Stress and Joy of Living in Builder’s
Flat
“A house is made with walls and beams;
a home is built with love and dreams.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The
Lord was bountiful, He showered on us His blessings: we were
allotted a residential plot of land by a Govt. Agency, during the days of
National Emergency of 1975 - 1977, when everybody was afraid of Govt. action
against the black money, whereas we supported this purchase from savings in a
Bank account, loan from the Office Thrift and Credit Society and of course advance
from general provident fund. Before formalities for possession and registration
were completed, we were very excited, so we went to see our plot of land as we
were given a specific number and colony name: after walking for a kilometer or
so through the fields that had been harvested we reached our site, it was so
satisfying to walk on the land that belonged to us. Since the plot was part of agricultural
land, everybody was possessive and wanted to know how to identify our plot
which had been marked by building of front roads, service lanes and electricity
underground lines and connection boxes, water and sewer lines not visible, of
course the pillars here and there, still everyone wanted to have our own
identification mark and ultimately a shallow pit in the rear of our plot was
identified as our own identification mark.
This
was the first step for building a house in Delhi
and that too in a Govt. approved colony. What a blessing it was. I tried my
best to secure a house building advance from Govt. but could not succeed.
Started construction of my house with my savings, loans from the Thrift and
Credit Society, provident fund and friendly loans from my known persons but
excluding relatives and gold loan which has its own story: we had applied for
just Rs.5000/- loan against the gold we possessed but when the application
reached the dealing hand, in the Head Quarter of the Bank, he informed that
gold was sufficient to provide collateral security for a loan of Rs.25,000/- so
we requested him to process the case for sanction of Rs.25000/- loan and it was
sanctioned, it was a windfall and took care of many of our worries. Construction
of the house was completed passing through financial constraints and during the
process I lost my father who was supervising the construction it was a big
shock the nature had given. As soon as construction was over we became house
owners from a tenant and the new house became our home, we immediately shifted to our
home from a rented accommodation: we did not share our home with others for a
rent although we were short of money: but my wife’s salary, her resources and
loans from the GPF and Thrift and Credit, in quick succession helped us a lot
to overcome the financial difficulties.
Subsequently,
rules were changed and Govt. allowed individual plot holders building of four
floors of lower height with parking on the ground floor and a
must lift facility. This created a lot
of opportunities for those who wanted to use their property by a surrender of
part of their ownership rights. Such people became flat owners from land owners
and sometimes a start of many problems which they earlier never faced. We did
not go for his floor system and continue to be single owner.
There
were many financial models to support such structures in
addition to total financial support by the plot owner. One such option that
became prevalent more was that construction contractors took possession of one
floor and built whole of the building with men and material and sometimes with
fixtures also, whereas some contractors gave some cash also, to the person who
was the owner of the plot. The such contactor would sell his share floor for a
price not known to anybody. This had number of infirmities financial, legal,
tax, ownership and in day to day maintenance. Contractors were never in the picture
and they made plot owner party in all financial and legal transactions and
earned without a responsibility and after sale of their portion they were free
of all responsibilities with pockets currency notes full and that too without
any liability for payment of any tax
which was the liability of original plot owner who sold the flat as per the
paper transaction.
Irrespective
of the above, these structure ideally became community living
for four families sharing common entrance, parking, stairs, lifts, light in
parking, ground water, listening cries of distress and cheers of joys much
earlier than the relatives of each occupant, became partners in functions and
sorrows and also shared number and name of the place, saying good morning first
and good evening last of all to each other. They are jointly responsible for freshness
of the common areas and also the surroundings. They are the closest neighbours
living on the same plot of land.
Practically
many other things affected living in these apartments, like realization of
responsibilities of community living, demand for more rights,
nature and social fabric of the families, financial status, lack of
coordination, no mechanism to solve small disputes, age group of family
members, nuisance value how it is imposed on others and still many other things
that become reality when dealing with each other. In fact, many took these
floors as free of everything as opposed to cooperative group housing society
flats which are regulated by the Apartment Owners’ Association who charge
monthly maintenance from each flat; which are better regulated although
difficulties are also there.
Since
all the four families are not connected directly with the mother earth - natural
bad conductor of electricity, many of the residents face higher issues of
irritation, anger, petty quarrels, tension, stress, anxiety, unnecessary hurry,
fears and off moods. Loneliness is another issue for many generated by the atmosphere
of being inside and continuous irritating sounds of gadgets like
air-conditioners, heaters, fans, doors, microwave oven, tinkle of phones and
dirty utensils and of course seeing the same faces for days together, situation
worsens if one is not keeping good health and still more if suffering from
chronic diseases.
"For
the first time, I lived alone... in a luxury apartment on Sunset Strip. For a
few days I loved the idea, but I got lonely and restless."
Patty
Duke
Many
of the occupants of these apartments floors see only the ceilings sometimes
with lizards and insects and not the roofs with open air,
sunshine and chirping of the birds, beautiful trees, sunrise and sunsets as most
of the builders flats have covered space more than the imagination in their
hunger to cover as much as possible legally or illegally and in the process
have blocked fresh air and sunshine inside these flats. Stair cases and lifts
are the darkest places in builder’s flats. Things become still worse if the
occupants are facing financial constraints which for obvious reasons all of
them face, having spent their whole life saving for purchase of the floor. Things
become acute when some of the occupants have no reason to move out, like house
wives, senior citizens, patients, pandemic restrictions and necessities and of course the introvert nature and no
emotions to what is happening in the surroundings nature etc.
Two
daily chores: drying of clothes and small purchases are the activities to watch
in these floors. Many floors have no space to dry the washed
clothes, so balconies and strings outside are used for the purpose and for
small purchases of paper, milk, butter, bread, fruit, vegetables etc it is long
rope with a bucket attached to it that is used to get the things done.
In
flats, there are no next door neighbours, it is door below or up neighbours,
your kitchen is below some body’s kitchen and your bath room is above some
body’s bathroom and below another owner’s bath room. They are, in fact
different type of the neighbours, when somebody goes to bathroom at night, the
person below sleeping in his bed room comes to know of and sometimes it is so
irritating that sleep is broken. People are, in fact more intimately integrated
in flats than in plots, hence the need is about residing in your home in such a
way that it doesn’t interfere with anyone else and when it so interferes for
reasons beyond one’s control one has to also extend boundless co-operation. If
this does not happen which is more a reality, it creates atmosphere of constant
question and quarrel leading to police, court and social issues.
"We all have neighbors. Greet them on the
sidewalk or in the elevator, but try not to peer through their windows. Windows
are to look out from, not into."
- Alexandra Stoddard
Fact
of the matter is builders’ flats are much more than a mini co-operative group
housing society, being just four families one above the
other, ideally speaking they should live more in harmony and cooperation than
the society flats, ideally like a bigger family. Alas they live like that only.
"We
make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbour."
Gilbert K. Chesterton
May your new home be,
Blessing to you and all who enter it.
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