IF WISHES WERE HORSES
To quote Shakespeare in full for record, “If wishes were horses beggars would ride”. But the word ‘beggars’ is irrelevant and inappropriate in the context of Srishti, which is the abode of millionaires - from the value of the apartments, to begin with.
Wishes expressed date back to the time the noncooperation movement of the lifts surfaced. Was it during the warranty period itself, or exactly a day later as it happens with my household investments?
The most recent wishes are replacing all the four lifts, or one lift in each block, ramp, external beautification versus internal need, premonition of fatality of lifts sooner than later, Johnson vs Otis, propagating the concept, “Sasta roye baar baar, Mehnga roye ek baar” (buy cheap and regret repeatedly, buy costly and feel just once), or, its equivalent French saying, “it is costly to buy cheap things.” (A small world isn’t it? For every saying you have an equivalent in every other culture.).
Suggestions made earlier include inviting installation of an ATM outside the front compound wall, protruding partly into any unsold car parking lot in the premises, or where the lamppost disallows a parking space. The rental proceeds can be syphoned to periodic lift(s) repair, external painting job, and other contingencies. A legal activist shot it down - residential premises cannot be let out for commercial purposes. The commonsense-approach friend counter-argued it that if we can generate income from exhibition-cum-sale of textile goods, home appliances or automobile display in the premises, this too can pass muster; law does not distinguish between petty thieving and dacoity, he corroborated.
Another corridor suggestion, by a lady resident this time, was that a hefty fee should be levied on relocation cases. She attributes overloading of the lift by the movers the chief cause for repeated breakdowns. Synchronizing the operation of the lifts for operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and to set at rest preferred exclusive rides was yet another proposal that found its way.
“Uncle, you must write something to mobilise public opinion,” suggested a lady of the younger generation. “Damn public or opinion; I have my own worries,” I said to myself. In ten days my brother (on the wrong side of seventies) and Bhabhi (with gasping problem in attendance) will set foot in Srishti for a fortnight, bowled by my superlative hype of Srishti. And I just cannot visualize them on a mountaineering expedition of eight floors (0 + 7) balancing a suitcase in one and a sky-bag in the other hand each. Equally, as they fasten their seat belts for their homeward journey, I don’t wish either they sum up their Srishti sojourn with the words: “Hmm, is this that he was speaking so highly of?”
Well, wishes abound and vary but, to quote an Urdu couplet in part, “…wahi hota hai jo manzoor-e-khuda hota hai. To translate, “(whatever one might wish) only that happens which has the approval of the Almighty (Vishweshwar) - or the tireless and dear Visweswaran-ji in our case.
Sundaram
B-703
4 June 2011
