Make a Mountain Out of a Mole Hill

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.