. PG aunty then told us that it was yamagandam(an inauspicious time) till 1:30. We got all the luggage down and it looked like we needed a lorry to transport both out stuff, Aunty fainted at the thought that we were living there with all this stuff.We somehow shifted with the help of an auto,automan,a bike and 2 boy friends.
The myriad pieces of luggage scandalized our other roommate. It covered most part of the room which we were supposed to stay in. The fact that we had to unpack and arrange all the things kept blew our minds for a while and before we blow more people out of the water we decided to get started with unpacking and arranging, but before that our friends were eagerly waiting for the milk warming ceremony. We prayed and boiled the milk for the sake of tradition and partly for fun!;) none of us drank it though! and then they took off leaving us to deal with the donkeys work.
Back to picking and packing Preethi spun like a top and before i knew she was done,quite understandable as she had half the baggage i had, according to her she didnt have all the junk that i possessed. I forced her to give me a hand in organizing my things.soon we were done and when we looked outside it was pretty dark the last time we looked at the watch it was 3... and its already dark!! it was quite surprising; we had been packing, moving and unpacking for 11 hrs. it was 8PM.
One hell of a hectic movement that was!! and we did face the after effects... sore knees, screwed up back,muscles that have'nt been streched after ages and their influences- not being able to walk down the stairs without 2 people on either side, sitting flat down to pick up something fallen on the floor etc. In addition to the existing miseries we were facing, a new rock mounted our heads the ghastly nightmare which chased me in Tamilnadu hath fallen on karnataka - Water Problem!! not a drop of water in the house and again our loyal company comes to our rescue Ladies dormitory,we carried everything and freshened up there. hmm...isint that just about everything we could experiance in these 2 days( i mean bad experiances)
i'm sure we didnt miss out on anything we're now prepared to face the minor worries! :P they're nothing !! So much for a roof on top I wish we last under it for 1 yr atleast!
After climbing lofts, ransacking cupboards,finding old cards,joking about things of the past we could lay our hands on! I finally finished packing up.... i had some 20 odd bags around me! soon the news about by enormous luggage spread around the PG and everyone came to see it displayed!!
Preethi said most of it was junk which i could throw, but i kept everything for a scrap book that i planned to make some 5 years back (i havent still started work on that....) Well... one day i'am going to make that,I'm hoping it'll be a nostalgic, visual journey into the past!!
It was 1 and we were all set to go. PG aunty then told us that it was yamagandam(an inauspicious time) till 1:30. We got all the luggage down and it looked like we needed a lorry to transport both out stuff, Aunty fainted at the thought that we were living there with all this stuff.We somehow shifted with the help of an auto,automan,a bike and 2 boy friends.
The myriad pieces of luggage scandalized our other roommate. It covered most part of the room which we were supposed to stay in. The fact that we had to unpack and arrange all the things kept blew our minds for a while and before we blow more people out of the water we decided to get started with unpacking and arranging, but before that our friends were eagerly waiting for the milk warming ceremony. We prayed and boiled the milk for the sake of tradition and partly for fun!;) none of us drank it though! and then they took off leaving us to deal with the donkeys work.
Back to picking and packing Preethi spun like a top and before i knew she was done,quite understandable as she had half the baggage i had, according to her she didnt have all the junk that i possessed. I forced her to give me a hand in organizing my things.soon we were done and when we looked outside it was pretty dark the last time we looked at the watch it was 3... and its already dark!! it was quite surprising; we had been packing, moving and unpacking for 11 hrs. it was 8PM.
One hell of a hectic movement that was!! and we did face the after effects... sore knees, screwed up back,muscles that have'nt been streched after ages and their influences- not being able to walk down the stairs without 2 people on either side, sitting flat down to pick up something fallen on the floor etc. In addition to the existing miseries we were facing, a new rock mounted our heads the ghastly nightmare which chased me in Tamilnadu hath fallen on karnataka - Water Problem!! not a drop of water in the house and again our loyal company comes to our rescue Ladies dormitory,we carried everything and freshened up there. hmm...isint that just about everything we could experiance in these 2 days( i mean bad experiances)
i'm sure we didnt miss out on anything we're now prepared to face the minor worries! :P they're nothing !! So much for a roof on top I wish we last under it for 1 yr atleast!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
All for a roof on Top!
How it all started... the sudden repugnance towards the paying guest Acco that has been my home for 19 months. Repugnance is the right word to use considering that I have been living under the same roof with a landlady like mine!! .When Preethi* (my friend – name not changed; The identity does not need any protection) and I decided to move in here and first met our land lady…we had our own doubts about what we were sticking our head into, but since the place was decent (pls note: place not Aunty!!- for the rest of this blog landlady will be referred to as aunty) and well within our budget, we settled for it.
