Building a House, Once Again!

Like in Barkheda, our first priority here also is to get the place of stay ready and habitable before beginning with any other activity. We’d built a stone house there with a clay tiled roof supported on wooden structure. Building it and staying in it threw up numerous learnings. We’d like to retain some practices and modify a few.

One change as we approached this subject this time around is that the urge to adhere to generally accepted environmentalism has reduced to near zero. I realize that the prescriptions often disregard ground realities and are also irrational. So, if there is an environmental concern, I’d like to re-invent the wheel and think afresh, rather than accept something as environmentally friendly or otherwise on the basis of generally accepted theories. The prime factors for decision making therefore are functional utility, cost and aesthetics (in that order or priority).

The Layout

We began with our dream design of having a central courtyard and rooms on all sides. Even with small rooms, the total area for this design was working out to be in excess of 2500 sq ft. This size seemed beyond our capacity to maintain well. A maximum area of 1000 sq ft is convenient and possible to keep clean and usable. The house needs to be small enough for us to maintain and big enough to accommodate 4 – 5 guests, apart from meeting the storage and utility requirements. After numerous iterations, the design we arrived at included a room of about 25’X12’ including an open kitchen, kitchen storage of 4’X12’, a bedroom, covered unwalled area on all 4 sides, an open to sky short front yard, and an open to sky backyard. Since the house is in the middle of a farm, sunlight is not blocked from any side. The front of the house faces the east.

Building Ground

The entire land is a flattened field with black cotton soil – extremely unsuitable for building on. Our land is on one side of a 25 acre farm of the friend from whom we purchased it. There is a lake in his farm. Adjoining the far end is forest land. Rain water seems to flow towards our part of the land and therefore the need to get the building ground at an elevation. Digging the lake gives us murum, which basically is red forest soil with lots of rocks. We dug up the lake and created an elevation of about 5’ in an area of close to 2000 sq ft. House built on this elevation takes care of various issues and gives a nice elevated view of the mountains on one side and fields on others. 

Walls

Naturally available building material like mud, stones, etc. score over manufactured & processed ones like burnt bricks, cement, etc. both on functional utility as well as cost. We chose mud over stones for walls because our experience with stones was that it is too time consuming and also turns out to be expensive. The traditional houses in the neighbouring villages are really beautiful. People nowadays don’t prefer traditional housing, unless there are budget constraints. Thankfully for us, the skill of building a mud house is available. We figured out that traditionally walls were built with chowka a sun-dried brick, roughly four times the volume of a regular brick, with significantly higher amount of straw in the mud mixture. The same mix is used as mortar to join the dried bricks. While this made sense, it was very difficult to find people, who’d make them for us. After a lot of search and patience, we managed to come across someone, who’s agreed to take up the job. The job is a little over half done and should be done in a few days. The next job on hand is to find a mason. This shouldn’t be too difficult. Mud walls need to be protected from rain. That is why we will have the roof slope extending to at least 4’ on all sides. This will give us usable covered unwalled space and also protect the walls.

Roof

Locally made clay tiles on wooden frame is what is commonly seen in this area. But getting such a lot of wood will be a challenge for us. Also there is quite some maintenance required for local tiles. So, after evaluating various options, we zeroed in on using asbestos sheets on iron frames. The sheets will be covered with straw to keep the house temperature pleasant during summers as well as winters. Both seasons are extremely severe here. Bamboo was an option we explored for roofing, but couldn’t find suppliers and workmen.

Floor

The most beautiful part of the local houses is the mud flooring. The surface below is rammed hard to ensure that it isn’t easy for rats to dig holes and tunnels. The next layer is kneaded mud with straw. Once dry, it is smoothened by scrubbing the surface with a smooth stone. So well is this done, that the entire floor seems like a single tile. We too hope to get similar work, when we reach that stage. We might use stone flooring in the outside area, which may get wet during rains.

Water

Our water source is going to be a hand pump in the front yard. This option ensures that water need not be stored in large quantity, obviates the need for plumbing and taps. Pumping water as and when needed will be a good physical exercise and will force optimum usage. We haven’t checked if the water is potable, but even if isn’t, there is another borewell close by, which serves us drinking water at present. All domestic used water will be directed to the farm.

