Meet my neighbors

This Diwali, like all previous Diwalis, I dropped in at my neighbors’ place to greet them and also to exchange sweet boxes along with my family. We live in a 7th floor apartment, one of the four on that floor, but must say all four occupants could not have been more varied and interesting.

The first family we visited, who live right across us, is a typical modern-day family; perhaps it cannot get more archetypically modern than them. They have a glittering drawing room, well decorated with foreign artifacts and lamp shades which gives a majestic glow to the place. The owner of the place is a CEO in one of the Reliance firms while his wife is a Art of Living teacher. They have a bomb of a daughter who is about my age, and who mostly dresses uninhibitedly in the most modern of outfits; infact the entire family has an amazing wardrobe, and inspite of increasing vice, their dressing sense can put any college goer to shame. The sexy daughter works in a deluxe hotel which requires her to work late hours; gosh why I don’t work in hospitality. They also have a young son, who is so funky its tough to believe that he studies in a college. Actually he is a music freak, and his attire and appearance with curly hair, torn jeans, rock-band T shirts match his hobby to the hilt.

The second house we visited is a Punju Delhi-bred family, with two young fat children and a matching fatty mother but a slim father. The owner of this house is a RSS official who speaks in the purest Hindi dialect possible. They are staunch supporters of every thing Hindu and Hindi; infact their house resembled a graveyard when Congress won this year. But must say the owner of this house is the most upright man I have met, always devoted to good causes and to espousing the cause of society at large. If only the pure Hindi can be tolerated, which can freak out any docile creature, this person can in reality turn out to be the most committed and trustworthy guy; someone you would always count upon.

The last family we visited, and with whom interaction is always limited, is a Mallu family with everything about them being what you expect typical Southies to be. The owner here is always dressed in a lungi, except perhaps when going to office, while the wife is thankfully sometimes in Northie attire. Their drawing room is simple, with only bare necessities in place and photos of Gods on the walls. Since we had visited in evening, we were served coke in large glasses and nothing else. They do not talk much and its difficult to elicit responses to the most casual of conversations. Our stay here was shortest, only interesting dialogues revolving around the rangoli their daughter had prepared.

Well Robert Frost once said “Good fences make good neighbors” wonder what makes interesting neighbors