To Let - Joys and Woes

In my post ‘On Building A House’ dated 10.10.2010, i have narrated the joys of building a house. In my post ‘Income Tax Extra’ of 07.09.2011 i have narrated how i found a tenant who was agreeable to take over from me the burden of Income Tax on the rent.

When we occupied my house after my retirement, i constructed in the compound, a small one-room house with a kitchenette and toilet attached to it. The idea was to let it out so that someone would be present in the compound when we go out.

I got the first tenant even before construction was completed. She was in the IT sector working for a nearby commercial establishment. After about two and a half years, her marriage was fixed and so she left.

The second tenant came even before the first one was to vacate. Like the first one, she was unmarried. She was working at a nearby College. About 2 years after she occupied, cupid struck her and she got married. The boy was working in another city and this girl continued to stay in my house.  Her husband used to visit her occasionally and they lived happily. The wife and i joined in their happiness.

And then she got pregnant. As the pregnancy advanced, she was in need of support. The visit of her husband became more frequent but she needed additional female support. They decided to bring in her mother-in-law. The one-room house became insufficient for the growing family and so they shifted.

I was lucky to get another unmarried working girl as the third tenant. When she occupied the house the wife joked that the house would bring good luck to her and she would soon find a life partner. However, before that could happen and after about a year, she found a better job in another place and vacated our house.

And then my problem started. A person who was working at an adjacent industrial establishment as Security Guard came to me and told me that he and his wife wished to take the house on rent. He requested me to reduce the rent by a substantial amount. As compensation, he offered to take care of my garden. That was the time when my part-time gardening assistant had left. Hence i agreed to the proposal and the couple occupied the house.

After two months, the man started neglecting my garden. This situation worsened gradually and he completely stopped working in my garden. Arguments followed and so i asked him to vacate the house. He took another month to comply. When he did vacate, i noticed that he had made the bath room very dirty.

I got the room repainted and got the toilet and the kitchenette thoroughly cleaned.

The next tenants were two sisters, both unmarried, and with jobs.  However, after 2 months, they shifted to another city and hence vacated the house of course after giving the required notice.

This was the time when within one month, we were to visit Daughter I in U S A for a little over 2 months. I was eager to let out the house before our leaving. We would have loved to have a girl or two, as our next tenant/s but time was short. So i agreed to let the house to two brothers, the elder of whom was undertaking the work of sinking tube wells, the younger one working with a private firm.

Before the 2 girls were to vacate, i accepted from these 2 brothers Advance Rent for one month. One of the terms was that the tenants would deposit 2 months’ rent as Advance. The elder brother promised that he would pay the balance amount at the time of occupying the house.

After this, a couple came to take the house; they seemed to be decent people and were ready to deposit 2 months’ rent as Advance immediately but since i had already received an Advance from the brothers, i had to decline the proposal.              

The house was vacated by the girls 10 days before we were to leave for U S A and the 2 brothers immediately occupied it. However, they did not pay the promised remaining amount of the Advance. The elder brother said that he would pay it within a couple of days. They did not do that either before we left or thereafter. I had told them to pay it to my nephew who stays with us.

By the time we returned from U S A, the brothers, particularly the elder one, had created a lot of trouble. So i had to adopt various means (some of which are not very gentlemanly) to force them to vacate. And they did so without paying the electricity charges for the entire period! L For me, the fact that i got rid of them was compensation enough!  And they had left the toilet hopelessly dirty.

I remembered the plight of my neighbor who had let out the ground floor of his building to a builder. After a few months he stopped paying the rent and Electricity Bills. The tenant even physically assaulted my neighbor after an argument. Luckily for my neighbor, the tenant’s car, parked just outside the house, mysteriously caught fire and was completely burnt. (There were different stories about how the car caught, or was set on, fire.) The tenant had vacated only after this, to a great relief to my neighbor.

My present tenant works as an Assistant Manager at the adjacent office of an industrial establishment and lives alone. His family lives in a city in a neighboring State. He is a decent man.

However, i fervently wish that our next tenant/s would be working girl/s. All the five girls who had stayed in the house earlier, were a joy to have with us at the next door and all of them had become almost our family-members, sharing festivals and other joyous moments. The wife had almost adopted them as our daughters.:)))  If unmarried, we wouldn’t be less happy if they get married and fly – or are flown or blown - away!

