A SOUR hunt for a SWEET Home

Jane Austen once remarked, "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort". Few months back, I told this to my wife hoping that she will feel happy. She will infer that I love to stay at home which in-turn concludes - I am happy with her. However, she completely missed the point and emphasized more on the word 'home' rather than on 'comfort' in the above statement. She argued that we still live in a rented house and its high time to buy a home now. She also suggested that I should stop being an escapist and I should seriously think about this matter.

And so, I started the search for a home - a new home - my home.

I made a list of 'given' conditions :

1. Budget - <30 Lakhs
2. Requirement - Ready to move in 3 BHK Flat
3. Location - Noida or 5-10Kms from Noida
4. Facilities in the Apartment Society - Swimming pool, gym, library, tennis court and everything else

Having made up my mind for this seemingly huge decision, I thought it was obvious and OK to procrastinate my search for 2-3 weeks. My family kept pushing me to start my search and I kept pulling me not to move. Then 1 day, I finally gave up or I must say I gave in. To make matters easy, I thought lets start from the point where I was standing. Lets try to convert the rented house into the owned one. I asked my society president, if there were any apartments for sale available in our society.

He looked towards me for a few seconds and asked ,"Are you sure?". I carelessly smiled and said ,"Uncle, just arrange for this deal. I want to finish it in 10-15 days."

"How much will you pay in cash and how much loan will you raise?"- he asked.

"What is the total cost?" I sipped from a glass of water.

"65 Lakhs"

"65 Lakhs"- (I holded the glass tightly)What?? You mean Sixty Five lakhs!!!!

"Thats correct. So, since we have to finish the deal in 10-15 days, can we start working on basics"- he started pulling out some papers from his desk

"No no wait...." and I rushed out of the room.

That was a real eye-opener. The next few days I found myself amidst 'Property' Jungle where 'Sirji' is the most commonly used word. The scenes from the Bollywood movie 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' came alive in front of me. I met few property dealers and they all looked same - a fat gold chain around the neck, a fat ass below the waist, a paan or gutkha inside the mouth and lots of greed in the heart. I burnt enormous amount of calories and petrol, roaming in every hook and corner of Noida. I came face to face with 'Capitalism' at its height. These guys are selling 25 Lakh worth of property in a whooping 60-70 Lakhs and no body is even winking. Banks are hand-in-hand with builders, there is no government regulation and many people from small towns are selling their huge properties to buy a filthy apartment for their children here. It is simply disgusting.

Well, I realized that fussing about builders, banks, government and capitalism as a whole will do no good to me. I shrank my dreams and my home got shrunked from 3BHK to 2 BHK.

I redefined my 'given' conditions:

1. Budget - 30 Lakhs - 40 Lakhs
2. Requirement - Ready to move in 2 BHK Flat
3. Location - Indirapuram, Ghaziabad
4. Facilities in the Apartment Society - A flat to live in. Everything else will be a bonus :(

Another round of mad search began eating away all my saturdays and Sundays, all my cricket, all fun and all my peace.But it was all in vain. The size of home was getting smaller but the rates were soaring high.By now, I had became an expert in this 'property' vocabulary - 'High-rise Low-rise', 'Park-facing', 'Prefered Location Charges','EEC','Registry','Fixed-Floating Loans' etc. Inspite of my poor scores in Engineering Drawing in college, I am now pretty much comfortable in understanding the lay-out plans.

At last, 2 months back, one of the builder sucked all my savings till date. In other words, I have booked a 2 bedroom Flat in Indirapuram which they promise to give the possesion somewhere in June(which is a white lie. They will not give it sooner than next year). The loan installments have started and all my 'liquid' salary has started flowing. I now understand why they call Cash money as liquidity. Infact, they should call it fluidity. I find myself in dire state at the end of each month.

I don't know if I have made a right move. :(