Electricity

State electricity isn’t available in this location. The option therefore is to rely on solar power. Power for domestic use isn’t much and a 250 watt solar panel should be sufficient. But considering that we might need to operate a pump, we will have to go for higher capacity solar facility. The tricky issue is the inverter. Our highest power consuming gadget, the Oven Toaster Grill (OTG) needs a minimum 2 KV inverter. The price of inverters above 1000 VA increases exponentially. We may have to restrict usage of the OTG. 

The Search Concluded

It has been a fairly long time I haven’t updated status of our story of search for a place to live in. Let me begin with the current status and then go into a flashback. We’ve been able to locate a place, which has everything we’d wanted. The land purchase is also done and we are in the process of constructing our house. It has indeed been a huge milestone given the uncertainty we’ve been into for almost a year. Looking back, it has been an exciting and adventurous journey. But while we were in it, there were times we felt frustrated, angry and scared. To those watching us, we would have surely appeared foolish to have got ourselves into such a position, when we were living a convenient and comfortable life in Mumbai. I don’t know what lies ahead, but the conclusion of this search does mark the ‘end’ of a story. Happy ending, it seems like.

I’ll pick the flashback from option # 8, we were exploring – Gudalur. It’s a picture perfect place. Adjoining a huge tiger reserve, close to a beautiful hill station (Ooty), good rainfall, habited by a sizable number of people with background similar to ours (urban, qualified, out of rat race, socially conscious, etc.) There is a school too, which is unlike mainstream schools. Siddharth even attended the school and enjoyed going there. I had an opportunity to apply my professional abilities working on a bank for the tribals. Rekha had enough number of people for company. Gudalur is a semi-urban place and en-route a major tourist destination. It offers all the essential urban conveniences as well. We rented a house and made ourselves independent and convenient. As I said, it is a picture perfect place.

Soon, however, we realized that this perfection in the picture has something amiss. This place doesn’t have sufficient sunlight. During the rainy months, there are days on end, when there is light, but no sun to be seen. The dampness fills everything in the house with fungus and I get severely allergic to this weather. We could never get ourselves to buy land there given the prices. Any land, whether close to the town or away had the risk of elephants barging into the fields or a leopard attacking domestic animals. I did not speak the local language. I could not strike a conversation or understand the locals first hand. While there was urban, educated company, we found that their children were being raised in a protected environment and with almost every city-like convenience. Desi cows are not to be found there. In about a couple of months, we felt fairly sure that we did not want to settle in Gudalur. The only string, which remained was the work I was doing on the bank for the tribals. But that wasn’t too much of an issue. I was sensing a possibility that work on this front may not progress in the envisaged direction and therefore I may not be required. Even if work did commence, my role was consultative, rather than executive. I can always visit there for a few days.

After spending two months in Gudalur, our thoughts began wandering to figure out our next destination. We’d explored varied places. We did not find any meaning in searching for a place through the open market. We wanted to explore places only where we’d buy land from a known source, even if it means a friend of friend. Then there were other factors. After a long time and thought, the only place, which seemed worthwhile was Barkheda. We’d built a house there. We knew the place, the people, the risks and the shortcomings. Electricity hasn’t reached there, road access is very poor, water availability is an issue, but perhaps due to these very reasons, it had the isolation we wanted. Suddenly Barkheda seemed a great option, actually the only real option.

We had a very abrupt exit from Barkheda. There was and still is a very deep sense of injustice. But right now, the need was mine and I had to initiate the talk. I did so. In a thoughtfully drafted mail, cautious not to include any sense of blame or remorse, I asked the owner of the land (the leader of the intended community) if he would consent to sell the piece of land on which we’d built our house. I felt it would be a formality. How could he refuse? We’d spent so much time, effort, money and more in building that house. That piece of land, after all, was just a fraction of his total holding there. He wasn’t even staying there. But after beating around the bush for a month, he refused to sell and offered that we enter into a long lease arrangement. This was a rude shock. Lease arrangement made absolutely no sense to me. He still wanted to retain the option of exercising his ownership. I refused politely and decided to ask other land owners in the group.

One by one, all those people, who’d welcomed us and encouraged us to live in Barkheda showed us their backs. All those I approached refused to sell land because they did not want to antagonize this leader. Paradoxically, all of them had stepped back from the initiative due to his eccentricities. All of them knew that it is unfair upon us. None of them have any plans of living there. But they chose to neither live nor let us live. We’d spent 100 times more money in building the house, but the land owner retains right to the land and they were exercising this right. They were just land-owners above anything else. How much ever I wish to, but I’m not able to forgive these spineless people. I know it doesn’t make any difference to them. I’m the only one impacted, but I still cannot forgive them.

