Wednesday, October 29, 2008

money money money must be funny

“Money, money, money must be funny in the rich man's world” –Abba

Some of you may say, ‘perhaps not!’ as the rich would try to remain rich or be richer. My argument is that they are rich period.

I see flats everywhere, on the way to the office, on big hoardings, in the newspaper, magazines, internet, everywhere. I look at them and look at them again as though by looking at them one of them would become mine. Made some enquiries and I nearly fainted hearing the prices. I had to watch 4 movies back to back to overcome the feeling. Recession is happening and prices should fall is the talk but I don’t see it happening, atleast to any of the flats that we wanted to own and enquired. Yes, I am talking about Bangalore which is considered not so expensive. The middle class dream and the never ending EMIs I must say!

Remember Sridevi in Judaai, where she said,”Ye middle class ki baatein mat karo.” I wish I could be like her, blink non-existent lashes and say,”It’s only a flat haan? 2Bhk, 3BHk? Here have it. Ye lo, ye lo, aur ye bhi lo Anyway, let me stop dreaming and concentrate on my house hunt. Friends tell me that sometimes it takes close to 2 years from the thinking, searching to the buying. The Prestige Shantiniketan also came crashing down. I work in that side of the city and went agape watching it. I am not going to buy in that area at all, forget the builders. I could never afford a Purvankara, Prestige or their ilk but if this is happening to the big players, what can be said about the small builders?

I am also starting to think what I should do if I lose my job. I know searching for a house and thinking of losing job doesn’t go together but in the back of my mind, it is there. What is plan B or plan C if this happens?

Diwali was celebrated without crackers. I told S that I am bursting environment friendly crackers and made sounds of crackers with my mouth, Tuuuuunnnnngggg!

I have been having Diwali curtain raisers and making sweets and distributing to neighbours before the actual day (which was yesterday for us.) that I did not offer any sweets to God but offered a variety of fruits. The worshippers would not want to see any more sweets after the puja was the reason. As for the lights and decorations, I had rose petals, floating candles, diyas and what not. (Photos were taken while praying and lighting diyas to impress the mother-in-law)

S started laughing seeing my Gods. There was Jesus Christ’s picture (it is the biggest) and a small christmas tree too along with the Ganapathi, Balaji, Krishna-Radha, Saraswati and Lakshmi and the various other Gods. ‘Your Jesus is also celebrating Diwali and my God, there is also a Christmas tree" he said. My room-mate left the picture behind when she left. We used to keep all the Gods together. I did not have the heart to do away with it so carried it when I shifted with S and now, I worship all the Gods.

Got the URL of Shobhaa De’s blog from Saltwater Blues and I left a comment in her blog,”oh, I never knew you blogged”. buhaha

23 comments:

Romila said...

Maybe I should also go and comment on Shobaa De's blog " Oh! I also didn't know you blog":)She'll faint surely.

Shantiniketan is no longer prestigious so try looking for an unprestigious one. buhaha.

manuscrypts said...

the last time i had such thoughts, i walked into a sale and asked to see the flat in 'flat 50% off' :p... made me feel better :D
meanwhile that shobha de comment is a good meme :D

Stone said...

Perhaps it is funny!!

In fact anything that can be associated with numbers is funny...age/weight/salary etc etc......

P said...

Jesus and a bible reside with Ganpati and Kali in my house too! I don't believe in religion, but gods seem to find me through mom, friends, random church-associated people on the road :)
My bf also made some comment just like S on seeing my collection :D

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated Diwali!
Good thought about using environment friendly crackers...I actually use them everyday :-D

Anonymous said...

oops..I burst environment friendly crackers all the time!

Vinesh said...

and i thought only auto drivers have pictures of all gods on their autos :-)

AmitL said...

Hi,Arunima-I soo concur with this post...but,believe me,from my experience these last six years since I came to Dubai,I really feel that the simple life is better..but,then,as they say proverbially,the grass is always greener on the other side.
---
Good luck with the house hunt.It's one tough job,I know,to find the right house,and at the right price.But,when it does land up,it's right at your doorstep,and,you'll find the financing for it,too!As I said earlier,good things happen for and to good people-and,I gather from your writings,that you are one of them!!(No,don't tell me,if I'm wrong!!hehe)
---
BTW,U'd love the EME temple in Baroda-it has most of the Gods,there!My favourite place in the whole wide world.

