House Hunting Is so Difficult!!!

We have been looking for a house to buy for sometime now. Going through newspapers, checking various sites online from 99acres.com, magicbricks.com, to makaan.com, to talking to brokers, this is what we end up doing almost every day now. We have been at this regularly for more than 2months now.

Everytime you enter a property listing site, it gives you the option of selecting what kinda property, whether you are looking for an apt, independent house, bungalow or a residential plot. You choose one and enter you other requisites like the number of bedrooms, oh more importantly the budget. You end up getting a huge list of results for any budget you enter. This used to give us the hope that 'Oh, maybe it may not be so difficult getting our place afterall' but then all such happy thoughts are normally shortlived.

We take down the number and call the place, the agency or the broker and every single time he would invariably say 'O so sorry, there was a typing error on the site, the house you saw and liked is not for 20lakhs, its available for 75lakhs'. How on earth can that be a typing error??? When the numbers 2, 0, 7, and 5 are so far apart. How can 20 be typing error for 75??? The next thing would be a goof up in the sq. ft measurement. As usual typing errors do happen there as well. And if none of that is the problem, the house would invariably be sold out by the time you call n you would be told,'It just got sold out yesterday'. How can houses be sold out exactly one day before I call!!! Every single person tells you can you try raising your budget a little higher, I could show you an amazing place and each time you think and think and finally raise it by another 5lakhs, that becomes the lower limit and again they ask you to raise it a little. I cant believe people would demand 20-25lakhs for a 800sq. ft house!

Why is it so difficult, all I want is a simple place to call my own. So that I dont end up paying a huge rent of say 10k, I might as well pay a few grands more each month and own a place. The whole thought of house-hunting is getting so painful now that I feel so jealous of those who already have 2-3 huge ancestral property in the city that too in the heart of the city!!

A Few Interesting Things About Me!

If you are part of my Orkuts friends list, you might think this is just a copy of the about me section from there. Trust me there is more here. I have been wanting to tag myself for sometime now. Some of the blogs I saw had really nice and interesting tags. Therefore, attempting to replicate one here. :)

• --I am a Mallu born and brought up in Chennai. I love Chennai more than my native place. Chennai is home to me!
• --I was born almost 22 years back in a hospital right next to my moms college. PS: She did not have me while she was studying, it just happened that the hospital was right next to the college she had studied in 2 years before I was born.
• --I am a cusp between a Virgo & Libra. Have characteristics of both star signs. I actually spend time reading forecast for both the signs each time I happen to go over a horoscope column.
• --I am totally cranky and extreme in nature. I either like something or someone too much or cant stand it at all.
• --I get hurt trying to be in the good books of people. I can give up or do anything at all for people I really care about.
• --I worry unnecessarily about things and get depressed too soon.
• --I can lie so perfectly well, that you would never have the slightest clue that I could be lying. However, this makes stating the truth difficult, maybe my expressions change or something, it takes me more time convincing people that the truth is the truth!
• --I used to dance… I am not kidding!! I had learnt Bharatnatyam for 5 years. Had stopped dancing during school and ever since never danced at all.
• --I have a veena at home that I used to play 7-8years back. It is now sleeping in a loft at my place.

• --I had learnt carnatic music for 9 years and couldn’t continue cos ma mom thought I should concentrate on studies and not music. I’ve always wanted to learn Hindustani classical but never really got to it yet.

• --If I had not joined Google, I may have chosen playback singing ( a couple of music directors wanted me to sing for them). I wanted a stable career and thought singing might not be a great idea. Maybe I made a wrong decision.
• --I used to peddle 18kms each day to in school (9kms up and 9kms down).
• --I am a complete clothes freak. I love shopping till I realized it’s the company that makes shopping exciting!
• --There is nothing that is too spicy for me. My friends eye starts watering whenever she sees me eating so much spice.
• --I have never broken a bone in my life. Touchwood!
• --I fear tripping in public and making a fool of myself.
• --I cannot stand being rejected. At anything. For anything.
• -- I have an obsession of constantly thinking the worst in every situation.
• --I love animals – cats & dogs especially. Did you know there was a time when we had 26 cats in my house? Yeah! We used to live in the cats house (5 human beings vs. 26 cats – majority wins!)
• --I was a non-vegetarian for 22 years – needed non veg each day of ma life. I turned veggie exactly a month back & its actually not as bad as I thought it would be. (Ps: Realised Veg food can be yummy as well)
• --I fear loneliness. I am scared I might end up lonely with no one to talk to.
• --If I could change one thing about myself, I would like to go back to being the slightly plum person I used be back in college. I have proof to show you that I used to be thin once upon a time, I swear!
• -- I love spending time with 2 people in life – in fact u can see me acting all hyper before and after I meet them! 
• -- I get along with almost everyone but that doesn’t mean they are my confidants. I have a special few whom I trust and depend on wholly.
• --I could do anything, absolutely anything for the 2 special people in my life. I could mould myself for them, somehow get anything I know they want irrespective of whether I can manage, fight with others for them. For those of you who know me well enough, you know who these two special people are. For those of you who don’t, it means you don’t know me much and or don’t know me at all, bad luck I don’t intend telling you about them or about me!!
• I just realized it feels a lot better to write such random thought down in your blog. Makes you feel lighter after a tiring day.
  