We had no options. I decided to travel to Barkheda and look out for some one who’d be willing to sell a couple of acres of land to us. I was also to visit another friend, who also lives on his farm near Bhopal. We spoke, while I was in the train and he suggested that it will be logistically convenient to visit him first. I agreed and took a detour to visit him first and then go to Barkheda.

Life takes some unexpected but decisive turns. I visited his farm and everything seemed perfectly suited to us. There was a possibility that I could buy land from part of his family holding. I stayed there for a couple of nights. I did not even go to Barkheda. I returned and briefed Rekha about the place. All of us visited there once and everything seemed to have fallen in place. Some minor decision making and a couple of months later, we had finished the registration formalities and are now in the process of building our house.

In the backdrop of the events so far, this is a major milestone. Building a house, beginning farming activities, taking care of children, etc. do not seem to create as much anxiety as this search did. The little over two months spent here have been quite interesting. I’ll try and pen them down in subsequent posts.

The group in Barkheda (Sreejan) took very conscious decisions and all of them turned out to be unfair to us. Most of them (perhaps all) don’t care what happens to us. We’ve always been a spectacle for them. I would not like them to know how and where we are. That was the reason I was not updating the story on this blog. I’m still not sure I’m ok to put this up, but I’m doing it.

Reviewing the Life with Norms (Part III)

Let me get back to questions no. 4 and 5. I’m reproducing them here for reference. These are ones we get asked.

1.    Our children face certain risks when they grow up: One, they will find themselves too different and very difficult to identify with others. Two, they may think of themselves as inferior to others and lack the confidence. Three, they may find themselves in a helpless situation given their upbringing, even if they have to get aligned to the others.

2.    In 18 months, we’ve lost much of whatever money, relationships and enthusiasm we had and gained hardly anything substantial. At this rate, we’re neither making our life sustainable nor encouraging others to walk this path. Why not consider a U turn and get back to the city?

Both the questions are broadly about the future. One is about the children and the other about us. The question about children is quite a big one. I don’t know anyone till date who has been largely aligned at all times with our perspective regarding children’s education. Our perspective is not similar even to other people who’ve decided to home-school their children. I am not detailing our perspective here. That is not the question. The question is ‘Why are you experimenting with something so critical?’ But this question has been answered earlier too. So the real question is not a question really. It is rhetoric. It stems out of acute fear.

Fear restrains one from experimenting. We are experimenting, but we’re unable to deal with everybody’s fear.

As I’ve mentioned in my last post, our new life has been a fantastic journey for Siddharth and Shreya. During the last one and half years, there has not been a single instance, when I’ve doubted the correctness of this decision for children. In fact, I’m far more convinced that this move has been absolutely correct for them.

This does not mean that there are no concerns, no anxieties. But, these anxieties keep us on our toes. In many ways, we’re reinventing the wheel of upbringing or education. But there is no choice. The price we and our children will have to pay is that we are and will be too different and difficult to identify with others. We don’t know what lies in store in the future. So, hoont ghuma, seeti baja, seeti bajake bol bhaiyya all izz well!

I’m quite certain that I’ve tried and addressed all the concerns to the best of my abilities – this time and also earlier. It’s time I move on beyond concerns and anxieties.

I’m very happy we walked this path. Perhaps this happiness has not been fully visible to others yet. 

Reviewing Life with Norms (Part II)

My last post on the subject was primarily answering certain concerns. As it happens, concern statements tend to focus on darkness in life and overlook the light. They also assume that there was (or is) an option to choose an alternative course. I’d like to elaborate on these two aspects today.

Often, I find myself speechless when someone raises concerns; speechless because I don’t know where to begin answering. The two of us are on opposite ends of the stick. He/She’s talking from the standpoint of showing me the dark spots in my life and I want to talk him or her into joining me.

Let’s focus on the brightness.

1.    Experimenting rather than refraining to act has done tremendous good to my self-esteem and confidence. I can imagine how stifled I would have felt had I not taken this path. It has unveiled possibilities, which I was blind to earlier.

2.    I found bandwidth (time and space) to dwell within myself rather than be trapped in webs of complexities.

3.    Turning fears into realities has revealed the magnitude and impact. When I imagine under the influence of fear, I get scared. When the imagination becomes a reality, I move out of the influence of fear and look for a way out.

4.    We’ve realized that there are so many ways to enjoy without taking a break.

5.    We learnt to value whatever we took for granted and never enjoyed their mere existence like electricity, water, food, money, parents, siblings, spouse and children.

