Bachelors' housing woes

BENEATH THE ROOF

Occupying the number one place on that list is housing. You have to find a house that is close to work, that’s just the right size, fits your budget and is not dilapidated; all this while dealing with shady realtors who try to fleece you. Contrary to popular belief, the problems only multiply and grow more complicated if you are the b-word, that is bachelor.

Some men, who have to brave this world every time they move, spoke to Metrolife. Says Arun Ramakrishnan, an IT professional, “As a bachelor, it is assumed that you are going to be drinking, bringing friends over, be noisy and that you’ll trash the place. Sure you’ll come late and the landlords hate that because they assume that you’ll create a ruckus when you get back. I don’t remember a time when I came back home late
announcing my arrival with a loud scream. It’s difficult to argue with this mindset,” he says.

“It’s the default setting, this stereotype about bachelors being a certain way. Most often than not you can’t afford a big two bedroom place. It’s hard to find a smaller place because these are usually like a room on the terrace or in the same premises as the landlord’s place. Finding a bigger place is not hard because it’s usually independent or in an apartment complex,” he adds.   

While housing is the most common problem, there are plenty of others, some brought on due doting mothers who don’t train their sons. Shreyas R Rao, a senior sales officer, says, “Cooking and cleaning is such a problem. We want everything to be like home. At home, mom would take care of everything. Food would be tasty and hygienic, everything would be neat and clean. We don’t know how to train maids or get work done from them.

So we eat out more very often. This is unhygienic and expensive,” he says.
Some problems are unique, brought on by ingratiating neighbours, who have no sense of boundaries. “I answered the door early one morning to find one of my building's security guards with a message, from a neighbour's wife. ‘Saar, madam said to fire your maid servant,’ he said. A few minutes of interrogation later, I finally got it. Madam felt that there was some kind of illicit romance brewing between my maid and madam's husband. I still didn't see the point of involving me,” Rao explains.

Then there are some who feel that Bangalore is actually fairly bachelor friendly. Vinod D’sa, a musician, says, “I haven’t actually faced too much of an issue in Bangalore but in Madras for instance, it’s a nightmare. You tell them you eat meat and you are a bachelor and that’s the end of that. Here it’s not that difficult. You’ll have generic issues like you can’t play music because your landlord says so. A strange argument will ensue. You’ll tell your landlord that you are playing the music softly at which point, he’ll tell you ‘your softly and my softly are different’,” narrates Vinod. This isn’t a bachelor specific problem, of course.

“I don’t have too many problems because I ensure I am upfront about my lifestyle. I don’t feed them rubbish but I stand firm. So when they introduce new rules in the last minute, I won’t give in and change my lifestyle,” he adds.