Curtains on the Mysore chapter of my story…

My last weekend was unusual in a way. I had been to Mysore to renew my bike’s insurance and bring it here to Bangalore. And as planned, we rode it all the way to Bangalore, the ‘we’ referring to me and Akash Shetty. The journey was a wonderful experience; riding on the Mysore – Bangalore highway was an absolute joy. My Glamour was tested to its limits, often going beyond 80 kmph and crossing 100 a couple of times. It was the first time I had been on my bike for so long, and even though it took a good part of an hour to find the way to my place once we entered the city, I enjoyed it thoroughly nevertheless.

So with my bike transported to Bangalore, the last of my possessions in Mysore has now been shifted. This, if not anything else, marks the end of a very significant part of my life, a part which saw me going to college, being offered a job, graduating and in the process, growing up in a whole new way to be the person I am now. Also ends with it my most wonderful six years in Mysore – six years which had me tasting success more frequently than any other time of my life. Time flies and how! It seems like only yesterday that I arrived in Mysore freshly out of high school and now here I am, a graduate with my own source of income! Talk about life on fast-forward!

Hours before I was supposed to leave, as I rode on my bike on the streets of Mysore, I could not stop the voice in my head which kept repeating that life as I knew it was over. And as we sped across the outskirts of the city towards Bangalore, I knew I would never again ride my Glamour in the streets of Mysore; never again would I experience the joy of visiting obscure places around with my friends; never again would I shift to second gear and turn to enter my college gate; there was a strange feeling of sadness in me, almost a sense of bereavement…

Of Rains and Autos

The day was not turning out to be very good. I had just come out of the restaurant with my sister when I realized that it was raining very heavily. God, in His infinite wisdom had apparently decided to pour all the water in the world onto Bangalore. Sis began worrying about getting me safely back to my place which was more than 5 km away.

“Relax”, I said, ” we’ll just stand here and talk until it stops raining. And then I’ll take a bus!”. Sis looked at me as though I was deranged. Apparently I knew nothing about Bangalore rains. The whole city would be flooded and I would be stranded there without means of getting back home. And so we ran from shelter to shelter until we could see an auto.

“Auto!”, sis screamed. He stopped. I ran to the auto, jumped inside soaking to my pancreas and declared, “Jeevan Beema Nagar!” expecting my charioteer to take me back to safety. It didn’t happen. The auto-driver shook his head. For those uninformed about the ways of Bangalore autos that is the equivalent of saying, “I am not going anywhere. Get out of my auto you oaf!”. And so I did.

We switched to Plan B. We would take an auto till my sister’s place where I could wait till the rain stopped (which was unlikely, but at least it was better than staying out there in the cold). We set off in another auto. The driver kept jumping across adjacent roads saying this one was too flooded to continue, often taking us in the opposite direction until the auto decided it had had enough and the engine went cold. After ten minutes of tinkering with the engine the auto finally started and the auto driver took the cursed tin can back to where we started and asked us to get down. We refused to pay him.

By now, the rain was slightly less. We walked until we reached one more auto stand. The auto driver demanded Rs. 150 to take me to Jeevan Beema Nagar. Only my previous experience with Chennai auto drivers and their ridiculous rates stopped me from laughing in his face. We found another guy who would take me for just Rs. 75. Ah! What a lucky day I was having!

And so I set off solo on Auto No. 3 to the blessed J.B. Nagar. Sis would walk back to her place. All was well until we reached intermediate ring road. That’s when we were caught up in the mother-of-all-traffic-jams. Just when I thought things couldn’t get worse, it did.

Auto No. 3 died. It refused to start. Driver No. 3 started tinkering with Auto No. 3 but it seems he was not so adept at the tinkering business. At any rate he did not have the success Driver No. 2 had with Auto No. 2. Thats when he declared mournfully that the auto would go no more. And along came Auto No. 4.

Auto No. 4 already had a passenger going to Thippasandra and so Driver No. 3 struck a deal with Driver No. 4 to drop me to J.B. Nagar. A revenue-sharing agreement was reached between the two Drivers. And then I set off on Auto No. 4.

As we slowly inched towards the flyover, Auto No. 4 decided to join the party. The engine went cold. Just what is with these autos that make them detest rain so much I will never understand. Anyway, I was witness to yet another tinkering that day what with Driver No. 4 deciding to jump inside the auto’s rear. The Thippasandra passenger went to a pan shop and started smoking, preferring to catch the action from a distance. After 10 minutes Driver No. 4 came out and announced that we would now push the auto.

“We? What do you mean we?” would have been the normal reaction. But normal is a word not normally associated with me. And so I pushed. And pushed some more. And pushed a little more. And then the by-product of modern science came to life.

The rest of the journey passed uneventfully except for the fact that a hitchhiker decided to travel with us and insisted that he be dropped off first. A normal man would have objected, but.. you know…

It was 10:30 at night by the time I reached. And as I changed into dry clothes and snuggled into a warm comfortable bed, I realized I still had so many things to be thankful for, even though I could recall very few at the moment…

House-hunting Tips

Searching for a house in Bangalore is no easy task. Here are some pointers for effective house-hunting:

1. Decide on the approximate location. Take into account your daily commute to work and the public transportation facility in that area. Note that rents vary widely depending on the locality.

2. Make a list of your requirements. Categorize them into Mandatory (got to have a bathroom!) and Preferable (preferably two bathrooms – but one will do if everything else is okay).

3. First try searching using the classified newspapers like AdMag or websites like http://bangalore.kijiji.in/ or www.magicbricks.com. You might get some good leads. In case of websites pay attention to the date on which the ad was posted. Some websites have ads that are more than 6 months old. Also be aware that some of the contact numbers may be those of brokers, in which case you’ll end up paying a hefty brokerage, thus defeating the purpose of looking at ads in the first place.

4. If you are willing to pay extra, get hold of a good broker (the word “good” here means recommended by someone, whom you can always blame later if the broker isn’t “good “). The brokerage will be a month’s rent (negotiable in some cases). Be clear on the area and your budget.

5. The house-owners will require you to pay a refundable deposit. That’s usually ten months’ rent. The deposit is negotiable in some cases. While you are at it, try to negotiate on the rent too (why pay more when you can pay less?) .

6. Insist on a proper agreement and tell the owner clearly that you’ll be requiring receipts for the rent paid. This will result in considerable tax saving on your HRA.

7. And when you finally find your perfect house, you can enjoy handing out unsolicited advice like I am doing now!

And the search finally ends…

My search for an accommodation finally ended yesterday. We found a 2BHK house near airport road and for once, it seems to meet all our requirements. It is very expensive though – a big rent and a huge amount as advance. Of course it is normal in a place like Bangalore to shell out such money and so even though it exceeded our budget by a good Rs.3000, we didn’t think twice before sealing the deal.

So this ends almost three weeks of the house hunting we carried out in the evenings. Also the innumerable calls made to brokers, searching through obscure ads in the classified magazines and looking at houses no sane man would ever wish to live in. Our house actually seems to have ventilation, a fact that made us make up our mind so fast, since our previous experiences in looking at houses tells us that the v-word is never taken into consideration by the builders. In fact, one particular house that ended up on the huge list of “rejected” houses actually had buildings so close to it that I wondered if any of the windows would fully open at all. And yet the broker insisted that the house had brilliant sunshine during daytime. If only he had paid attention in high school science classes…

Given a chance to go back in time (and of course with a pot full of money), I would definitely build a house in these areas to rent out to software engineers. I would surely end up with enough money to build more of them!