Some days...

just flow by. Like a dream. Days when I feel like my life couldn't get better. When I feel like hugging everybody. When I feel light headed with happiness. The past few days have come close to this kind of feeling. Only now its waning at lightening speed.

It started from yesterday evening. E is leaving for Bombay. S and I have to shift. It's house-hunting time yet again. So S and I went to meet this property dealer who was supposed to show us what sounded like a nice deal - a two-set apartment on the terrace (a barsati type). When we reached the place it seemed nice, just like our present place. Except that its shortcomings were going to strike us very badly soon. While we were waiting at the broker's (surprisingly it was quite plush. Complete with an AC, a laptop and a smart phone on display), he asked us whether we were architects with the DDA. I was startled. He said, "Actually two girls had come for this flat and they were architects. So I thought you were the same people." (A sign. Those girls obviously never came back).

A guy was sent with us to see the apartment. He suddenly said, "Madam, yaha to kitchen nahi hai (Madam there's no kitchen here)". We looked at each other. The guy spoke again: "Aur madam yeh LIG flat hai.(And madam this is an LIG flat)". Now LIG stands for Lower Income Group.

It seemed to be a day of revelations. Bad ones.

About turn. We marched back to the broker's office. Listen to what the broker said. "Oh we will get a kitchen done" and "I had told you it was an LIG flat". Liar. Fraud. Add to that indecent. He didn't even show us the way out of the colony.

This was the start of our nightmare (topped by the fact that my sandal straps were cutting into my feet). We seemed to be walking forever till we reached the highway. No auto rickshaw would take us which meant we had to cross the road. When I say it was quite an impossible task, I am not exaggerating one bit. We saw the signal go red. The next second we turned back towards the bloody signal and it was green. We kept standing for what seemed infinity while the lights kept alternating betweem red and green. As S commented it was like a bad comedy. The humidity was the icing to the evening. Finally after aeons we scampered across the road. And crossed the other.

Bless the auto who took us to our next destination - an apartment to be vacated by an acquaintance of S. Though we reached there in a few minutes, we got lost in the alleys. We landed in front of a barber's that said Nice Hairdresser's. Let me tell you, nice was the last thing on my mind when I ran away from there. What happened was S asked a man there for the address. He asked, "Kaun log hai? Bangali hai ka?" We walked away a little distance and S called up her acquaintance P.

Meanwhile the man kept calling me. I approached him and said we didn't need any help. My foolishness. The man said, "Aaiye na. Darr rahe hai kya?" (Come here. Are you feeling scared?) I just turned back and both of us hurried out of there. P was going to pick us up. He and his girlfriend arrived in their car promptly.

Their apartment was huge. My eyes grew wide as I heard the rent for it. No, this time it was something good. It was ridiculously inexpensive. Apparently the girlfriend had struck a hard bargain.

P and girlfriend dropped us till the bus stop. Well, again no auto would take us to our place. But all of them lined up looking at us
expectantly. Waiting for us to run back with our tail between our legs I suppose. They were in for a big disappointment. Finally we got the right man.

Back home I was thinking about the evening. Just one evening and we met a variety of people. The broker (an asshole), the guy who was going to show us the apartment (astute. In 2 mins pointed out the flaws), the auto wallah (a sweetheart. No nagging, nothing, took us to P's place), the man at Nice Hairdresser's (a fucker) and lastly P and his girlfriend (kind. They needn't have bothered to pick us up or drop us. They needn't have taken the trouble of showing us the apartment. Nonetheless they took the trouble. And that touched me).

So I have come to a conclusion. That there's a right place and a right time for everything.

And, dare I say, the right man.