Elders
say building a house is the ultimate experience in life. My experience in
building my home was not short of any drama. It had everything drama, suspense,
villains, heroes, and melodrama.
During mid 2003, we had shifted from my office quarters
located in a desolate part of Bangalore and rented a portion in my in-law's
house in Indiranagar. There were the usual barbs by close relatives and
colleagues that I had become a ghar jamai but I didn’t mind them. The year 2004 had begun with a look out for an
own house. We looked at several properties but none impressed us. It was
Christmas day, when my father-in-law stormed into my house and said he wanted
to have a word with me. He informed that owner of the site behind our house is
planning to sell it, and that I should buy it. He also insisted that I pay a
token advance of Rs.5000/-. At that time one square feet in the locality where
I stay was around Rs.1700 and property prices were heating up. Given my salary,
no bank would agree to give a loan nor did I have savings of that order to build
a house on the purchased site. However, not wanting to deflate my father-in-law’s
enthusiasm, I decided to lose the amount of Rs.5000/-.
I approached several banks and not even one would give me
half the amount I would require to buy the site and build a dwelling there. It
was then my father-in-law suggested that I and my brother-in-law should become
co-applicants. How much ever I tried to convince that such a combination would
not be agreed by any bank did not convince him. He just kept pushing us from
the doorstep of bank to bank. Finally, a bank believed our genuineness and
agreed to disburse the loan thanks to the efforts of a lady who was in charge
of approving the loan. It must be noted that she did it for no consideration.
This was one of the first acts of humanity which made positive about humanity.
This process of getting a loan approved had taken more than 3
months and meanwhile the market value of the site had gone up from Rs.1700 per
square feet to Rs.2200. I frankly expected an escalation but the gentleman he
was, he valued the friendship with my father in law and agreed to sell the site
at the old rate itself. This saved us a few lakhs of rupees. I have heard many
stories of sacrifice in friendship but this was the first time I witnessed one.
If the owner of the site had wanted, he could have easily cancelled the
agreement and gone for a new agreement with someone else even for a higher rate
but he valued relationship over money.
When I was building the house, I had a disgusting racist and
castiest as my bosss. He put forward all possible obstacles to deny me leave
but here again my father in law stepped in and took on the responsibility. The disgusting
boss made me realize how impending caste is to this country.
There was one more occasion when the branch manager of SBI
went out of way and approved a personal loan. It was only last year I had
fought with him bitterly over an issue but the gracious man he helped me out.
This incident thought me the importance not to carry bitterness in a
relationship and concentrate on the larger picture.
Post building the house, I was in a lot of financial strife.
The period of 3 years after building the house taught me how to manage income
and live on a frugal budget, something I had forgotten after landing a job in
ISRO.
Thus, the experience of building a home made me a better and
matured individual. I never expected to have
an own house in Indiranagar and this experience taught me never to discount any
possibility in life. However, I wish something
like https://housing.com/lookup was
around when I was building my home but guess my father-in-law did the job.
