The lady of the house was
grumbling. A born germaphobia her superior level of housekeeping was indeed a
failure with the servant maids. With her dubious attitude towards modern
cleaning equipment, she perpetually reminisced about the good old days of shiny
floors, clean toilets, spotless kitchen and hand washed sun-dried fresh
smelling clothes. Her big joint family cooking of those days, though it
involved plenty shelling, cutting, grating and boiling frying etc., the kitchen
was as good as the Chinese ones with its neatness never compromised. Of late
her health problems had compelled her to take a back seat and hence her ever
active germaphobia antennae had now turned to a fountainhead of annoyance and
irritation and high blood pressure. Over
years the master of the house got used his wife's 'OCD' (obsessive compulsive
disorder) but lately her frailty had altered her grumblings into unending
litany of woes.
An idea was brewing in her mind
from the moment one of her husband's friend who moved to a place for retired
people visited them. Like Shah Jahan, the Moghul king, who visited Kashmir for
the first time turned into a poet describing it "If there be a paradise on
earth it is this it is this none but this!". This friend too was on cloud nine eulogizing
the beauty and serenity of the place!
Spic and span, good food, doctors at your beck and call, hugh hospital
in the vicinity, swimming pool, gym, very beautiful walk way amidst greenery
and salubrious climate. "Have we missed the greatest opportunity of life?"
The lady wondered! She definitely wanted to be part of that heavenly experience
'far from the madding crowd' which was bent upon aggravating her senses. The
master of the house was also inclined to this proposal and called his friend
one day.
"I am coming to the town and
will drop in on the way" His friend said to him.
"Enjoying life in the comforts
of home? Lucky people, both of you!!" The friend said as he entered.
"What do you say man? You are
the blessed one living in the paradise!" the man hugged his friend.
"Paradise? My left foot
toe......."
"What happened? Some minor
problem?" He was philosophic." It does happen everywhere my
friend....... For a long time, we both
were contemplating about moving on to an apartment in your place. You are
always a great company and we can gossip about our good old college days, our
carrom tournament where you monopolised the winner's trophy invariably putting
me ever into the second place. the three-day walking trip to Ooty, the half
marathon we ran for the sake of glucose and fruit juice......... now again let
us open a new era!" While the man was all enthusiasm the listener's
expression was all glum.
His silence was indeed deafening. A
little probing from his side made his friend pour out his heart
"It was indeed heaven. The
place was cozy relaxing, peaceful and we enjoyed living there till one morning
I got up to a loud hammering sound. As I
opened the door, I saw our compound wall being broken giving me a mega jolt!
The confused lot of us who came out running asked the men to drop whatever they
were doing to which they replied it was an order from the builder and if ever
they had any query, they better approach him and continued with their job.
After umpteen number of calls the builder replied that he was constructing two
apartments on either side of our apartment. It was for their own better safety.
After the work was over, he promised to erect the compound again."
"Did he keep up his
promise?" to which his friend
sarcastically replied " Indeed.......Yes indeed."
"Don't be a cynic. what
happened? Was the reconstruction up to the mark?"
"That cunning fellow had
constructed the compound encompassing all the three apartments."
" Really my friend...... I
don't find anything wrong with that provided he had a larger group of security
people at vulnerable points."
"I wish that mongrel of the
man was as innocent as you are. His greed was a limitless ocean. The builder
who had collected money separately for all the external conveniences from them
hath indeed made all these facilities common informing that all these two
apartment blocks are the annex of our original one and hence a common facility
would be adequate. But legally they were not annexes but separate blocks. And
not just that he had collected huge amount for external facilities of these
blocks but compromised by making our facilities a common one. The whole area
would look like a crowded park and the swimming pool would resemble like the
Marina beach front in Chennai. We decided to take this man to task and formed
an association for our block and sent him a notice putting down all our
grievances. The builder never bothered to reply. Then we sent another one
informing him that we would take him to court. Now the builder started his
psychological warfare. He very well knew that the people living there are
retired and old with most of their children settled abroad. They don't have the physical strength and the
mental stamina to do it on their own or expect their children to take up their
grievances and fight a case. The children’s visit India was mostly short stay,
therefore the builder resorted to easy method of frightening them. One fine day
the office holders of the association found that the water and power supply to
their apartments were cut off and the cleaning service stopped. He was coercing
the others to sign a petition that the office holders are acting against law.
He also made threatening calls so that we might sell off our flats cheaply and
scoot!
I came to know that our class
mate's son is in a high position and I called him up to explain our problems.
He indeed pacified me and said that he would rectify these temporary problems
for now and take me to his close friend who is a reputed lawyer who could sort
out problems without much ado.
Now I would like to take leave.
Wish me all the best." so saying the man from our imagined paradise walked
off with a heavy heart.
The couple was dumbfounded. How deceptive was the outward appearance?
They wondered! The pastures are indeed greener on the other side of the fence!
Compared to the mental agony of
their friend, their problems were just crumbs!
The cheating that happened at
Marudhu apartment in Kochi and the owners helplessly standing out with their
children and luggage revealed to them the greediness of few people who were
avaricious to make money by hook or crook.
The collapse of eleven floor
apartment under construction at Mouliwakkam in Chennai four or five years ago
flashed back in their mind. Those who invested in them were indeed middle-class
people whose life-long ambition was to have a roof over their head. Many had
heart attacks and many more became debtors for life!
The couple indeed decided to delve
deep to sort out their problems which they considered as minor now. Let us not
be fussy about modern utility machines. Let us believe that washing machine
indeed cleans the clothes well and floor cleaning equipment does its job well.
When we cannot cook, Swiggy, Zomato, etc. are at our beck and call A day's
hotel food is not going to spoil our stomach. It might be expensive in
comparison. But whom do we save the money for? Our children don't need it. If
any of the servant asks for money in between the month let us happily give it
and we can afford to forget about it. They are sincere to us and let this middle
of the month pay-out be a little donation. Let us use just a single toilet and
open the rest when guests come.
And last of all, there is a standing
invitation from both our children to come and live with them when we cannot run
the show.
"We indeed possess a greatest
gift of life that no amount of money can buy- The peace of mind! Why at all
make mountain out of a mole hill?!" With this philosophic mindset, the old
couple led a content life.