Aunty and her atrocities is something I can write a separate blog about… but I’m not, as this is up for public viewing. Somehow we put up with everything and lasted 19 months, we got used to the daily ramblings, the geyser not working especially in winter, and also stuck to the rule “not allowed to go in or out of the PG when her dog is taking a stroll.”. Well she calls it the “Dog Walk time” and if u walk around at that time you will get bitten… (Which happened to me...) and that won’t bother her. I had to make plans accordingly and come home well before 9:30 PM or after 10:00 PM. Thank god I did not have to salute the dog before walking in. And then one fine day Preethi throws her hands up and says…”we’ve stayed here too long! I’m bored, its time to look for a new place”.
Since we always fancied living independently and cooking(both novices though! At both ;)), we thought we’ll look for a house. And so it all began.
Initially FreeAds—looked up places, circled relevant ones and then never called. Infy and Wipro Bulletin boards proved to be of great assistance in our effort to zero-in on the places.
We were particular about koramangala since we got used to the luxury of missing 2 or 3 company buses in the morning and still managing to make it to office (not necessarily on time but still making it).
We saw ads like 1BHK for 5k and 2BHK for 7k, and thought “WOW..!!!! koramanagala is actually not that bad in terms of costs. People were just being unreasonable when they complained it’s skyrocketing day by day”. when we ran in our excitement to see the place we realized that the 1 BHK was not really a 1 B,H and K it was just a 1 B(read bathroom) converted into a 1 BHK and located in the remotest lane on the farthest end of koramanagala. The 2 BHK had 2 B’s 1H and 1K no doubt but the 2 B’s looked like you can enter the room and only stand, and to make yourself more comfortable you could choose to stand on one leg, and there ends the room.
After a series of disillusioning searches, we found a place I love to call “Nasiruddin’s house”, and all the people who were interacting with me during that phase knew the Projected Hero(projected as hero by me obviously).
Nasiruddin by the way was the landlord of one of the better 2 BHK’s in koramangala. When Preethi and I saw the place we loved it. So much so that I closed the Ad thread that was running on the BB stating “this has been finalized” so that no one else enquires about it !!( pretty Calvinistic I must say…I was proud of it all the same). About the house---it was wonderful!! We could hop, skip and jump to our bus stop and that was the most important thing. We wanted to fix it up but unfortunately (now fortunately u will find out why) for us Nasiruddin was in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage tour and was running late jaggi thought he probably got stoned there and might not come back..!!), we had to wait for a week or call Saudi Arabia. ‘We’ chose to follow the former even though I wanted to go by the latter (Preethi got her way). One week later Nasiruddin was back from Saudi, hale and hearty with no visible stone-hit marks. We talked to him with the hope to negotiate on the rent (as promised by his daughter) but he didn’t budge. I was still keen on settling for it, but a new stumbling block landed on our heads. Immediate occupation guarantee, no other girls to move in with us and the initial cost of setting up a house would be borne by us. One might wonder why we didn’t think of this before - We did, but it took us till after almost finalizing what a big burden it will be!! So now fortunately we didn’t jump into it and finalize Nasiruddin’s house only to realize later “Oh! What a weigh down this is!”
I opened a new thread in the BB for Nasiruddin! (Here, I need some applause pls!!!)
So now we’re back to square one sans the FreeAds bit. Again hail Infy and Wipro BB.
The Search now had an added criterion. 2 BHK with 2 girls already in it (ok guys relax-the house is for us; wipe off the smirk!!!) and all the basic amenities TV, maid, kitchen set up with Gas connection. After 2-3 days of frantic searching, we hit upon a house with a girl who had already occupied it, and needed 2 others. The place was pretty good, very close to the bus stop and to my surprise affordable! So that was it, we paid up! You’d think it’s over right? We settled for a place and paid up! Can there be anything more??
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity!
What for? Now a week after I paid up and given a one month notice at my PG aunty, I checked on some more Ads to see what we missed! (That’s called Cheek, with a big C)
Word of Caution - This is something you shouldn’t ever attempt. After you’ve bought something (especially something expensive), you almost always find something better. People generally don’t do this in case of real estate or rental, but then that’s just a thumb-rule and I always end up biting mine!
I thought I’ll see the place and if it really turns out to be better, I’ll convince Preethi and myself to forget about the money we paid the other landlord! I spoke to a girl in the better house who was supposed to call me, fix up a time and show me the alleged better place.
6 hrs and a call that never turned up convinced me that it was a bad idea and that I should just forget about it - In the hope that the place we thought was better should in reality be not-so-convenient (ok….I’ll just be blunt –BAD).
Now we’re happy that it’s finally over and done with. We have a readymade place with all the things set up for us to move into next month. All of you are invited for the celebrations, of course with gifts for THE HOUSE.
