While Krishnan and I returned on the 20th from our vacation, I feel we are truly back only today. Here’s why – I stood in my nighty in the middle of the street and had a screaming row with a neighbour ! I had to sleep to cool off that’s how intense it got.
This is our neighbour for nearly 30 years at Hyderabad. They have always been difficult. He is a building contractor and has become rich so feels he doesn’t have to answer to anyone and that all other folks on the street are no match to him. He decided to rebuild his house into a three floor building and started the work some six months back. The first thing he did was to cut the Coconut tree that was extending into his plot. Nothing wrong with cutting out a tree that’s in your way, except that he took no permission from the owner, that’s Mom. Not only did he cut the tree he trespassed into our house and cut it to the root almost and asked our tenants to pay him Rs. 3000/- for having done it !!!! Can you imagine this in any other country other than India? Maybe, but its definitely possible in India :).
I had changed the courtyard flooring with nice bright floor tiles a couple of years back as the stone slabs were uneven and jutting out in places. This time when we came home half the tiles near his house are covered in cement as he never used any protection over them and just went on plastering his house. He is a big rich guy you see :(. On Wednesday there was smoke coming out from the corner that is closest to our house and our car is parked in that corner. So I went out to see what was causing it – they were welding some pipes together and what was supposed to take just 5 minutes took well over 30 minutes and then it started to drizzle a bit so the fire went out anyway.
Today around 12 noon, Amma saw that a truck had come and they were carting off garbage from their house. She went out and spoke to the cleaning lady there to pick up some of the garbage (pile of leaves) that was collected at the corner where our boundary walls meet. That lady spoke to Mom as though she was the Queen of India and my mother had made some obscene request and well, I lost it. I strode out and saw the great man on the top floor and asked him to come down. He did but spent 5 minutes on the phone while I stood in the middle of the street. Then I told him off loudly saying he needed to clear the pile of leaves that his “tree” had shed and that his cleaning lady has no business speaking to my mother the way she did. He started off with his point of paying 3000/- for cutting the tree and that we didnt reimburse him. I asked him that he was building the house and the tree was bothering him so he cut it – what was the logic in our paying for it? He refused to remove the garbage and so I told him to remove his car that was parked in front of our house – the entire street has wide sidewalks where cars can be parked but they are all blocked with building material for the big rich guy’s house ! He had the gall to say that the sidewalk in front of our house was “public” space and that was just the proverbial last straw on the camel’s back. He got a mouthful and Krishnan joined in as well. The whole street came out to watch the fun. Finally I just left the place and got back inside. Mom was of course very upset because she doesn’t like any kind of brawl and especially when Krishnan or I get involved. Our tenant also came down to pacify me and said that we shouldn’t engage with him as he has no culture.
The best advise came from the regular garbage collector who witnessed the whole thing – he told Amma not to speak to this guy because he was quite nasty. I even toyed with the idea of getting the police involved because he cut the tree without permission and always speaks rudely to Mom, our tenants and us. My dear friend Ravindra gave the good idea of using twitter and I may still do it. Krishnan calmed me down saying no actions for 24 hours… Ok. I took a nap and finally cooled down enough to laugh about it.
Hopefully I will let this go otherwise I may calmly create trouble by tweeting to GHMC and/or the police.
This experience taught me something that Bernard Shaw said long ago … hopefully I learn well and not repeat the mistake. 🙂
he is a neighbor from hell. Might be you should take the pictures of the street outside where he puts his building material out and put in the instagram.
Yep ! Have taken more pics. Will post them. Neighbour from hell indeed :).
That was an interesting read . After hearing your story, I am now encouraged to write about the neighbours on either side of my house.
Neighbour 1 whom I as the Secretary of the Society, helped to become a member of our society was in great terms with me initially. I have a 7600 sq ft of land in which half the plot that was mine and between us was being used by me for a lawn and my garden Like your neighbor, this chap was running some industry while working as a Govt servant in the neighbouring Defence R &D . Illegal thing to do but who cares. Moneyed guy and a sardar and a crude one at that to top it !!! he thought he can extend himself into my plot by offering to buy my vacant half portion. When I refused to part with it, he stopped talking to me and I became invisible to him . The entire family except his Daughter-in-law who seem to come from a cultured family, have become hostile and keep troubling my domestic help and think they are irritating me by parking their cars and SUVs haphazardly on the road. I didn’t know about that Bernard Shaw quote, I too am ignoring him the way Bernard shaw would.
Neighbour 2 is a terrible specimen who is again a retired low level officer from the next door Def R&D. A shameless, nosy and a petty thief who will not hesitate to take away your milk satchel or garden pipe or anything of some value. That is when he has a lot money yielding real estate made available to him through his married daughters. I once had to lock my gates and announce loudly in his presence there are petty thieves around.
The opposite house neighbour demolished his house to rebuild it And this guy picked up all the old tiles , wash basins and even cummodes. without the knowledge of the guy I am yet to see a person with such lowly standards.
There was a tree in my plot, which was slightly overhanging in his plot which used to shed leaves in Autumn. To all their request to chop of the tree, I had told them I am against cutting away a tree and that they are free to prune the branches of the tree that is coming in their way. can you believe what he did ? He had trespassed into my place when I was away abroad for six months, drilled a couple of holes and injected some poison into the tree so that the tree dithers away without a trace. I came to know about it through his own mouth at a much later date. That gave me answer to my seeing in amazement the drilled holes on the dying tree when I returned from abroad.
The guy is still going about in the society wondering what he can pick up for free when unnoticed doesn’t pay the Society dues properly and doesn’t have any shame at all. A sly and an out of the world character.
So Bindu, Pigs are everywhere and in plenty,. Pigs don’t observe any rules or norms of living in harmony in a society. . They fight for eating your refuse and then cause you immense trouble if you try to deal with them. Just ignore these rascals. Leave it to their Karma to handle them.
Colonel, you are so right !! Pigs are everywhere. And I am learning to ignore them … but given my natural instincts of taking a stand when something is wrong, its so difficult to ignore :):). I guess every now and then I will pick a fight and scream and yell at some of these pigs. Hahahaha.
The full stop and comma key on my keyboard are not working. I think I should request you to appropriately punctuate my previous note. Thanks
Colonel Sahab, Those keys are not working because your flow wasn’t to be interrupted. No editing required – your sentiments are conveyed loud and clear :).