6.    There is togetherness about what we do because our life and time is not divided into office, school and household work. There are no ‘No Entry’ zones. Had we not walked this path, we wouldn’t have been what we’re to each other now.

7.    I can’t articulate what the last 18 months have been for children. Being in conditions, where they were able to be themselves, explore firsthand, was fantastic. There’s no way we can imagine how much and what all they’d have learnt.

8.    It’s also very difficult to list what all we’ve learnt.

9.    I realized and still am how liberating simplicity is.

10. I started writing, thus knowing myself more every time I do.

11. I’m in much better shape and far more in charge of my health.

12. I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many others, who are experimenting.

There are so many more. Each of them is huge, when understood from my perspective. As a friend of mine puts it, some of us are blessed with the requisites to conduct experiments in life.

I have no doubt that I’m blessed, blessed generously. I can’t thank God enough.

Now, the aspect of the assumption that we had (and have) a choice with regard to what we do. I think whatever we do is a function of innumerable variables – some personal, some external and some circumstantial. It’s almost impossible to draw up an equation in order to forecast behavior accurately. In this sense, there couldn’t have been anything different we could have done. In other words, whatever happens is pre-ordained. This understanding is tremendously helpful to me, though I can’t imagine people agreeing. At least they’d not classify me with the irrationals, who call it destiny!

Reviewing the Life with Norms (Part I)

It’s been over 18 months since we moved out of Mumbai. Though 18 months is not a very long time in a lifetime, these have easily been most eventful ones for all of us so far. 

As of today, we have put ourselves up in a rented house in Gudalur. I’m engaging with an organization, which has worked for the Adivasis of the Nilgiris for the last 3 decades. My work here will not require me to stay here. I can perform my role by visiting here once in a few months. (I’ve chosen not to take any remuneration for my involvement.) In the meanwhile, we explored the option of living somewhere here. For various reasons, we would not like to settle here. After reviewing all the options explored so far, we are convinced that we liked living in Barkheda the most. We’d like to go back. We’ll have to start from the scratch on a new piece of land, without the support of any organization like Sreejan. Any work in this direction can start only after the rainy season. So, for the next two months, there’s nothing much to do.

To review the 18 months, let me answer some questions before us. Some we ask ourselves, some, others ask us. Some questions others ask are rhetorical. For example, “Don’t you think you made a mistake?”

I’ll begin with questions we ask ourselves. These concern actions and decisions rather than being purely academic. So, they are more important.

1.    We’ve managed to lose far too many friends and gain too few.  Many existing relationships just dried out and died – almost all college friends, almost all office colleagues and most of the relatives. We made many new friends as we moved along, but the life of these friendships was too short. Unlike others, we’re not able to maintain a connection with people, infact, we feel we’re in bad books of people. We too put some in our bad books. Both, Rekha and I, are pathetic on this aspect and we’re not getting any better. So, with relationship management ability on the liability side of the balance sheet, how do we plan to move ahead in a lifestyle, which seems to require the ability?

2.    It has come to light on a number of occasions that there are differences between Rekha and I. Her sense of what is correct / just / fair, her willingness and its extent to forego what our earlier lifestyle offered, her convictions are all largely similar, but not the same as mine. Managing these differences is quite tough, especially when decisions do not follow a ‘generally accepted’ norm. Am I morally and materially forcing my decisions on her? The same question is applicable for children as well.

3.    The approach to feed out of past earning and talk about sustainability seems hypocritical and escapist. How do we justify it? How long should this continue? Is giving up something you want because you cannot afford it not dodging happiness under the garb of simplicity?

4.    Our children face certain risks when they grow up: One, they will find themselves too different and very difficult to identify with others. Two, they may think of themselves as inferior to others and lack the confidence. Three, they may find themselves in a helpless situation given their upbringing, even if they have to get aligned to the others.

5.    In 18 months, we’ve lost much of whatever money, relationships and enthusiasm we had and gained hardly anything substantial. At this rate, we’re neither making our life sustainable nor encouraging others to walk this path. Why not consider a U turn and get back to the city?

Answers: These are only mine. Rekha’s perspective may be very different.

1.    It has been a revelation, quite a painful one, that our ability to manage interpersonal relationships is quite pathetic. Rekha’s shortcomings are not the same as mine, but the resultant incompetence is equally bad.

