'The' PG

This was somewhere in the last week of the sixth month of 2007..(june..for people who don’t wanna use their brains….but by now I think u would have) when Bombay was drowing in the torrential rain …yet another reason to be harrowed, not that problems had taken a left turn out of my life….i was homeless..in Mumbai Nagaria….i ‘discovered’…(with help…I don’t forget to give credit) a … should I call it a bunglow?..a cottage?....i am in a state of confusion.. lets just call it a place….. honestly it looked P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C……from outside…situated in what I may call as a ‘Galli’…..called Chapel road…a cozy yet dirty street( to be brutally blunt) ..an alley…I exchanged what I would describe best as ‘What the hell’ looks with the people I was along with….all they did was smile……

Let me first of all describe you the stairway leading to ‘ the place’… and I insist because a lot of people have gone tumbling down umpteen times…(I wont lie..mee too!)… the set of steps are micro mini…if there is anything smaller…I would use that to describe it….all inclined to an approximate angle of 800…… and then what I saw was amazing..the first thing I really thought was that this is like a coconut…all husky from the out but oh-so-white from inside…what lies beneath was something completely opposite of what a saw outside..for the first time…the first impression was not as impressive as the second one…
The owner of the house was not there so I did not really get a chance to go in yet….

Two evening later I was found packing all my things.. clothes, a thousand shoes and bags…pillows, utensils and all the unusual things that I prayed did not exist at that point of time..coz packing is another crisis….i absolutely hate folding and stacking clothes and all that…gosh!.. a had a ton of luggage….and I pitied my boyfriend…
With absolutely no choice left..no option I set out for ‘the place’…it was probably the most ‘rainest’ day ever my watch ticked 10…my boyfriend already threw a fit because of the 1000 kgs of plastic bags filled with what he termed as’ hard horse shit’….i think he had become epileptic because I was supposed to reach at 7 pm but its was already 10…and with all the possible hurdles….an empty pocket(rush to the ATM)…thousand droplets of water hitting at a speed of 21006783 metres per second(where is the umbrella..or a raincoat…give me a god damn handkerchief then) none of the autos where ready to go because of the traffic…me and my boyfriend were dreanched in the acid rain of Mumbai….and then finally a savior…an auto agreed…I told him ‘Bhaiyaa..chapel road chalo… with that bihari accent he replied kidhaar maadam…chappal…he smirked..i could have killed him… I almost screamed..but it went unnoticed…as the rain hit harder and louder than my words…BANDRAAAA…now we even got the auto walla out of his dry nest…to put I all the luggage I had that took another auto and 10 more minutes on the watch…another fit coming my way….that journey from Lokhandwala complex in andheri to Chapel road in bandra was filled with 2 million hardships…but I got there finally…

And this time I was not giving the What the hell looks I was smiling….and I don’t regret this decision…one of my ‘hit last minutes’… i was trying to balance 3 plastic’wet’ bags…a haversack and myself on the steps…and dhammmmm…I fall…he laughs…I frown…I am a survivor..and I am gonna make it..i got up…and another Dhaaaaam but this time…it was him…and I laughed and he frowned…the house keeper opened the sliding iron door…and then yet another door…she smiled heartily…and showed a little worry..was she worried about me coming at an unreasonable time of 10.55 pm or that I was dripping wet I will spoil her spic and span home…I am not sure…my knight in shiny armour who threw so many fits today single handily bought up so many air bags…trolleys…plastic bags…I was proud…then we saw another set of steps leading upstairs…smaller then the ones outside…and he exchanged the what the f**k looks….but he just smiled and picked the bags yet again….
Ok rewind a few minutes….i finally stepped into the house and saw the owner of the house…a middle aged, middle heighted, pleasant lady wearing a red and yellow batik house gown…with her thick black hair tied into a ponytail in the middle of the scalp… and the house looked like the ones we normally see in interior design magazine…nice textured walls…freshly painted it seems…with a nice dining table right near the entrance…I tried to see whatever much I could without looking rude…then she lead me upstairs….my bf panting behind with my bags.
We exchanged introductions….on the way up….walls along the wooden step set was sunshine orange with golden swirl like thing….and were lit with yellow dimmish lights..the whole effect looked nice..so I complemented..and she received it well..saying me and my husband do this…then I stepped into what she called the pg area…it had 4 rooms… 2 mini bathrooms…2 wash basins…made of glass btw….looked uber chic…she showed me the room that I was supposed to stay in…it was like a pent room…had a terrace attached..(whoa oo)…the room was tiny….had 3 beds and the walls were bright pumpkin orange and psychedelic green alternatively…with the smallest window I had seen hid behind orange flowery curtains…she told me I had a choice of the bed…I was looking around the room and my eyes gleamed the moment I saw the AC which was like a necessity in this humid climate of Bombay…I think she interpreted and said do u want the AC on I smiled trying to hide my kiddish excitement…she put it on..then we talked for a while…and my boyfriend left..so did the owner of the house…I was tired..and plus the AC was on…I slept in an air conditioned room for the first time since I left home to come here and study…it felt nice so I instantly fell asleep to the lullaby of the AC….

Next morning I met the rest of the family which had a set of grandparents…the owner and her husband, their son and their dog…DOG oh mah god….i am petrified and act obnoxiously when a dog is even one mile away….another problem in my life… I quickly got ready and went out….i was anyway alone..none of the other rooms were filled yet…..i came back a little earlier….by 9 I had an impression to create…she gave me some amazing dinner..seafood…king fish( I am licking my chops right now) and a sabzi and roti and rice..wholesome food …(priced at rs.65 ) I interacted with the son whho studied in class 7 and like all normal boys oof that age discussed with me some cars and compared the songs on my phone, and exclaimed oh u ddont like akon??..i love him…what about the porche 9-11?...or the audi A8..the engine has some blah blah horsepower..i silently listened….acting sweet..creating impressions.. the ac was put on and once again I drove to La La land in the what was it Porsche or was it a BMW?....
Days went on..and I spend comfortable life in the pg eating yummy seafood..talking and buttering aunty and sleeping all through the night in the AC …until….