Friday, November 23, 2012

The Lords

I am not sure if it is in India or everywhere around the world, but why do people who own even a inch of land behave like Lords? Since my childhood I lived in both own and rented houses but I see this behavior more in Bangalore and especially in HSR Layout where every other person is a filthy rich real estate guy owning huge bunglows and probably many other plots/ houses which of course are his property by dadagiri or by cheating.

As landlords my parents were very considerate and accommodating to tenants. They never did show any pride. Lived in Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad( which compared to HSR Layout is far better a place), but people were hardly seen, except for the dog in the house or the watchman. And if you are lucky, you see someone, a celebrity. And they do not mind to say a hi or throw a smile at you. But in HSR Layout, you own 1 sq.ft of land and they behave like they own the entire Layout if not the state Karnataka.

The way they treat tenants is as if we are living on their mercy and we have no place to go on this earth. Heloo..we ARE the ones who are paying thousands of rupees as rent which is not any less than the monthly EMIs if one bought a house. They ask 11 months advance and one can only imagine the drama they do to return it back, probably they might be crying over a pillow. And there are no rules on increasing the rents every year. But freedom of living peacefully - none. Use less water that is take bath once in a month and do not wash your clothes ever; avoid relatives - I agree with them on this :D; scared of your dog - you should be, unlike me he can bite you when he gets angry; you are wearing mini-skirts - oh is there a dress code for tenants; your cooker makes noise - yours doesn't, which company cooker is it?; you are having fun - not at your cost definitely; I don't like your maid - my maid doesn't like you either, for your information your own maid doesn't like you either, I heard her bitching to mine; let's bitch about our mom-in-laws - no thank you, I would rather prefer bitching about you to my MIL; and the list goes on....


And all the landlords gang up, and they choose a leader for them - the one with the biggest house or the one with the oldest house. And the story gets funnier when a landlord A does not like landlord B's tenant.

 I am pretty sure this is not how RICH people behave. What is it that these landlords take pride in? Or make them treat tenants as ants? I guess they simply are intimidated by tenants. I see no other reason for them to be unreasonable. I think the richest may not show this behavior but the in-betweeners, who suddenly became rich, without any hard work, behave like nobody turned to Lords overnight. Most of the cases its their father-in-laws who gave them that piece of land for marrying their daughter or it is got by cheating, or by any illegal means.

Oh yes, you guys - the landlords SHOULD be intimidated, feel insecure about us. You know why, its our hard-earned money that is buying us a roof on our heads. Not our ancestral property or the dowry or  cheating.

In 5 days I am going to own a property officially on my name. And how much I want to say the F word and flip my finger to these a*****s.  My own landlords behavior towards us changed lately when they got to know that am going to own a house. Now they treat us as one among them. We sure would never want to be one among them. Buying a flat is not a dream or a plan that worked out well. I did it by the spur of moment. Moment when I got so pissed off with these landlords. And today, am glad that I took the decision. Freedom is the most important thing for a peaceful life and this is one bigger step towards it[ no I don't want to talk about financial freedom from EMIs ;-( ].