Search For ...........

           The Monday morning at the new location was as bright as the Friday in the old. On the way to office in 7 seater, my thoughts took me back to the start of the chain of events that, I wished, should have never happened. A few months ago……….
New job, new place, freedom to be myself, all by myself, that was nothing less than a heavenly feeling for me. Things never went as planned for me till date but I don’t have any complaints either. Its life after all. It will be interesting only when things go against what you plan. Lest otherwise it would be as good as the ship being on the shore than in the sea. It’s becoming poetic I guess, let me shift to prose.

So here I was, thinking about the future that lay before me, trying to find some sleep in the hostel room besides one of the busiest highways in Pune. Not a second passes without hearing the vehicles passing by, roaring at the highest of the noise they could make, almost breaking the eardrums. A good night’s sleep is a must to put the brain at work in the office. But it became almost impossible to find peace in that place due to the movement on the road which was getting unbearable with every vehicle passing by.

It has been almost a month in the hostel, that we stayed, unsatisfied. It was not by choice but cause of situation that we had to fix our asses in there, instead of finding ourselves a nice big flat and live life king size claiming to be the proud owners of it and giving stop point for friends who visit Pune, who otherwise had to face trouble finding a reasonable location to stay, just like we did. Yeah! The transfer stuff. A little hope of getting relocated to our choice of places. To getting nearer to home which otherwise has become a dreams destination to reach with the distance almost reaching to 500KM.A so called insect of hope that the staffing team had put up into our brains recently by asking our choice of places, had further fueled the desire forcing us to extend our contract to stay at the hostel to one more month. I never wanted to get relocated. I liked Pune better than any other place and decided not to apply for any relocation. So I had to wait for others.

“So be it “we thought as we postponed the search for the flat to another 15 days. “Once the locations are decided we can be sure and can shift to a better place.” one of us concluded.Days passed by and there was no sign what so ever of being moved out of Pune. Close to the end of the months contract and we ran out of all hopes.

“This is it!... I don’t want to bear this anymore! Things are getting worse now !” I started one evening when at room after the office. “Am dying to move out of here. “

At first there was a little interest except for one or two and our count needed to be at least 5 in order to get a decent flat at reasonable price. After a little persuasion and negotiations , we were 5 ready to jump out of the hostel on the very next week. But first , “ we need to search”.

That Saturday we set out to find a place for ourselves in one of the most preferred locations by the employees of the company we work for. Primarily cause of the location being nearer to the office and secondarily cause the primary point is quite important else there are times when it takes almost one to two hours to reach the office.

We found a broker (I could have very well used “agent” but that’s what they are called out here) who could in turn find for us a nice place affordable enough so that we don’t have to put all of our income just to pay the rent. It being a location most preferred the prices go as high as the sky. We moved around one street to other then to the next. If it was decent it was not affordable, if affordable it needed a long walk to find the nearest bus stop, if it was near to bus stop it was neither decent nor affordable. We reached a crossroad desperate for our requirement, exhausted by the exhaustive search nothing less than the combing by the CRPF in the naxal zone.

The very idea of staying another month in the hostel was itself horrifying . Put aside the trauma that we need to pass though if only we had to do that. “We got to get it , by all means !” we decided and we changed......... the broker.

Next day we reached the same point almost in the same condition as we were the previous day , worst than that to be precise, after a 3 hours search, exhausted …

“We have to fix up on something today !” we thought , for then there was no way for us to go on a hunt in the week that followed cause of the INTENSIVE training that we were going through.

We insisted on looking for some more places of his contacts and told him the condition we were in , in a hope that he will find the one we wanted. He called up someone after our talk. A little discussion and we were heading to a new location, a place which seemed promising from the hype the fellow gave.

We were too happy to have found the place, too enthralled by the location it was in, too impressed by the facilities it had at a price a little near to what we planned for , and in a little time we made a quick move. Too quick to be corrected as you will know.

The owner of the home was away to some place and the lady of the house was dealing with the business there. She made her point clear, ”give an advance , the house will be yours . You don’t return to take the home , you lose it all !”. It sounded quite ok as we were damn sure to take it the very next week. And we gave a half of the month’s rent as advance, a blunder ….. Read on….