Being able to manage relationships surely is a critical ability. On one hand, even if I give up the hope that I will ever be able to manage relationships, it is still not enough reason to change the course of life. On the other hand, there is no reason to give up. Working on it will surely take my individual journey forward. I also realize that every fractured relationship is a symptom. The cause is deep within. In that sense, there is no option but to work on it.

I find it difficult to articulate the progress on this front. But there is definite progress, within. I hope things will improve, but I don’t think I will ever be popular or liked by most people.

2.    My equation with Rekha has been greatly appreciated. We’re extremely fortunate to have each other as companions. Diversity in opinions, priorities, intensity of convictions is very critical for one’s individual journey. I’m thankful for this diversity. Our relationship is at a level, where each of us must realize that though we’re together, we have our own journeys to undertake. The direction may be same; the path may also be so. We may walk together, but each of us must take our decisions and take responsibility for the outcome. As of now, there is no forcing of decisions; in fact, with time, the ownership of decisions has increased. Even if I were not to be there, she would lead a similar life with children. As regards children, all parents take decisions for children of that age; we are no exception. We hope that by the age of 15, they will be able to take their own decisions.

3.    The question of making this lifestyle materially sustainable is a very crucial one. We’d never wanted to eat only out of our savings or passive income (interest or rent) forever. I’d given myself 2-3 years to generate an active income source, sufficient enough to keep us going. I still haven’t given it a deep enough thought. So, I have no idea how easy or difficult that is going to be.

I’m realizing lately that work is important not only from earning perspective. I must work, work hard and never retire from work. There are two aspects of work I would like to commit myself to. First is meeting of material needs. Second is work for the sake of work and nothing else.

Out of material needs, we aim to be 50-60% self sufficient on food requirements by the Dec 2016. Self-sufficiency means either by growing it ourselves or bartering it for whatever we’ve grown. We will meet the rest of the material requirements through passive income for another year or so.  

The second aspect of work for the sake of work is extremely important. This aspect must keep the ruthlessness of a business professional alive and growing, which is so much natural in me. I have a definite liking towards the work I’ve done. Whether I start an enterprise or be a venture capitalist or a business consultant, I’m not sure now. I’ll have a plan on this front before the end of this year. Simplicity, as I’ve stated in another blog post, does not mean just being miserly; it more about un-complicating. If there’s a want, I’m sure should be satisfied, I’ll not hold myself. It doesn’t come to me naturally to spend freely; I need to learn to.

The question pertaining to children, education and their future deserves a separate post. I’ll write on that a little later. 

The Search Story - Part IV

I pick up threads from when we moved into a rented house near Pune.

Velhe, the town we were staying in, is a likable small town. Steadily urbanizing, but retains its small town characteristics. It is a little difficult to access because of the mountainous region and probably heavy rainfall.

We began finding answers to the next steps if we were to buy land. The proposed land was the steep portion of a small hill. These are the kind of land pieces most people are working on. Water is a challenge, despite the 4000mm rainfall. There is a river and a dam about one and half km from the land, but the ground does not hold water on the surface. There may be streams below and we may get water in an open well or a bore well. But bore well is not an appropriate solution in areas of such heavy rainfall. After thinking through alternatives, we zeroed in on collecting rain water during monsoon and using it through the year. This requires a storage tank. Our estimate of water requirement during the 8 months of no rain is approx. 70-80 thousand liters. I explored some options – whether a regular brick & concrete tank, fibre, ferro-cement, looked for a contractor to do it. In the meantime, we continued wonder if we should begin work after completing the purchase of land. Official demarcation of the land was not done. So, I thought it better to get atleast the demarcation done. This, I later understood was not a straight-through process.

While I was steadily moving in this direction and also getting to understand the place better, one day, I received a call from Veena (Gudalur). She made a passing reference that if I wished and could help Accord with the project of setting up a bank for the Adivasis, I may call on them. Accord has been working with the tribals of the Nilgiris for almost 3 decades. After the initial years of struggle to reclaim their access to forests and land, the community was now fairly stable. They’d been running their own hospital and some education efforts. There was a need felt that they should have their own bank. But the domain expertise was missing.

I thought that it would be a nice opportunity to get involved in something like this. I had some correspondence over e-mail and then planned a visit to Gudalur. We had explored Gudalur as an option to settle down, because of the language unfamiliarity, few months back. But this was a different proposition. I spent a couple of days in Gudalur with Stan (who’d founded Accord with a few more people). I was swept away with the Adivasi culture of trust, pragmatism and community living during my interaction with Stan and a few tribals. A bank based on their culture would be a phenomenal institution. I was excited about working on this project. It was not about a bank – it was about an economic system.