Aunty and her atrocities is something I can write a separate blog about… but I’m not, as this is up for public viewing. Somehow we put up with everything and lasted 19 months, we got used to the daily ramblings, the geyser not working especially in winter, and also stuck to the rule “not allowed to go in or out of the PG when her dog is taking a stroll.”. Well she calls it the “Dog Walk time” and if u walk around at that time you will get bitten… (Which happened to me...) and that won’t bother her. I had to make plans accordingly and come home well before 9:30 PM or after 10:00 PM. Thank god I did not have to salute the dog before walking in. And then one fine day Preethi throws her hands up and says…”we’ve stayed here too long! I’m bored, its time to look for a new place”.
Since we always fancied living independently and cooking(both novices though! At both ;)), we thought we’ll look for a house. And so it all began.
Initially FreeAds—looked up places, circled relevant ones and then never called. Infy and Wipro Bulletin boards proved to be of great assistance in our effort to zero-in on the places.
We were particular about koramangala since we got used to the luxury of missing 2 or 3 company buses in the morning and still managing to make it to office (not necessarily on time but still making it).
We saw ads like 1BHK for 5k and 2BHK for 7k, and thought “WOW..!!!! koramanagala is actually not that bad in terms of costs. People were just being unreasonable when they complained it’s skyrocketing day by day”. when we ran in our excitement to see the place we realized that the 1 BHK was not really a 1 B,H and K it was just a 1 B(read bathroom) converted into a 1 BHK and located in the remotest lane on the farthest end of koramanagala. The 2 BHK had 2 B’s 1H and 1K no doubt but the 2 B’s looked like you can enter the room and only stand, and to make yourself more comfortable you could choose to stand on one leg, and there ends the room.
After a series of disillusioning searches, we found a place I love to call “Nasiruddin’s house”, and all the people who were interacting with me during that phase knew the Projected Hero(projected as hero by me obviously).
Nasiruddin by the way was the landlord of one of the better 2 BHK’s in koramangala. When Preethi and I saw the place we loved it. So much so that I closed the Ad thread that was running on the BB stating “this has been finalized” so that no one else enquires about it !!( pretty Calvinistic I must say…I was proud of it all the same). About the house---it was wonderful!! We could hop, skip and jump to our bus stop and that was the most important thing. We wanted to fix it up but unfortunately (now fortunately u will find out why) for us Nasiruddin was in Saudi Arabia on a pilgrimage tour and was running late jaggi thought he probably got stoned there and might not come back..!!), we had to wait for a week or call Saudi Arabia. ‘We’ chose to follow the former even though I wanted to go by the latter (Preethi got her way). One week later Nasiruddin was back from Saudi, hale and hearty with no visible stone-hit marks. We talked to him with the hope to negotiate on the rent (as promised by his daughter) but he didn’t budge. I was still keen on settling for it, but a new stumbling block landed on our heads. Immediate occupation guarantee, no other girls to move in with us and the initial cost of setting up a house would be borne by us. One might wonder why we didn’t think of this before - We did, but it took us till after almost finalizing what a big burden it will be!! So now fortunately we didn’t jump into it and finalize Nasiruddin’s house only to realize later “Oh! What a weigh down this is!”
I opened a new thread in the BB for Nasiruddin! (Here, I need some applause pls!!!)
So now we’re back to square one sans the FreeAds bit. Again hail Infy and Wipro BB.
The Search now had an added criterion. 2 BHK with 2 girls already in it (ok guys relax-the house is for us; wipe off the smirk!!!) and all the basic amenities TV, maid, kitchen set up with Gas connection. After 2-3 days of frantic searching, we hit upon a house with a girl who had already occupied it, and needed 2 others. The place was pretty good, very close to the bus stop and to my surprise affordable! So that was it, we paid up! You’d think it’s over right? We settled for a place and paid up! Can there be anything more??
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity!
What for? Now a week after I paid up and given a one month notice at my PG aunty, I checked on some more Ads to see what we missed! (That’s called Cheek, with a big C)
Word of Caution - This is something you shouldn’t ever attempt. After you’ve bought something (especially something expensive), you almost always find something better. People generally don’t do this in case of real estate or rental, but then that’s just a thumb-rule and I always end up biting mine!
I thought I’ll see the place and if it really turns out to be better, I’ll convince Preethi and myself to forget about the money we paid the other landlord! I spoke to a girl in the better house who was supposed to call me, fix up a time and show me the alleged better place.
6 hrs and a call that never turned up convinced me that it was a bad idea and that I should just forget about it - In the hope that the place we thought was better should in reality be not-so-convenient (ok….I’ll just be blunt –BAD).
Now we’re happy that it’s finally over and done with. We have a readymade place with all the things set up for us to move into next month. All of you are invited for the celebrations, of course with gifts for THE HOUSE.
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