Housing conundrum in Delhi

After all what do we understand by housing? I certainly feel that at least Delhi's understanding on this matter is beyond my grasping prowess. I couldn't comprehend that is just constructing four wall with a roof enough to call a cave emulator as house? I guess if one looks at the general scenario of housing in Delhi, this comparison wouldn't be lost to many (barring Delhilite of course). I had three distinct house searches in Delhi and to say that I was disappointed would be an understatement. But to look at positives all three searches were enlightening and definitely a reality check. These searches told me that how much I was unwanted in this city and extent of difference between Delhi and Mumbai ideologies(in fact, all other cities as well).

I had lived in Mumbai for 1&1\2 years and I felt so comfortable despite city being overpopulated, hot, humid and lacking in infrastructure. The sheer pleasure of being able to live, travel and enjoyable after office life, weighed much more in comparison to above stated negatives. Though I am from town planning background, Delhi's structure is beyond my comprehension. A structure which was based upon town planners's dreams which they had during sleeps undertaken in courses offered in UK. I would touch on this subject in some later blogs.

Back to my topic of searches, I had my first search when I moved to Delhi in late 2006, fresh from Mumbai. I was looking for one bedroom flats which I believed would have been ideal knowing limited assets that I had at that time. I contacted some of the brokers here in Delhi and was very clear with rent that I was willing to pay as well as the size of the flat that I was looking for. To my amusement I found out that there is no such thing as one bedroom flats in Delhi, it was LIGs, and two bedroom flats were MIGs. There was another category of one room set or two room sets available in builder flats, with landlords acting as vigilantes. These sets were invariably either illegeal construction on the rooftop or garages without any windows or without a proper kitchen with ventilations. These room-sets were much advertized by real-estate agents and according to them they were the best places to live in.

This situation told me about some distinct assumptions of Delhi's mindset. First, economic class guides the housing size not requirements ; second, tenants are inhuman and they don't deserve any human craving for air and natural light ; and third, all stranger are guilty-till-proven-inncoent. This last assumption I would further explore in some other blog.

I am finally settled in a 2BHK flat 35 kms away from office but with a balcony, living room with big window and properly ventilated bedrooms and kitchen. I have to travel a lot but at least I live my life with dignity and comfort.

Symonds and the monkey saga

This is one of the worst cases in recent memory to take place on and off cricket field. Sydney test was moving fine despite India not getting rub of the green, and struggling to match the 11 Australians and 2 very unbiased or incompetent (jury is still out) umpires, Mr. Harbhajan tried to play a deft shot on a searing yorker from Mr. Lee. Of course Mr. Singh made himself made a monkey out of himself, but he revived himelf by acknowledging how good that ball was. Mr. Symonds took an exception and here I am writing what must be a millionth column in past few days. Well if reader would like to know that what is my take, please read on.

One has to look at this incident holistically and unfortunately only two writers have done that, one is Mukul Kesavan and second Harsha Bhogle, both Indians. Now lets look first at the allegations, Australians believed it was racial in nature, may be it was. Harbhajan is no saint, as we all agree, but behind every act of crime, there is a motive, and no act should be taken out of the context and assessed for verdict. If Symonds believed that test match field is no place to be friendly than Harbhajan has all the right to tell Mr. Symonds how savage he is, and it won't be unfair. As for Mr. Ponting, we all have been in school and colleges and even at home where teacher asks us to report every mischief a mate commits. But do we go and report it all, we don;t because there is life beyond such incident and there is relation to tend.

Unfortunately, Mr. Ponting didn't have the vision to realize it. I always believed that captainship in cricket is synonymous with leadership; Mr. ponting had put a doubt to that. A leader has to has this vision, a clarity of thought, which Ponting didn't have. There was a saying in spiderman movie that "great power brings great responsibility", Ponting failed miserably to understand this repsonsibility. Agreed, its a responsibility for a leader to stand up for its team mate, but he failed to understand the game of cricket is worth much more than self invited offense of a savage beast(disclosure:- this use of term is generic and not racial). Now again, by showing his resentment on the decision, which is factual, rational and more legitimate, he has shown a total lack of leadership skill. Knowing where to field his man is great art, but to know when, why and how to field one thoughts is greater.

Mr.Procter also had his share of involvement in this sorry saga. He was the clear evident why Indians and other players from subcontinent have been on the wrong side of law. He refused to see the arguement and context, and we all have to go through this sorry saga. He said, being in south africa he understands what raical slurr is, we can't deny that but, what he could not see was the preceeding incidents and faile to envison suceeding ones. We all should agree that he was inept and raises a question about integrity and aptitudes of match referee. He was no more than Ponting in disguise, taking words of few selected men as they were written laws. If one looks at the history, the most disgusting scenes in the field of cricket has mostly been involving Australians. Incident involving Glenn McGrath and Ramnaresh Sarwan is still fresh in the mind. No. of years Glenn Mcgrath went on to play after that is a representation of where true power lied. Australians must accept this changing time.