We were satisfied , happy to find it at last, but the happiness dint last long. That Monday there were mails to two of the 5 in the company, guess what it must have said !. Yes , it’s the relocation. Our dreams shattered as fast as we built them. There was no way we could have taken that home for it would cost a lot costlier for 3. A call to the broker made us realize that the lady was no less than a tyrant of the street and there was no way we were getting back the advance. Yeah we tried at least for part of it, but without success.

A dream shattered hurts a lot. The dream of cooking our food the way we liked it unlike all the junk we had to eat out here at the hostel. The mango pickle in steaming hot rice, the tomato curry with onions, the bhendi fry ahhhh ! What not. Yeah yeah you must be sharing the same thought right now. A homely meal, spicy , sufficient and above all , fresh, not like the ones we had to right now. The lemon rice, fired rice . Jeera rice , and every other rice that was possible. And then the tea at any odd time we liked. Yeah, if you are from campus you will know it better. Just the thought and we were out to canteen. The quest was not for tea but the, of little use discussions that followed. The drink would last not more than 5 minutes, the talk would end only after an hour, and again it was time for another tea. What a carefree life.

“We are not going to stay in this hell anyway!. “ we decided and we shifted to another ….HOSTEL…. yeah it was absurd. Nothing less than being into fire from the frying pan. But we had a choice of dining at our will at this place which saved quite a bit of frustration, than that was at the previous place. The other 2 left for the new place. And we were 3 trying to adjust ourselves in a room for 3 instead of a spacious flat as planned. Like I said, things never come my way so easily.

And here I was looking out of the window of the new place trying to gather some sleep, the vehicles roaring by, not that busy a road as before, only that the frequency of getting disturbed was relatively low. The place had some better things to offer however, the hot water that was available almost the whole day. We never knew where it came from, but it was there not even our requiring to put on some switch.

          “ It’s the solar water heater!”, the care taker would explain when asked. “Who carezzz ! “ my colleague would say “ Point is we are getting it !’ ignoring my interest to find out. And

soon I was convinced by his argument.

Another 20 days passed by ,we were finally into project and we were all along discussing to takea flat. We were just 2 this time but we never gave up the quest to find the place we wanted to find.. 
           And we restarted the hunt and finally found a very promising place well suited for us nearer, cheaper, spacious almost perfect. But for few fixes that were needed and would be taken care of by the owner of the flat. It was no less than a battle won for us. Finally, we found it. And this time we were extra cautious in paying the advance. We gave only 10% of the room rent as advance; experience is the best teacher as they say and as we learned from it the other day.

All was set. Days ran far more quickly this time, and the D day came our way, as we waited desperately with all our bags packed well in advance. After all we are going to enjoy the fruits of the tremendous work we put in. by fruits I mean the pickle, rice, fries. You know… the tasty mouth watering. Yeah yeah…. Control it……..

At last we were into the flat , had to cross a couple of hurdles but it dint matter really. The very day we tried to procure the gas connection, had to bribe a fellow for it but you know again it doesn’t matter. Everything seemed so perfect. By the time we finished gathering all the basic items to make a decent meal, it was quite late in the night and we had to postpone the plan to the next day and adjusted ourselves to the crap that we used to have. “A day more” we consoled our souls.

And finally I was in a place I longed for. A place to rest in peace after a long day’s work. It was a place quite away from the highway. No sound of any sort was audible but for hissing the wind made while trying to find its way out of the window. The distant moon seemed to be shining brighter than ever, or it’s just the joyous moment that made me feel that way. 
           All in all, life ahead seemed nothing less than beautiful. We were neither tired nor bored while getting things ready for our stay. After all it was what we all along dreamed and were desperate of. There was a disappointment however that we could not make the first meal happen yet. “A day more”…. we slept with the hope.

The Friday morning sun made the room glitter, and I woke up , got ready, went to office and once at my desk I opened the Outlook. A couple of regular mails occupied the inbox , but for one which was addressed exclusively to me…..

A click at the icon and the mail read…….

“ You are being relocated due to unforeseen requirement. You are supposed to report at the new location on Monday. Please collect the one way ticket for the train scheduled for today at 6.30pm…………….”