As if the fact, that I had been over blessed with a PG with a perfect location and wonderful PG mates had to be compensated in one way or the other .Therefore the blessing was tempered, in the form of the wicked, miser, money minded landlady, whose philosophy, was that we ought to put up with all her eccentric decisions that she imposed on us and her actions demanded no questioning or challenging in return. This on her part, required just a simple blatant overlooking of the fact that we paid for what we availed. Ignoring the fact that we paid considerably more than what a comparable PG would have cost us and lived in complete harmony with the inmates as well as the neighbours , we were considered to be irresponsible, self centered ( as if we should have centered our existence around the landlady’s profitability and needs) and undisciplined girls. We were in a way prohibited from even asking for a logical explanation for a certain illogical step undertaken by her or even air our grievances arising as a result of some weird rule implemented by her.
Irrespective of the fact that since she was our landlady who ought to lent a patient ear to any of our problems while we stayed as a paying guest, it was considered a blasphemy if we called her up to disturb
her. A couple of calls to voice the same concern, was labeled an act of pestering by having called up infinite number of times solely with the motive of irritating her and rendering her life a living hell. Having been once slapped with the notice to vacate the PG for no discernable fault at our end but grave offence at her end, we all decided to keep a low profile even if it meant bearing up with the faulty services and inconveniences.
While she would sent us a copy of the rules and regulations that we were supposed to religiously follow, whenever she wanted us to remind of them; there were times when we were made to face a situation that ought to have been specified in the rules book before we were made to sign it, to show our acceptance. One such omitted rule was that during the occasion of Durga Puja, those who did not go to their respective homes, would be made to temporarily shift to another PG run by the landlady, where all the remaining girls were supposed to stay in order to make it economical for her. No one was supposed to tell her how inconvenient and troublesome it would be for the girls to pack everything right from a toothbrush, to clothes, to iron, to idols of Gods and ancillaries thereof for the Puja time, not to mention that it could get distracting for those who were during the professional training period to concentrate on their studies in the new location. Our effort to tell her the same, fell on deaf ears,as she only started a tirade of scolding for our being irresponsible and troublesome. Low grade ration, unhygienic food, insufficient vegetables, insufficient cutlery , same old menu month after month, gradual reduction in so called niceties like biweekly noodles , paneer or bread for sandwich , TV with no remote, broken curtain rods, leaking taps and dimly lit rooms ,were of course no reasons for complaining.
The house maids (masis) who looked after the house were in themselves unhygienic, leave alone the hygiene of the house. After staying for so long with one of them, when we had bonded well with the masi at our PG and had got used to her as she picked up some neat habits, the landlady decided to shuffle the housemaids. As getting accustomed to another maid did not find favour with either us ,or the maid herself, we decided to risk giving her another call, only to face another tirade of abuse and being asked as to who we were to question her decision.
Pelt a stone at slush and the drops land only on you. This was the thinking that we developed as we continued to stay in the PG, only because if seemed like a family together there and the PG was most conveniently located, close by to our respective offices. Initially our hunt for another PG had only strengthened our belief that it was the best possible option in every aspect of the company that we had at the PG and its location and safety. So making sure that any inconvenience was sorted out between the inmates, we continued living life our way except for the temporary, unavoidable, interference from the landlady which we considered just a passing phase not to be bothered by!
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