Anonymous said...

Hi.. How've you been? :)

I'd been looking to buy a flat too.. in some cases, a Villa closer to the city's edge seems a better proposition - larger house, gated community and a comparable price.. and you get to own the ground beneath your feet too.. but might increase travel time to work.

Unknown said...

Hey...Happy Diwali...

Been wondering about a home of my own for the past year or so... Starting too late according to EVERYONE i know coz we've been married 13 years..except that 11 years the sarkar housed us (in lovely fauji colonies, albeit BAd houses)...and in that time, we forgot about buying one ourselves...so content were we doing up our fauji houses.

Two years as civilians, and it has hit us...not hard enough though. I write a lot about Real Estate for nps and it is my gut feeling, that prices will come down after Dec. So wait and watch.

Owning a home is a dream for many of us...so dont let the dream die.

Loved the bit about the Gods. Incidentally we have a Mother Mary figurine given to me by a staff member where I worked three years ago. Have always carried it with me. I believe she is watching over us as much as our other collection of Hindu Gods.

Mana said...

Cost of flats are reaching skies.

I don't like Shobha De's writing style so never bothered to visit her blog :)

Unknown said...

"Photos were taken while praying and lighting diyas to impress the mother-in-law", this is so funny, but true!!

Anonymous said...

The story is the same here in Bangalore...Even when the IT sector is bleeding on the knee I see the contractors digging deep down for the pillars of the umteen storied PROJECTS. Like a giant from the dirt I see them stretching all around my small one storied rental blocking my views. I can’t see the sun rising beyond the tamarind tree any more (the tree is still there Thank God! but I don’t have the view any more).

I went out couple of Sundays fueled by the dream of buying a flat for ourselves. Only to realize that it is not yet time for me to take my family out of the rentals. The Flatologists said the same thing to me “the market is getting stagnant and the prices will go down…” but I didn’t see that happening. I saw IT professionals who got caught in the web of lay offs selling their new buildings to cheap rates, which still came and stood way off my reach.

My Trading Chronicle said...

Hey arunima(and everybody else who reads dis comment) .. i intend to move my posts from blogspot to wordpress(With the comments and date tags et.al) intact .. can somebody suggest a way to do so .. i know of dis person who has done so but i cnt ask her for we are not in talking terms !!!

would appreciate if somebody answers !!

Cynic in Wonderland said...

thats how it should be celebrated with jesus and everyone in it.

shall we all go to shobhaa des blog and say that?

that should be worth something

plush said...

haha..environment friendly crackers with jesus n ganapati! rock on girl..n yea..good idea..de is goin to have lot of comments on her blog now..thanks to u..:)

Tys on Ice said...

its a killer getting a flat in bangalore....got ours from mantri...the emi will start from december...its all so damn expensive...but decided to take the plunge...my theory in buying a house or land is that now is the best time, since the prices are only going to keep going up...

so take the plunge...go for it...

i have been to shobaa de's blog long time ago...never knew that she was a mother ...somehow tht kinda made a difference to me..so i dont critize or take potshots at her anymore.. :)

Pallavi said...

hahahah !! I must check this out..

My Trading Chronicle said...

For thoes who don't know .. shobhe de is a mother .. of 7 kids !!!

Mizohican said...

That ensemble of Gods sounds cute :) Happy Belated Diwali and all the best finding a good house.

Shobha De's blog, does she ever reply to any of the comments there? I read a couple of frustrated comments demanding a reply! lolz.

Arunima said...

@romila: yes, ao I am not going to any prestige, grestige.

@manus: I am also planning to do that. Funny part is some them gave some lakhs discount on the spot as if it is some begetables that they are selling.

@stone: I am yet to see the funnier side of it all. Let me get the house first and have a good laugh at the numbers.

P::-)

@Ramya: Thanks, hope you had a good one too.

Vinesh: So, I have been added to their ilk! :-)

@Amit:I must visit Baroda.

@Kishore: your Villas come quite expensive. Your budget and my budget seems different.

austere said...

I liked your shrine.
And the rose petals.

Mumbai is bad too, unless you want to live 4 hrs away from work- where's the correction??

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Cheers,