Project House @ Mumbai

When my search for a house in Mumbai began on 17th January 2010 I always knew that it is not going to be easy. With Mumbai property market being controlled by a closely knit network of brokers, it almost became a nightmare. After a thorough combing of the Mumbai market for 4 days, I short listed Borivalli-Kandiwalli strech to focus my energies on as the area fitted my budget as well as my requirements.

After searching the area in vain for a day, Vishal suggested a broker to me. I checked 4 houses which were finalized by Dad through him.

But before going to have a look at the houses, my father took me for a reccee of the societies where I was going to check out the flats.

The brokers in Mumbai share the flats which they possess with other brokers and split the brokerage for the shared flats. Out of the 4 flats which I was going to check out, 2 were shared flats (which I came to know only after visiting all the 4). Of these my broker strongly recommended against the one whose society, Gagan Towers, I had liked the most; for the broker who possessed the keys was not trustworthy. He pushed a little harder for the 2 flats which were not shared. Harder enough to raise my eyebrows.

Fortunately, I didn’t like the flat in the Gagan Tower. I even turned down the 2 flats possessed by my Broker and instead, I liked the flat which was earlier not on the list in Gundecha Towers. But It turned out to fulfill my entire criterion.

Though I had only one final single choice (which the broker didn’t knew), I designed an on the spot negotiation game which I explained my dad to help me with -
1. We would start to negotiate for the flat of Gagan Towers, for which the broker is going to stall us as he was not in good terms with his actual broker (I had sensed this when he wanted me to avoid the flat even before I had seen it).
2. We would present Gundecha as our second and final choice. This will make the broker feel that he has made way with us thus making a sort of bond (relationship). I wanted to exploit this bond which actually existed only in his mind.

15 minutes after we had declared Gagan Towers as our preferred choice to our broker, he turned his speaker phone on while in conversation with the flat’s broker trying to prove us that we will not be in safe hands if we didn’t revise our choice. And as per the plan we did.
But the adamant broker of the Gundecha towers was fixated on a rent of Rs 18000 per month with a deposit of Rs 125000. And now it was our turn to roll the dice and so did we by asking our broker to get us a deal with a rent of Rs 16000 and deposit of Rs 80,000 to be paid in 3 installments spread over 2 months.
With deliberations for over an hour and few anxious moments the deal was pulled through with our demands being accepted. The only change being that the deposit was to be paid in 2 installments.
Now came the most difficult part and that was of the brokerage. Unlike any other city, there are 2 clauses to the brokerage in Mumbai –
1. If it’s the broker’s flat, the brokerage is the rent of 1 month and if it’s a flat shared by another broker, the brokerage is of 2 months.
2. The brokerage is repaid whenever the agreement is to be revised at the end of the year.
More importantly, though the deposit was recoverable, the brokerage was not.

Negotiating down the brokerage to one and a half month rent was not very tough. But that was where the buck stopped. The broker having an upper hand with the deal cut as per our demands for a flat of our choice. I was waiting for one wrong move from the broker which he did after almost half an hour into the discussion. He asked us to take the deal or leave it as it couldn’t be pushed further. (I didn’t believe him as I still saw scope).

The very precisely developed ”Bond” came into play and I asked the broker that if this does not get through he needs to give me a better deal for a similar flat available directly with him as I am not going to any other broker. In this way he also does not need to split his brokerage.
In brief, I presented him the image of a gullible customer with a cavernous dilemma.
The deal was in a very advance stage with even the landlord giving his consent to his broker. If the deal broke here for a meager sum of 5-8 thousand, the flat’s broker would have blamed my broker of sabotaging it and pulling the customer in for his own flats thus eating his brokerage. He could not have afforded this in his closely knit circle.
Though I could have pushed him a little more to 18,000, but I decided to settle in for Rs 20,000.
I believe, I paid him an extra Rs2000 for the fun I had with him in maneuvering and molding him.

Mumbai Meri Jaan.............NIkaal Di

2:50 am and the train was entering Mumbai, which was going to be my home for next couple of months/years!!! Dad woke me up to get ready for the new adventure.

By 5am we were settled inside the Movie Time guest house which I had thought would be fun for its name suggested of being a movie hub. I was close enough. It was in a building very near to a popular theater called Movie Time 

By 12pm, I and dad had left for a Mumbai survey to find a (affordable) residence for me somewhere in the vicinity of my office (which was in Mumbai central). We had taken instructions from the caretaker and another temporary resident of the guest house who was searching a flat for the last 15 days. We planned to do a combing operation (I like the army like feel of the words) starting from Bandra and moving towards Borivilli. Between these 2 ends there were 7 more stations; Bandra being the closest affordable place to my office; this was suggested.

