Paying Guest in Mumbai

"Watch out for land-lords trying to palm off their daughter to you" was the advice given to me by my aunt when she heard that I am shortly headed to Mumbai, and will be looking for Paying Guest (PG) accommodation.

My first PG accommodation was in an old ramshackle villa called Norman House in Agar Bazar, Dadar near the Portuguese church.  The land-lord - a crafty old Anglo-Indian - charged me Rs 500 per month for a bed in a twin sharing room (this was in the good old '80s).  The "twin sharing" room soon accommodated an extra 2 beds which made for indeed very crowded living.

Wanting my own private space, I briefly moved into my own separate room in another PG place near Kaboothar Khana in Dadar.  The experiment was short-lived as I realised that I was living in a house that had a drug addict (and with all its attendant problems) - so soon I was sheepishly back at my old PG in Agar Bazar.  The land-lord triumphantly told me "I told you so" - and increased the rent to Rs 600 as punishment for my treachery.

One met varied people as room-mates in the PG.  In fact it was like a railway station - with people coming and occupying a bed for a month and then moving on. In the course of a few months I befriended a team of encyclopaedia salesmen, a steel salesman, a telephone salesman, a chemist, and a mystery man who used to sleep throughout the day.  One of the room mates was an estate agent, and he told me about an excellent PG facility located in Hindu colony in Dadar TT.  It was a single occupancy room (a real luxury in Mumbai) with a balcony, and the land-lord only wanted Rs 800 per month as rent.  However, apparently the owners - an aged Maharashtrian couple - insist on carrying out a detailed interview with aspirants, and had rejected several aspirants to the room.  I anyway decided to try my luck, and went to meet them at their house.

I had tea with them on their terrace over-looking the busy Ambedkar road.  Something in me must have clicked - for soon they told me that I can move in.  A room to myself - finally!