“One of my friend, along with his family recently shifted to a new city, due to his recent posting. He is a bank manager and he gets his new posting after every 3 years or so, So, packing stuffs moving to new place after couple of years, has become a part a parcel of his life and his family.
Happiness to get posting where one dreams of,
doesn’t come so easily. Hell lot of pressure about where he would get
his next posting, whether it will be a completely new place, new people
and new culture always haunted his thoughts. Whether new place, new city
will have good school for his kid, amiable locality for his family is
all what keeps on playing on his mind.(until he finally got to know he
is moving to an awesome city)
I had a long conversation with him
when he was going through the phase of getting his next posting. More
than himself, he was concerned about his wife, 4 year old son and
parents, His parents wanted him to fill his hometown as his first choice
of preference, On the other hand his wife wanted a life far from the
restrictions and family pressure, She loves her in-laws a lot but have
few apprehensions in mind. So amidst all this, which ill call tug of war
my friend chose three cities where he wanted to get his next posting.
Namely, one of his parents choice, the other wife’s choice and the third
one may be because there was no other alternatives left. But, to his
sheer surprise and shock, he got his posting to some very new city which
was not on his list of choice.
He messaged me and shared about his
new posting, I was happy to hear that he is moving to a very good city
in terms, where all his requirements could be met. Where he will find
bunch of good schools for his kiddo, Awesome climate, posh locality and
above all a well setup branch with good and supportive staff. (which he
discovered after quiet few days).
Now, comes the big challenge of
getting things packed and move on. Lot of hard work, physical and mental
pressure, monetary expenses, taking care of dues, bills rent , selling
stuffs, discarding unwanted items. Getting parted with friends,
colleagues, itself is a big roadblock.
Finally, the day came and
they moved to new city, called the “Wine Capital of India “yes you all
guessed it right. He moved to Nashik with his family.
After staying
couple of days in hotel, finally the couple found an awesome locality
and rented a flat on 6th floor, My friend seemed to be very happy while
he was talking about the beautiful and well maintained society and
flat. He told how happy and satisfied he was to find a place which
exactly he dreamt of.
As, the flat was not furnished, again a new
battle of purchasing new stuffs and furniture started. This time his
wife took all the onus and responsibility of taking care of everything
related to setting up the new home. At this point of time I must mention
here, that she is very confident and self dependent , though she is a
full time homemaker, and in Indian society it is considered that if
woman is a homemaker she can’t be termed as self dependent, which I feel
is completely wrong statement.
Okay , so moving ahead, She did her
research, explored the unexplored market, furniture showrooms, shops
and places where she can find all what the family needed to set up their
new “Aashiyana” Now, comes the real story, which I wanted to highlight
that how people become so insensitive and unsupportive. Despite of
helping out new neighbors, offering them helping hand, to make them feel
comfortable, the residents of the locality made a very small issue,
which I even don’t consider as an issue, A trending topic of discussion
and blame.
The thing is my friends wife called electrician to fix
their AC , while the outdoor unit was getting fixed by the electrician,
the family discovered that this became a trending hot topic of
discussion amongst the neighbors, the news of fixing up the outdoor unit
outside the balcony of their own rented flat, spread like a Wildfire,
the couple started getting phone calls about how they were spoiling the
beauty of the flat and locality by placing the outdoor unit in balcony,
the couple was blamed for being so irresponsible and uncultured, only
because they were getting their AC fixed. To let you all know, my
friend’s wife is a wise and smart lady, before the AC was getting fixed
she already talked to the caretaker of the society to accompany her and
witness about the right place where her AC unit was to be fixed. Here,
my point of writing this whole story is to ask you all:
1) Whether the landlord should have not specified all the terms and conditions prior to giving this flat on rent.?
2) Whether the caretaker should have not told the couple beforehand what was acceptable and unacceptable in that society?
3) Whether the neighbors before spreading this news as wildfire on
whats app group of their locality, should have not told the couple that
where the AC unit needed to be setup?
This is not the end of story,
to add more pinch of salt to this incident, when the couple told that
they need AC to be fixed the landlord and the other tenant asked them
that what was the need of the AC in such a pleasant climate, Don’t you
feel that its an individual choice what he or she wants or need?
Will our neighbors decide what we should have or have not in our home.
Ahhhh….how people can be so judgmental and gossip box for making this
incident such a big issue……………
I feel that the couple will always remember this incidence whenever they ll sit and relax with their AC switched on. LOL.
So, a piece of advice for everyone who is moving or shifting to a new
rented house, Do ask your landlord and all neighbors about what to fix
where and how.