“This is Manish over here for an enquiry of a property for rent” was my opening line of the first call to a broker as soon as we landed in Bandra.
“1 BHK or 2”.
“Of course 2.”
“What is your Budget?”
“Between 10 to 15K”. I immediately thought shit…..should have said 12K to keep the negotiation margin.
“Haa….Uwon’t get that in Bandra”
“I am sorry”
“The rate here is 35K to 40K for a 2BHK”
Dad was buying a cigarette and just missed my expressions.
A sleeping cell in my brain suddenly awoke and said – Sorry! I was sleeping. By the way, Mumbai is among the top 5 costliest cities in the world as far as the real estate rates go. You read this fact a couple of years back and I stored it and went to sleep. I didn’t know you were in Mumbai
Okay!! Thanks!

I called a couple of more Bandra realtors who corroborated the fact and then some small time agent’s trainee outside a pan shop suggested me to check out in Andheri.

But I wanted something close to my office and got off at SANTA(‘s) CRUIZ(S)E.
But Preeti didn’t want a house without a cupboard and wood work (which I later came to know was a fantasy in Mumbai) and I didn’t want a house with a kitchen having standing space enough only for Kareena with a size zero. So me and dad did a on the foot survey of the Santa’s cruze only to finally understand that the rates here are 25K+.

Andheri was no better. Rat houses with crumbling buildings and no natural lighting. I had a booking till 30th in the guest house so planned to give another shot to Andheri for the next 2 days and called it a day at 7pm.
By this time I had called 12 real estate agents, met 5 and had seen total of 5 houses.
It was a Sunday and the local trains seemed to me quiet a convenient way to commute.

Monday the 18th was the real experience of Mumbai Local trains. Though it was a 1st class, a misnomer, anyone lesser than 5.5 ft would have died of suffocation in the armpits of the people riding on one another’s foot. Amazingly enough some were still managing to catch a reading.
Luckily the office was closer to the station but by the time I reached office, I had spent more than 24 hours in Mumbai and the experience was no where closer to satisfying; forget gratifying.
I just wondered what lay ahead.

Aal Izz Well

We were quiet elated when 3 of us (me, Preeti and Kanav) came out of the theatre after watching 3 Idiots. The movie was simply heart warming. Indian cinema had improved.

All izz well…..the theme ATTITUDE of the movie had already become a hit. But there was something wrong with ALL IZZ WELL; But What? I was not able to make out. Because I was not sure, I also persuaded myself to fall for it, when Preeti came to the rescue.

Yesterday, in some other context Preeti pointed out a unique ingredient of what we call “The Punjabi Attitude” – KOI GALL NAHI …. (Nothing to worry at all). If anything goes wrong we have only one answer to it – koi gall nahi yaar followed by – sabb kuch theek ho jaooga (everything will be ok) most of the times.

Though both the approaches towards a problem are quiet similar, I suddenly realized the stark difference in approach. While Aal izz well makes you cheat your heart (as aAamir explains in 3 idiots) that the problem would get solved…..somehow, Koi Gall Nahin is an attitude which motivates you to look into the eye of the problem and tackle it as if it was a very minor issue.

When my kid falls down while he is learning to walk, we tell him…koi gall nahin beta…stand up…chalo chalo….aggey chalo (nothing has happened son, stand up and move forward).

When I didn’t make to XLRI in 2003, my Dad told me beta….koi gall nahin….you were left behind just by a whisker. You need to work a little harder and sabb kuch theek ho jaaoga.

When I was under severe back pain in 2007 and had consulted dozens of doctors without any relief, Piyush Sir used to tell me….koi gall nahin…..if I am able to walk today…..you will start running soon.

Its not that Koi Gall Nahin… gives you the solution of the problem but it motivates you to solve it.

Though I might be a little biased but I strongly believe that this Koi Gall Nahin attitude is the result of a deeply ingrained devotion of the people of Punjab. They strongly believe that everything is predecided by the Almighty and the not so pleasant situations are important in the scheme of God for us. Sabb theek ho jaaoga…. emanates from that belief.

So even if Aal izz not well……still Koi Gall Nahin….Sabb Theek Ho Jaaooga.

Happy New Year

In the beginning of the year 2009, I made 4 resolutions to myself –

1. I would be more disciplined with my physical health – I would agree that I am not disciplined but have become more and more conscious of not only my health but of everyone who affect me. “One positive out of Papu which I have genuinely gathered.”
2. I would make my family financially more secure – I would not say I have made them fully secure but am better off than the last year and would take the resolution forward.
3. I would spend "atleast", 5 valuable hours every day with my Kid – This is one resolution, I have completed in its spirit too.
4. I would professionally orient myself on a quarter to quarter operational mode – Tried to do it and unearthed the secret to do it successful and would be able to implement it from this January onwards. Thanks eYantra.

And for this year the resolutions are –

1. Would be regular with my exercises and would try to bring my weight in the range of 87-90 kgs. Will make Kanav a regular too.
2. Will donate blood atleast 3 times this year. Will convince at least 1 person to donate his/her or his/her relative’s eyes.
3. Will grow the savings and investments to twice as much is today. Would finish 75% of the education loan.
4. Will do my dad proud once again this year (I am not sue of what but will definitely do it).
5. My Blog posts count will exceed 100 this year.
   

Manu