Mumbai Slice -- Am I Disturbing you ? All over again

House Search started all over again. Small ones, bug ones , out of budget ones, short ones, tall ones, cool ones and not so cool ones ... all was being seen and either rejecting or getting rejected. I was finally brought to the same site which led me to the Kandivali(E) Thakur Cplx house. This was a site in TCS which displayed internal advertisements by employees of the company. After some searching, I short listed 3 houses. all stone throw distance literally!! from the office. The first try led me to this place in Cascade. The building bang opposite my office. 10th floor and well maintained, the building I mean. It was posh and the best thing, it was just crossing the road and I was in the office compound. That meant, no more thinking about food. The canteen was open 24 hrs for all 7 days a week. This was a blessing and a good one ofcourse.
I called the number displayed. The person who replied had a heavy Andhrite accent which incidentally the non-south Indians considered the "madrasi" accent. After some talking, I was invited for a check. I gratefully accepted. Oh I forgot to mention, there was another person with me. Manish Verma. This guy also wanted to have a home near the office as was tired of traveling from Powai to Borivali. I along with "vermaji" went to the house. What I saw was a welcome sight. 5 People staying in the 2 bedroom house. 2 in each bedroom and 1 in the hall. The guy in the Hall had complete control over the TV. The rooms were clean thanks to a visiting maid. The rule was, the guy who is the last to occupy the house will stay in the hall and wait for one of the other to leave then he would move in and the next guy will spend time in the hall. I kind of the liked the idea. The window of the hall opened to a good view of Borivali unless you looked directly under the falt which was a small slum. As most of you would know, you could not run away from the sight of a slum. This one below my nose, well, not practically, was more like the poor mans residence, from where the maids and the drivers of the richer occupants in the locality came from. So all in all a good Del at 2000 a head plus about another 1000 for the water, maid, gas and other things. For 3000 Rs in a palatial house, with a maid to clean and a canteen which would cook from me, there could be nothing else that I could ask for.
Manish was not amused, he dint want to be the 6th person in the house even after repeated coaxing that the other 2 guys would be vacating in about a month or so. But what I liked was a big hall for myself and a TV to top it. This was something I was not going to let go. I moved in, sans Manish. Life was good. I was near the office, friends near by, Food at the other end of the road, Ah! Wao ... time to chill out.

Mumbai Slice --Fellowship of Gokul Galaxy breaks

Just before the the fellowship of GOD -- RA group started. I had to unfortunately leave the Kandivili Thakure Cplx home. Sachchu had left following his father's sudden demise. He could not leave his mother and sister in Kanpur, alone, for long. So he opted for a transfer to Lucknow. This change kind of deprived me of a chatting companion. I still remembered those days when we used to sit n discuss everything under the sun. He was a very sharp chap and there was a lot to learn from him. We had some light moments as well. Once my other roomie-- Sandeep's ; friend and the friends girlfriend from Goa had visited us. It was early december '03 and Sachchu n I were getting along well. The best part was, we found someone who would not take our swearing seriously. I from MIT was used to such incessant swearing and he was a UP-ite. So most of the time our sentence would contain a couple of swears before arriving at the point. the presence of a girl in the house was something we had never expected or welcomed. It had made life into living hell for both of us. It was comical scene was to see Sachchu get out of the bathroom after a bath. He would first peep out for any sign of the girl being outside, look left -- look right then tip toe into the kitchen in his towel wrapped body before ramming shut the door to change into something decent. To make matters worse he had forgotten to take his soap n towel to the bathroom when both Sandeep and I were not in the house. Shy that he was, he had locked himself up in the bathroom for over an hour before we could come to his rescue. Even after coming out his peril did not end. He came out and shouted ... "Saale ... tu kahan gaya tha behn..." and there was lull ... then he looked around, got back his senses resumed his conversation; like ".. kahan BEHR (n he spelt as I have written) gaya tha ?" .
Back to May 2004, all the memories became just that. Memories. Sandeep was more of the serious kind and spoke less, at least to me. Not that we had some animosity between us, it was just a part of being sandeep for him. After Sachchu, Sandy got his other friend from BITS Pilani, Gaurav(not sure I remember his name) Khilnani (urf Khillu). Good chap, but his coming made me even more isolated in the house. Both being old friends started having late dinners in wayside dhabas and would return late after midnight. I was alone in the house. Then like a bolt from the blue, Sandy declared, that he was going to Nagpur (his native place) for a month. So was khillu. I was staying alone in the house for over a month. I was seriously bored to death. I was contemplating leaving the place to somewhere nearby my office, hence near my new found friends. Things were getting desperate. One fine day they returned, both of them on the same day. Sandeep says ... "Toh Kini ... I wanted to tell you something , We have landed ourselves a job in Baker Atlas and we are going. ". This was totally unexpected. I knew they were trying for some merchant-Navy jobs, but this was not anticipated at all. Sandeep told me he was giving me 1 month to find a new place to live. "I have informed the owner who will give me the money a week after you leave". "What?" I thought -- he has informed the owner as well ... "And You?" I interjected. "I will be leaving tomorrow". Another month of loneliness. It was driving me crazy. What was more disheartening was, I was to leave the house from which I started my Mumbai journey, that too in such a swift, unceremonious and lonely manner. Those warm weeknights, those washroom washing stints, those floor scrubbing and cleaning sessions all was going to vanish. I was going to start looking for a house all over again.

it was time to leave
501, B4, Gokul Galaxy
1234 CHS hsg society
Thakur Complex, Kandivili(E) -- A house I will never forget.