ADDENDA:

1. Just before the third girl occupied, a young man had come to me and wished to take the house. He said that he and his just-married wife would stay there. I believed him and took the Advance Rent. Next day i received a call from a man who identified himself as the young man’s elder brother and requested that i refund the amount to the caller. It transpired that the young man had ‘lifted’ the girl from her house against her parents’ wishes (perhaps with her consent). Although my inquisitiveness was aroused, i did not ask about the details. I said that i would return the money only to the person who had paid it to me. Luckily for me, the prospective third tenant-girl came just at that time and paid the Advance Rent. Soon thereafter, the young man came and asked for the money back. I complied, suppressing my desire to hear the full story which appeared to be filmy!

2. I had a somewhat similar experience just before the two sisters occupied the house. Seeing the ‘To Let’ board, a girl came and told me that she and her fiancé would like to take the house. To my query, she replied that their marriage would take place “in the near future”. I did not relish the idea of having live-in partners as my tenants but rationalized that such relationships are not illegal and had even been recognized by the Supreme Court of India. I asked her to bring in her “fiancé” which she promptly did on the next day. She insisted on my receiving the Advance Rent but i dodged it and told her to pay after one week. Again luckily for me, the 2 sisters, who a few days’ after became my tenants, came and paid the Advance Rent. I promptly telephoned to the other girl to say that she need not come. She pleaded with me and almost wept, saying that i had not kept my promise. I thanked my stars for  having been able to wriggle out of a tricky situation!          

'Maa' of Odissi Dance

In my earlier post ‘Odissi Dance Based Movie’ dated 12.03.2015, i have written about the Odia movie ‘Thukul’ in which the lead role is played by Archita Sahu. However, ‘Arundhati’ is perhaps the first Odia movie, based on Odissi dance. The lead role in this, is played by the oldest living Odissi danseuse Padmashri Dr. Minati Mishra. At 79, she is still agile and occasionally takes the stage. I watched her present an Odissi dance number at the International Odissi Dance Festival at Bhubaneswar in 2011. After that i have seen her as the Chief Guest or occupying one of the front seats at many cultural events. While presenting her, comperes lovingly describe her as the ‘Maa’ (mother).

 Here is a clip of the movie containing an Odissi dance number by Minati Mishra:



Another Dance Sequence:



And here is a song from the movie:

Born in 1937, Minati started learning dance from Kali Charan Patnaik in 1950. She also took lessons from the legendary Odissi dance Guru, the late Kelu Charan Mohapatra. In 1954, she joined Kalakshetra  of the famed Rukmini Devi Arundale to learn Bharatanatyam, on a scholarship from Govt. of Odisha.  On the invitation from International Photographic Association in 1959, she went to Switzerland and performed at Zurich, Luzen, Geneva and Winteryhur. In 1962, she was got a Doctoral degree in Indology from Philip University of Marburg, Germany for a thesis on Natya Shastra.  She performed at Berlin Film Festival in 1963. She was known for  expressiveness (Bhava) and dramatization (Abhinaya).



Minati Mishra a in Bengali Movie - Video Credit: Kasu Vandi, the American lady who writes on classical dances in Indian movies in her blog 'Minai's Cinema Nritya Gharana' 

Minati Mishra has acted in many Odia films like Surya Mukhi, Jeevan Sathi, Arundhati (1967). This film is based on a story of an Odissi danseuse.  She has received the National Film Award for Best Regional Cinema. She has also received Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Sangeet Prabhakar title for Hindustani vocal music.

Dr. Mishra has worked alongside the first generation Odissi dance Gurus like Pankaj Charan Das, Debi Prasad Das and Kelu Charan Mohapatra.    

        

She guided the Utkal Sangeeta Mahavidyalay, Bhubaneswar as its Principal from 1964 to 1989.  She finally retired in 1990 and settled in Switzerland. She divides her time between India, Switzerland and Canada, guiding and advising students.



