When we planned to shift base to Mumbai from Gurgaon, we thought we might not like the hustle and bustle of the city, the life is too mechanical they say, the bigger the metropolis, the more mechanical your life is, the wise men point it out. In Mumbai, you can’t escape the distances and the crowds. Gurgaon was a quieter place in comparison, a big concrete jungle I can say, with the Mall mania growing leaps and bounds. Mumbai has a different soul to it.

After landing here, we soon got busy with hunting for a suitable accommodation, staying in a guesthouse all the while. Our relatives and friends had suggested the localities that were likely to suit us, thus we limited our search to those. The first day itself was a disaster as the broker started showing us houses in different localities. “This is sea-facing, you will get a cool breeze and a sea view, what more can you ask for…”, “this one has some antique furniture which the owner can leave as is in case you like the jhula, clock et al…”, “Can you see that building …Jackie Shroff lives there…”, “this locality has a mall right next to it…” “this locality houses a building in which both Aishwarya Rai and Sachin Tendulkar have their flats (I said to myself, Oh God, give me a break, aren’t we fed up of seeing them on screen…avoided being blunt to the broker though…simply pointed out our reluctance to stay there)… “This house is so close to the sea shore, you can take your dog for a walk to the sea daily…”(sea facing houses need tremendous maintenance, a fact I learnt later). The other broker came up with things like “this is a very cool place, you can see all different varieties of birds in the morning, this looks just like a hill station”, and umpteen such empty luring statements, which would make anyone throw away the money for some flimsy premium. Then there was a multi-story building, which was surrounded with mill area, with the sea visible far-off. The apartment was good but the locality was not! The best was an apartment right next to the cemetery, which was shown to us as being very spacious, just as you get in Delhi/Gurgaon, the kitchen was locked so that we could not feel too much offended. Intelligent, but futile tricks. It was not very much appreciated that we had brought our own furniture with us, this would not fit anywhere, and you might need to sell some of it off. Nobody has the luxury of a huge dining table here. (Why did you buy a dining for six if there are only two of you…I felt why did we need the dining table at all…could have managed well without it. I was reminded of a cute joke I read somewhere, “If you need space, join NASA” ;-)) However, after one of our brokers understood what we really wanted, that too after two days and seeing seven flats with her, things looked under some control.

After almost a month now, the house has been finally finalized which is near hubby’s office so that it takes him less time to commute. We did settle for the one next to the mall though, which of course reminds us of Gurgaon. Nevertheless, suits us, i must say.

Do you have any similar anecdotes…Feel free to share them here.