In Mumbai, house usually refers to an apartment. My parents live in an apartment in "Arun Building". No, I wish, but do not own the building. If I did, I would be too busy counting money instead of blogging.
Most of the tenants are senior citizens with their kids settled in different parts of America. In addition to his full time job, my dad is also the secretary of the Arun Building Housing Society (or something like that). This job involves chairing monthly meetings and making decisions like, should the night watchman be fired since he sleeps through the night. Since most of the tenants are retired, they stay at home full time and watch the happenings with an eagle eye. If something is not to their liking they may bring it up during the meeting. Usually, an auntie may visit my mom during the afternoon and during a cup of tea; bring up issues that are not properly addressed by my dad. They usually succeed in getting my mom worked up. My mom may call my dad at work when he may be in a meeting to tell him that the bulb in the doorway has not been replaced as per his orders.
The latest incident involves this mysterious lady with a cell phone who despite not being a tenant is seen walking around the compound as it is called here. A few people have complained to my mom about it. A couple of days back when I returned home with my dad from work, this issue came up again. My dad’s response was “Why do we have a watchman?” He should not allow her into the compound. To which my mom retorted that the rascal was no good as he is usually out running errands for somebody in the building. To which my dad’s response was that if people want the watchman running errands such things would happen, anyway he had had a long day and was not in a mood for this. My mom’s response was that she had to answer to a higher power, the aunties and uncles who live in the various apartments. As the wife of the secretary she was in a delicate position on such issues.
The consensus among residents of Arun Building is that it is time my dad quit his job as he is old. That way he would be able to focus more on such pressing issues like confronting this illegal walker with the cell phone. Watch this space for more developments .
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