For more on Minati Mishra's Odissi dance in the Odia movie 'Arundhati', see blog-post 'Minati Mishra's Odissi Dance in Arundhati (Oriya), 1967' in  Minai's Cinema Nritya Gharana

(cinemanrityagharana.blogpost.in) dated 15.5.2012

U S Visit - An Epilogue

In my preceding 3 pieces on this subject, i have narrated 3 of the places of interest that we visited during our recent U S trip. Here is an overview:

In the first, i have narrated how first thing that the protagonist of the novel Half A Girlfriend by Chetan Bhagat notices during his maiden visit to U S of A is that there is no honking by vehicles on U S roads, as is common in India. He also felt that the sky is bluer in U S A. I too noticed these things. Roads are very wide and there are different lanes for vehicles with different speed.  The number of cars on the road is much larger but they move in a disciplined manner. When a driver changes the speed, he/she simply moves to the appropriate lane. There is no close overtaking and hence no need for honking. 

                               At Kennedy Space Centre, NASA,Meritt Island, Florida, U S A

The reason for the sky appearing bluer is that there is almost no dust. The two sides of most roads in India are full of dust and speeding vehicles blow these up into the air. In contrast, both the sides of U S roads are covered with grass, leaving no scope for heaps of dust. The climate is colder than that in India and this helps grass not drying up leaving the space for dust.

                                                       Entrance of Kennedy Space Centre

The minimum stipulated speed is 40 miles (64 KMs) and the maximum varies from 50 to 80 miles (80 to 120 KMs). (In USA, Metric System is not followed and so ‘mile’ as a unit of measuring distance is used and so are ‘pound’ and ‘gallon’ for measuring weight and liquids respectively.)  I did not notice any disorderly driving. Once i saw a road-sign saying ‘Traffic Congestion next 7 miles). There is no disorderly driving even when there is a little congestion. I never saw crowded or disorderly vehicles as in India, particularly at railway level crossings. Whenever there is an accident, police and ambulance reach the spot almost immediately.

I did not see any two-wheeler or pedestrian on most roads.  Pedestrians were there in shopping areas. And i was struck by the habit of American drivers stopping their vehicles to allow a pedestrian to pass first. In India, pedestrians, trying to cross roads, create a zebra crossing for themselves by extending both their arms to stop vehicles from running over them! 

I did not notice any corner-shops as is the common sight in India. There are huge malls and almost all transactions are cashless, use of cards being the usual way. There is no M R P (Maximum Retail Price) concept. All packaged commodities are required in India to print the M R P on the packs. However, there being completely free enterprise system in U S A, malls decide prices basing on their cost, profit-margin and other factors and indicate the price on the respective shelves. Quite often, the price of the same product is different at different times and at different malls. Free competition is the most effective regulator of prices in U S A. I was reminded of a lesson which i had learnt while studying Business Economics in the M B A Course: In a competitive economy, individual entrepreneurs are not price-makers but price-takers.  There is no bargaining while buying products in USA.

Another aspect of shopping i noticed is that if a customer wishes to return an item purchased, malls gladly accept it even if the packing has been opened. The amount is refunded fully without any reservation. In India, shop-keepers do not accept if the packet has been opened. Also, the amount is generally not returned; the customer has to buy another item of the same or higher price. Once i went to a shop near my house at Bhubaneswar to return an item and did not wish to purchase another one. The shop keeper gave me a kind of a kutcha credit note for the amount written on a piece of paper. I had to redeem it part by part by purchasing from the same shop other items. Each time, the shop keeper reduced the amount of the ‘credit note’ till the full amount was redeemed!

Buying on credit for any and every purpose is an American habit. I noticed that there were establishments which gives loans against the security of car titles, i.e., against ownership papers.  Once i read that if you have $ 10 in your pocket and no debt, you are richer than 75% of the Americans. Borrowing for all purposes is common in U S A. It is said that Americans love to spend tomorrow’s income today! I had read also there that in USA, 40% of the births are from unwed mothers.     

While in U S A, i used to read, among other things, Odia newspapers on the internet. On the 1^st March, 2016, the Odia newspaper The Sambad published an article by Bhagaban Prakash. It dealt with the book titled ‘Twenty-one Habits I Lost in India’ by the American photographer Rachael Rucort ( I am not sure of the spelling of this name.) The first American habit he gave up in India was the timeliness. Most of the things do not happen on time. The writer talks of the micro-oven culture of U S A; everything is done instantly and on time. He has said that the Indian habit of washing rather than wiping after visiting a toilet is healthier. The author had felt that churches taking a full one hour to solemnize a marriage in USA was too long. This, till he observed an Indian marriage which takes a full week and preparations for it start six months or more ahead. In the West, marriage takes place between two persons but in India, marriages are between two families and more of their extended families. He was also struck by the Indian system of arranged marriages.  The author writes that in India one comes across historical monuments and heritage each 50 or 100 kilo metres, which are 500 to 5000 years old. In contrast, American civilization and history are only 400 years old.

