We are planning to shift from the place we stay in now. The second time I am going to be shifting in Hyderabad. When I had joined my company, myself and two other guys who had been recruited at the same time ( and we were in the same batch too), we settled for a flat together, and that was quite a distance away from our office. But that was OK, the flat was in a beautiful colony, there was an Internet centre nearby that let me carry my HD there at night – so I managed to download stuff to my heart’s content. And the apartment itself was huge, a 3-bedroom house with a biiiiiiiig living room (it had a neat echo, that room, when people weren’t around, I would go and scream “Dil Se Re” real loud ). I had my own room, of course, and a balcony with a pleasant view, and I remember quite a number of happy nights in that room. There were a lot of pigeons/doves in that area, and at night, especially rainy nights, they would come and huddle on the balcony. Sometimes I would buy some dal grains, and leave it scattered on the balcony for them.

Then the problems started. The owner of the flat wanted to shift back into his apartment, and we were told to go to another one, a 2-bedroom one this time, in the same colony.

Oh maa! I got a room to myself again, but this one was dark. I mean, there was only one window, and it overlooked the corridor, which was dark anyways. For the first couple of days, it was ok, I pretended I was a vampire hiding out in a crypt, but slowly, things started getting painful. I mean, I really started hating coming back to that dark place at night. The same tubelights, the isolatedness of the room was scary at times.

Rishi came over to Hyderabad then, and joined the company in which I worked. The very day he joined, my senior colleague asked me whether I knew of anybody who would want to share his apartment, because his roomie was moving out to Delhi. Surprise!!! He took me over, showed me his apartment, which was a 10-minutes walk from my office, and has a strategic location – you cross the railway line that’s opposite the place, you come to Necklace Road, overlooking Hussain Saagar lake. The view from the terrace was breath-taking – you could see the lake and the Buddha statue and at night, the Queen’s Necklace (that refers to the stretch of lights along the Lake that resembles a necklace )

Me and Rishi moved in two days later.

The biggest pain was carrying all the books, magazines and assorted stuff I had, and I am scared about them this time around, too.

The room I have been living in upto now has received varied reviews from different people. My parents univocally hated it when they came here (they always do! ) – “It has too many mosquitoes lurking around”(I breed them! ), “Too much clutter!” ( yeah, what’s new?), “too many books and cds” (ho ho ho), “too much dust”(who has the time?), and “oh MY GOD! what are your socks doing in the Fridge??” (Uhhhh…ooops!) My juniors liked it though. 33-Man felt the books were looking better ( maybe because instead of being locked away inside a cupboard, they were on display in racks ), others said it was much cleaner, more habitable than my previous places. The habitable part of it I could understand, this was the first room in a long time that actually had a bed, with a proper mattress and bedspreads, and a table and a chair. ( Ah! The perils of bachelorhood! )

But yes, all in all, I was pretty happy with this house. Not just the location, it was the very feel of the house, very inviting and very homely….I loved to go back every night from the office, plod into my room, switch on the computer(which for a change, is put up on a proper table), and let ARR, or The Beatles, or Trilok Gurtu, or The Temptations sweep me away. I used to wake on time, because the sunlight would come in through the window first thing in the morning. No attitude from the watchman or the House-owner if there are late-nights. There is no problems with food, the catering service Abhishek orders from takes care of that. And the wonderful roomies I have, aaaaaaah, they add to the perfect ambience.

But yes, it’s summer now, and we are facing a lot of water-related problems. The taps on the washbasins go bad too often, and last month, another switchboard caved in. (yeah, not kidding, just caved in! The switch to the bathroom is lost somewhere amidst a web of wires and circuitry, and we now use the bathroom at night with a torch or a candle on) Plus, Rishi wants a room to himself. That’s only fair, his stuff is stored in my room, and he sleeps in the living room and sometimes (those moods) I do lock myself up in the room, and maybe he finds it awkward to knock everytime he needs something. (What “maybe”, beatzo?) And the House-owner is a bit too uncaring for our taste.

Whatever! It’s official, we are shifting in a month or so. Preferably some place in the same area. And a 3-bedroom flat, of course. I hope we find one that satisfies all our requirements, and yes, I hope I get the pick of the room. :-P