Oh! my my...i dont believe i have not written for so long...so much has happened in all this while that its seriously not possible to put it all down...have gained, have lost, have been defeated and have yet come out a winner...or is it just my illusion...is the struggle still not over and what i think is "winning" is just rotten mango wrapped in shiny aluminium foil...in order to fool the ever-hungry and never-satiated buyer..?
There has been one development though...as an after effect of my April 19, 2008 post...yes, i have...i finally have bought a house in the so-called "manhattan of the east"...and so, finally its adieu to the movers n packers that used to haunt our lives every alternate year...finally its goodbye to the slimy brokers who would leave no stone unturned to sell u the worst flat at the highest price...finally its ciao to the nasty landlords who can never ever satisfy their greed for a fatter deposit and a higher rent..!!! But it also means welcoming the "EMI monster" with your hands spread out in obedience and ur head down on the ground...coz if u displease him then he shall spare no effort to put u back on to ur old bohemian life of L&L (Leave & License, for those of u not acquainted...the technical term for rent agreements) The funny part though, is even if u dont displease the 'EMI monster' he seems to be making ur life miserable anyway...just the thought of having to give out tens of thousands of hard-earned money every single month and for decades is certainly a scary thought... Question is: does it outweigh the comfort of ur own home...yes, not a house but a HOME SWEET HOME...does it make financial sense to not pay tens of thousands in rent every month on a property that will never be yours anyway...does it make sense to chain down ur very existence based solely on the pressure of having to pay that huge lumpsum every month, failing which all the years of effort will go down the drain!!!
A few of my friends will surely disagree to the idea of taming the 'EMI monster' becoz its just another way of clipping your angel wings and putting solid steel chains around ur feet...that prevents u form taking vacations...from shopping with a free mind...from buying that new SUV thats hit the road...from so many things and so much more. And then a few wud say NO, it makes perfect sense to buy a house and keep the 'EMI monster' as ur pet becoz the 'Rent monster' is of the most disloyal kind and will never be yours...so why put money on something that u can never possess? A very valid point i must say...especially when the amount of money is not a few hundred or a few thousand...but 25-30K every month...and coupled with that a 150-200K safety deposit...just to ensure that ur 'Rent monster' is not abused/harmed/damaged in anyway whatsoever...since it is given to u primarily for upkeep and to derive happiness from...for a year or two at the most!
Strangely, with time (as axactly a year has passed from the day i walked into the builder's office and became bankrupt) i have come to realize that the Questions are all insignificant really...yes, it doesnt make sense to pay huge rents when the money isnt bringing any returns...but yes, it also does make sense to have the freedom of a rent occupancy, with no decade long liabilities of having to satisfy the 'EMI monster' month after month...and so the arguements will go on and on and the contradictions will never cease to exist...afterall its our basic human nature to complicate a simple enuff life, isnt it? But essentially, it all comes down to - how and what u want to spend ur money on...is it on expensive perfumes and international vacations and designer shoes and boutique eateries...or a place that u can call ur own...a place that u can call 'Home'...a place where u make friends with ur neighbours and can call them for dinner...a place u can come back to at the end of a hard day's work, not being bothered about the fact that u might be driven out of it in a few month's time...a place that u know is urs to keep...forever...in which you & only you have the power to take decisions...not some chap who happened to have made enuff money to give u a shelter to stay in! And about the 'EMI monster'...well well, lets look at it this way...if the going gets tough the tough gets going...and if the tough still doesnt get going then sell the 'EMI monster' to some other 'tough' and go back to ur bohemian life of L&L...but not before taking a vacation in Santorini and Pompei coz that much money (or shud i say 'profits') after selling the 'EMI monster' will surely be difficult to keep/spend! So, the saying that "therz light at the end of the tunnel" is not entirely false...the trick is to enjoy the darkness if it ever falls on you (although, it almost always never does...in a very strange sort of a way!!?)
Papa is gone. after a year long struggle. its been 3 months now. the daughter can't let go. the memories haunt her. every week. every day. every night. every good moment. in sadness. in happiness. so she wrote a small poem...