During our stay in USA, we had visited among other places, Kennedy Space Centre in Meritt Island of Florida State. We had also spent almost a full day-time in Disney Park. Here are some of the photos taken there:

 

 

                                                          At Disneyland

This was my third visit to U S A; the wife had visited 4 times and had stayed for longer periods. At those times, we had visited among other places, the UN Headquarters, White House Visitor Centre, Smithsonian Institute, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, Holocaust Memorial, Empire State Building, World Trade Centre which had been ravaged by terrorist,   Statue of Liberty and Niagara Falls.  Here are some of the photos.

 

                                      UN Head Quarters

Before Statue of Liberty                                               

 

                Smithsonian Institution

      

      White House                   

                                      Niagara Falls in the evening

  

    Lincoln Memorial

                               Your support is so comfortable, Grandpa!

                                         (With Grand Daughter I, 2006)

USA is very advanced as far as material wealth is concerned but in the pursuit of material happiness, a little of human values goes missing. A husband and a wife have to say many times during a day, “I love you.”, to show his or her love for the partner. Indians do not have to expressly say so; such sentiments underlie relationships and are understood by actions. Children on becoming adults, go on their own and live separately. Old parents have to fend for themselves. I read in a book by an Odia author about his feelings on a visit to USA. One weekend, he saw a young man, his wife and small children visiting a house adjacent to where he was staying. After sometime, he saw the couple bringing out a dead body from the house. The old lone resident of the building had died a couple of days before, unnoticed by anybody. The visitors, the old man’s son and daughter-in-law discovered his death on their visit to him at the week-end! Of course, as a price of ‘progress’, old parents having to live on their own, has started happening in India too. (:  

While in U S, the wife and i had a very good time with the grand children, daughter and son of Daughter I.

Just before our U S visit, Daughter I and II and their families had visited us together. The Daughter-in-law, about whom i have written an earlier post, had joined us along with the grand- daughter, about whom also i have written a post, joined us. Our home hummed with full activity.

                              Three grand children on a swing set up at our home. (December, 2015)

We had a gala time together. :))))))) 

        

US Visit - Ruby Falls

One weekend, we visited Chattanooga in Tennessee State of USA to see the Ruby Falls.

In 1928, Leo Lamberrt and a group of fellow explorers entered a small opening to a newly found cave in Lookout Mountain. They spent 17 hours exploring on hands and knees and then heard the sound of rushing water. They were awe-struck by the magnificent beauty of the waterfall they discovered at the deepest point. Leo later named the falls after his wife Ruby. Ever since, Ruby Falls has been a destination for discovery and wonder for visitors from all over the world. 

Ruby Falls is a 145-feet underground waterfall. We went underground in an elevator, to the mouth of the long-winding narrow cave which leads to the wonderful sight of the falls.The way is full of natural rock-formations of all shapes and sizes. The path is well-lighted which makes the journey convenient. The sight is so wonderful that it cannot be described in words. One can only experience the amazing journey. 

Here are some of the photos we took:

US Visit-Snowfall

We had visited U S A during winter. One morning, i saw, through the glass-pane in the door,  tiny pieces of falling snowflakes. 

It was drizzling. As the flakes fell, they turned into sleet. I found out that sleet refers to two distinct forms of precipitation: rain and snow mixed, snow that partially melts as it falls. Sleet is precipitation consisting of small ice pellets formed by freezing of raindrops or of melted snow flakes. Precipitation is condensation of atmospheric water-vapour that falls under gravity.

'Flurry' means, among other things, a brief light snowfall.  

Snowflakes continued falling during the evening and night. When we woke up the next morning, we saw through the window that the entire surrounding had become white, covered with snow. Snowflakes continued to fall till around mid-day, even when sun was shining brightly. It had stopped for some time when Daughter I suggested that we take photographs of ourselves against the white blanket of snow. We went outside, fully covered, and did that.

Around noon, the snowflakes stopped falling. The snow lying on the ground started melting at many spots. Yet there were patches and spots on which the snow did not melt even with the sun's rays. This was due to the fact that the temperature outside was still zero or sub-zero.

