Is it because I am single, questions actress Pooja Misrra ‘banned’ from her house
Mumbai: Actress and VJ Pooja Misrra has been living out of a suitcase for a year. No, not her red Bigg Boss suitcase but away from home, in hotels and other cities, ever since she was "banned" from her family-owned apartment in a housing society in Lokhandwala for "unacceptable behavior".
"I used to live with my parents on Nepean Sea Road till my father moved back to Pune six years ago. My sister, who lives in Singapore, owns the apartment, which had been vacant, so I moved in," Pooja told TOI from Thailand. The actress claims it was her lifestyle as an actor that did not go down well with other residents but things took a turn for the worse after she lodged a complaint at the Oshiwara police station against residents for smashing her car's windscreen.
"I used to maintain a low profile but people would ring my doorbell at odd hours and run away. They would make false allegations, malign me and instigate me to react," she said, justifying her frequent fights with residents. While the society has tagged her as a nuisance, the actress has accused the residents of practising jaadu tona (black magic) on her.
"How can they ban me from entering the building, where we own every inch of an apartment, without a court order?" says Pooja, whose father and sister had to write an apology and assure the society that she would stay away. "My family was paranoid but how long can I run around? They don't have issues with my brother living there alone. Is it because I'm a single woman? They told my father to marry me off. How do they have the audacity?"
While trouble in Mumbai's living spaces is not new, the run-in Pooja has had with the housing society turns the focus on the worst minority in the city - house seekers - single women (or men) to media professionals, non-vegetarians to non-Hindus looking for a place to rest their head and fewer societies and home-owners willing to let them.
You've studied hard and cracked the best job? You're single, have a habit of staying out late, for either work or pleasure, sport tattoos and piercings, like to smoke and love pets, then you're unlikely to get a break in the world of house-hunting. "It's all about common perception. A broker told me to dress seriously when meeting the landlord," says Ujaala Chaudhuri, 35, a media and entertainment professional. She had to sit through a round-table meeting with members of a housing committee on Carter Road and lectured on life and how to lead it as a "single girl living alone," the sore point being a "foreigner" as her room-mate some years back. "I was clearly told that they didn't want white girls or boys. 'God knows what they do on the Internet!' was their fear," says Ujaala. For her next round of house-hunting she had to pose as a married couple with her foreigner friend to skip another "gruelling session of being questioned for being single, working in entertainment and wanting a British room-mate".
The list of codes one must master to fit the image of the ideal tenant are as long enough to compile an anthology even if they don't have a standing in the court of law.
"Unless there's a restraining order from the court, one cannot stop the subletting of one's apartment on grounds of caste, creed, sex or religion. If the Supreme Court can permit it, how can a co-operative society object?" says advocate Vinod Sampat, an expert in co-operative housing society matters.
But what about unwritten strict rules that make it difficult for singles to rent flat and other problems that arise if you are fortunate to find one. "Bylaws don't have the force of law. It's a question of informal power which some house-owners abuse. Only if a tenant violates provisions of law can the society take action against them," adds Sampat.
For the fortunate ones, it's often neighbours who prove to be their undoing. Srishti Gupta was confronted by neighbours when they spotted her smoking at her window and instructed about her behavior although it was alright if other residents were doing it. "My work hours are unpredictable but neighbours keep a hawk eye and some think I lead a fast life," she says. Prying and complaining neighbours eventually forced her out. "In my 18-month stay in Mumbai, I have moved thrice," says the advertising professional.
What society thinks maybe the least of people's worries today, "but not when it's the housing society in question," says Ujaala. It's not just those in the media and showbiz branded as bringers of disgrace and scandal. Sreyashi Samanta is another single woman in the city working in the legal department of Jet Airways who had a fairly easy time finding accommodation when she arrived in Bombay in 2004. Eleven years later, things changed when she slipped up. She found a Muslim room-mate. "If that wasn't enough, I went berserk looking for a place to live by myself. I noticed how there's been a blanket ban on single people in Vakola and Kalina. They stereotype people working for airlines as leading a fast life. After three months of looking around, I found a place in my old building where people knew me," she says. Sreyashi feels it is rising crime in the city that makes the single more vulnerable and therefore avoidable.
Single boys and girls often move to less upmarket areas to save costs but that hardly solves their woes. "Brokers tend to take advantage of renting issues among single people and fleece us of more money with the promise of finding a place," says Sreyashi.
After 10 months of house-hunting, Anuj Abraham has found a bachelor-tolerant abode. There is no curfew, he can smoke and come home late. "They don't have an issue with my surname," he smiles. As long as he isn't cooking "non-veg meals" at home.
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