Back in Velhe, Rekha and I realized that this was a ‘larger than life’ work opportunity. We were anyway in a situation, where we could put on hold other things and start working on this. Gudalur had the people and the atmosphere, which was comfortable for the entire family. It seemed a great idea to let everything wait for some time and shift base to Gudalur.

A few days of thought, some reassurance from friends at Gudalur and there we were, on a 1000 km drive from Pune to Gudalur, house packed in the car!

It’s been about 3 weeks in Gudalur. We’ve managed to locate a house, we should move in couple of days later. I began some initial work on the bank project. There are many people here we’ve become friends with. Kids also have some company. There is a possibility of them attending a school run by the same set of people.

The question of permanent settlement is still elusive. There are reasons why this place may not be it. What is important and urgent at this stage is that we live at one place for at least one year. All of us are quite tired of shifting bases. Within the limitations, we would like to do some farming and if possible rear a couple of cows. All the decisions are wide open. It’s becoming a filmy story!!!

I plan to start a separate blog about my experiences of working with the tribals. 

The Search Story (Part III)

Option 7 : Gudalur

Dr Sunil was out of town, but he told us that his wife Veena would be home and will be happy to help us. We reached Gudalur after an extended bus travel. Veena received us as though we were immediate family members. We’ve encounter so much kindness during our search from first encounters that it’s truly humbling.

We’d intended staying there for a day or so and ended up spending 3 days with Veena. We’re yet to meet Dr Sunil. Hope to meet him sooner than later. It was, nevertheless, a memorable stay for us as well as the kids.

The land option there was quite nice. Macro factors were all fine. The area was frequented by elephants from the adjoining forest (Madhumalai Tiger Reserve). That was one concern, but probably manageable. We liked the place overall and decided to search for a house on rent. We didn’t find an option during the days we were there and returned to Hulekal with intent to return once we find something within the next week or so.

The thinking began at Hulekal again. As I imagined about getting started with work on the land, I was a little concerned about the fact that I would not be able to talk with the people around and the labour who’d come to help us. I don’t speak Tamil. That would surely make it difficult to build a rapport, though over a period of time, we’d be able to communicate. But communicating without talking would not be enough. I’d like to understand what they think, know more about their lifestyle and learn from it.

As I pondered over deeply and spoke with Rekha, we were convinced that Maharashtra or a hindi speaking belt would only suit us. Even during my Satara stay, I felt very much at home talking to locals in Marathi. Then another factor crept in, which we’d ignored thus far. Given the age of our parents, it would be preferred if we’re in reasonable proximity.

Though no one factor was sufficient, together, it seemed better to explore Maharashtra; more particularly around Pune, Satara and Nasik.

We thought over it for a day or so and when the thought and feeling had settled, decided to take this course. We called Veena and informed her of our latest thought process, lest she should go through the trouble of finding a place on rent for us. She appeared a little sad that we’d decided not to choose Gudalur. We could relate to it, but couldn’t think of an option.

I called Reena. She had purchased a 3 acre plot of land near Pune. I asked her if she’d be open to selling an acre to us. She was inclined. We got a decent starting point to our search.

We shared our intention with Vinish and Karuna that we’d like to shift our base to somewhere close to Pune or Mumbai. We’d been based in Hulekal for almost a month. The couple may think that they’d not done anything out of the way. They’d anyway rented the house and no one had been occupying it before they invited us to stay there. But we know that the gesture is uncommon and we truly feel grateful to this family.

We packed the car with our kitchen and bedroom utilities and began the drive from Hulekal to Pune.

Option 8: Velhe

Velhe is a small town about 55 km from Pune. Reena purchased the 3 acre plot on the outskirts of a village in this town few years back.

We parked ourselves with a cousin of mine, who owns a large 3 bedroom flat in Pune. Just the couple of them stay there. We off-loaded our luggage in one of his bedrooms and told him that we’d like to be parked in his house for a few days till we’re able to identify something worthwhile.

After visiting the place, we liked it and decided to live in Velhe for a few days before we move ahead. Fortunately, we found a house on rent quickly and shifted to this place about 10 days back. The initial exploration is quite encouraging and if all goes well, we might be staying in our own new house before the end of summer 2014.

The flashback is over, but the story continues!