HOTCH-POSH

No water, no power, no space for parking and a whopping rent for Rs 30,000…but who cares…It’s after all South Delhi yaar…

By Aswathy Kumar

I have always wanted to live in South Delhi. Often during social get-togethers I had heard an ear-full about how great South Delhi is and how posh it is and how it has the best crowd, the best of cinema halls, the best of glitzy markets and the best of hangouts.

This is one of the reasons why my husband and I finally decided to move out of our present home abd move into the posh South Delhi. Safdarjung, Greater Kailash, Green Park, Hauz Khas were a few of our obvious choices. Our first stop was at a two bedroom apartment in Hauz Khas Enclave. The colony was situated adjacent to the congested main road opposite AIIMS which meant every morning we will be woken up by the sound of honking cars, traffic snarls and speeding DTC buses…a small price to pay for a prime location like this one.

The house was small (almost half the size of the one where we are staying now) with the master bedroom in one corner, the bathroom in the other corner and the kitchen right in the middle. The so called palatial house (as it was mentioned in the ad) had just one wash room. It is important to mention here that we have a large family with my folks settled in kerala, my husband’s in Hyderabad, my brother working in Chennai and his sister settled in Mumbai who visit us during the holiday season. Just think of how our mornings would be…waking upto a large queue of family members outside the loo waiting for their turn to come. Adding to the charm of the house in the posh colony was the fact that it received water just for two hours, had frequent power cuts and the rent was a whopping Rs 30,000.

When I raised my doubts about the acute water shortage, the broker sneered at me saying, “Arrey prime location hain na aap ko aur kya chahiye?” (The house is in a prime location what more do you want?”) We wanted more…of problems I mean, Because the next house we  saw was the one in Green Park., situated right in the middle of the Green Park market. This house had no regular water supply, no electricity, entrance was through a filthy street behind the market, had no parking space and the rent worth Rs 20,000 per mo nth. To the parking problem, our broker had the perfect solution. “Park wherever you want.” And even if it means parking your car a kilometer away from your house and having stolen by some thugs…how does it matter…after all you are in South Delhi. Right?

-          Published in The South Central Plus, The Times of India, December 16, 2006