Yaay! My first tag is now ready to post. Thank you, if you have actually taken pains reading the whole post. Hope I dint bore you out of your wits!!

Valentines Day

This day has somehow come to hold some kind of importance in all our lives. Single? Though you end up telling everyone or rather trying to convince yourself 'well ok I dont need anyone to celebrate V Day. I am happier being single and all that jazz... some part of you still craves for the attention that you may possibly get in having the person of your life with you. You may try to ignore the fact that you are alone and try to find joy in maybe going out with someone else you love may be your friend, your mom or any of your family members.

I had a great day today with a lot of trainings to attend at work and my other half in some other work related training at Kakatiya Hotel. So the whole idea of meeting up was a big question mark. I was not sure if we would be able to meet in the first place! Thanks to his neck sprain and hectic work schedule. In my case, even though I have been in training the whole of this week and will be the next week too, I was pretty sure I would be able to meet him. But you anyways need your other half to be enthu as well about the whole thing. So having said all this, he was not at work the whole day but had promised to meet me sometime in the eve over coffee or something. I was all excited about this and got dressed up after a very long time, wore the new salwar that he had given me a little earlier. :)

I reached office in the morning and with the feeling of 'Huh! Its Valentines Day, so what?' kinda feeling. Once in I could see red heart shaped baloons everywhere. On top of it in the middle of my training when I had come out for a break, I could see girl rushing to the reception to collect their bouquets and teddy bears sent by their loved ones. I was talking to a friend of mine who did not understand the concept of V day at all and both of us finally agreed that it was a total waste of time and money. Later in the day when I reached my desk, I see something really really cute, a bouquet, not a flower bouquet but one made of chocolates with a note written beside it saying 'To the Special One! :)' It was a weird and an amazing feeling I should agree. All the concepts about wasting money and time vanished the minute I saw this. I was really really happy and all I wanted to know was how it got there. After that, when I was again away from my desk, someone placed another gift at my desk with a note on it saying 'secret admirer'. This is when I was slightly confused... why would my other half call himself a 'secret admirer' when he doesnt even say that he has never said that he admires me in the past 2.5 years. But all this confusion got sorted the minute I saw a photo frame that I had asked him to get me a couple of days back and the one he refused to get. (so the deal is I had gone shopping with him and our best friend, Pinki. she got a picture of her husband and her printed on a tile and I told him I needed one of our like that on a tile too. He has in the meantime placed an order for the same and told me that he wouldnt get me one considering that it is a big waste of money ) Seeing that photo frame with our picture with nice wording on them, made me feel really good n all I wanted was to go meet him and give him a huge hug. I think it was a super cute thing he did for me.

He called me later in the eve and asked me to come to City Center. I went over and my poor baby was in deep pain. But just so that he could make me happy, he decided to bear the pain and took me to play air hockey and then he said we will go home as I am not keeping well. I was ok with it as he was in a bad shape. But he took me to Indijoes to have a nice dinner and then made sure he put me back in a rick back home. Wow! thats a pretty long story!

Thanks to Maria for putting the gifts on my desk and to my sweetheart for taking pains literally to make me happy! I am happy to know you are there for me! I know the pain you underwent and the effort taken to keep me happy. Though you may not have liked the tee I got you, I hope you would wear it and stop asking me for clues about february 25. You will get to know about it on the 25th. Patience pays!! :)

Thats brings us to the end of the day with me starting off on why is there a V day and why is it a big deal to ending it with 'O My God! I feel butterflies in my stomach!.' All perceptions changes with time and people who care to make a difference in your life.