The wife ventured outside and made a snow-man.

Five States in East Coast declared Emergency in view of the blizzard. Daughter I lives in Georgia which is one of the States in the Southern part of U S A. Southern U S A is generally warmer and was not affected.

Here are some of our photos with Daughter I and her children:










And here are those of the outside scenario.

A

Nine Weeks with Uncle Sam

In January, the wife and i were on a 2-month visit to Daughter I who lives with her family in the US of A. We had a wonderful time with the grand daughter and grand son.

In Time Zone, USA is ten and a half hours behind India. So it is almost on the other side of the world, or to be more correct, the other side of the Earth.

After reaching USA, i read two novels by Chetan Bhagat, who gave up his investment banking in Hong Kong to live in Mumbai to become a full-time writer. In his novel 'Half A Girlfriend' the protagonist is struck by two things on his first visit to USA, the clear blue sky and the silence on the roads. He ascribes the first one to the absence of dust in the air as it is in India. The second is due to the fact that vehicle-drivers do not honk in contrast to the cacophony on the roads in India. I have been equally struck by these features. A friend had once jocularly observed that drivers in India blow their horns more to prevent being hit by the other vehicles than for any other purpose!

It was a chilly January, with icy cold winds. One morning,the wife hung a small piece of wet cloth outside to dry. A little after, I found that the cloth had become stiff; the little water in the cloth had frozen and had made the cloth stiff. I noticed that the little streams of water which had oozed out of at the lower ends of the wet cloth had also frozen and looked like frills. After some time, the sun appeared; the cloth got dried up and became soft again.

Once we visited the headquarters of CNN (Cable Network News) and went around its studio, newsroom and other work-places. It is very impressive.

We also visited the Head Quarters of Coca Cola where we viewed a 4-D documentary on Coca Cola. Then we visited a room there in which the various brands of this soft drink all over the world are available on tap. These are grouped continent-wise, like, Asia, Europe, America,Africa etc. I found that the Indian soft drink Thums Up was also there. Coca Cola acquired the company in 1993. We found that the brands on sale in Germany are slightly bitter.

I visited a nearby library, and during the first visit, borrowed two novels by Chetan Bhagat and Charles Dickens's David Copperfield, which the author has declared as his most favourite writing.

Here are some photos at C N N and at Coca Cola Head Quarters:

Widowing Self

It had become disgustingly unbearable, his coming home drunk and beating her black and blue, often in the presence of their two children.

They were living in a shanty in the slum. He was a rickshaw-puller and she, a daily labourer. Years ago, she had eloped with him from their village to the city. At that time, he had filled her mind with colourful dreams of comfortable life. In the first few years, she was really happy to be a devoted wife and he was the adoring husband. Both of them earned and were happy to be together.

It all changed after the birth of her second child.

He took to drinking and spent all his earnings on liquor. The burden of meeting all the expenses of the household fell on her. Occasional bickering gave way to regular fights. His earnings became insufficient for his needs at the liquor-shop; he started demanding a share from her income. When she refused, beatings became more frequent. He started stealing her money, wherever she concealed it.

Then she could take no more of it; she could no longer bear it.  One night, after his beating her mercilessly, he demanded food. She drugged it. When he fell fast asleep with the effects of the drinks and the drug, she took out the grinding stone and clobbered him on his head with all her strength. He struggled and screamed; the children screamed. Then he became still.

Hearing the noise, neighbours gathered. Police came. She was arrested.

For the first two days in jail, she was in peace with herself; she had a queer sense of satisfaction.

Then the rage in her mind began to cool. She started pondering over what she had done.

It dawned on her that she had widowed herself; she had made her children destitute.

Was she right? Was she wrong?

As a widow, she was no longer to wear her bangles. The glass bangles worn by her had to be broken down. On many occasions, she had seen women from neighbouring houses, breaking down the bangles from the wrists of a wailing and struggling woman, who had been just bereaved and widowed.
   
Who would do the job now? Who would break down her bangles?

She picked up a piece of rock with her right hand and laid her left wrist on the ground.

As she started hitting her bangles with the rock, images of her pounding his head with the grinding stone flashed back in her mind.


*

Based on reports of an actual happening in Bhubaneswar